scholarly journals Varying social roles and networks on a family farm: Evidence from Swedish immigrant letters, 1880s to 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Hoffman ◽  
Merja Kytö
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Family Farm ◽  
Geographical Separation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Home Village ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Empirical Foundation

AbstractThe present study investigates patterns of language use in the ego documents written by three Swedish immigrants: Nils Blomberg (born in 1839), Mathilda Blomberg, (b. 1863), and Anton Blomberg (b. 1885), their eldest son. The empirical foundation of the investigation is a set of 32 family letters sent over a period of nearly fifty years (1885–1934) from the rural Smoky Valley in Kansas to Mathilda’s home village in Östergötland, Sweden. We analyze the writers’ lexis, discourse patterning (formulaic versus free-flowing), and re-current topics, and the social roles and networks that are manifest in their correspondence. The three writers continued to correspond in the Swedish language over the years. Our diachronic analysis of their lexis and discourse patterning reveals individual variation across the authors’ production. For example, Mathilda’s correspondence contains some evidence of heritage Swedish (i.e. Swedish that has diverged from the home country, due to geographical separation and language contact with English). Across her lifespan, Mathilda integrates some vocabulary for plants, places, and jobs that diverges from the lexis she recalls from her early years in Sweden, and she draws attention to this lexical divergence for the sake of her readers. Anton, a childhood bilingual in Swedish and English, systematically translates English lexis to Swedish in letters, presumably with the goal to bring his Kansas experiences closer to his Swedish relatives. In particular, the letters, especially those by Mathilda, reveal not only how the individuals communicate information about their social roles in rural Kansas, but also their desires to maintain the networks connecting their family farm in the U.S. to Mathilda’s home village in Sweden.

scholarly journals Not all forms of dialect contact are the same: Effects of regional media, travel, and social contacts on the perception of Spanish aspirated-/s/

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren B. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Perceptual Categorization ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Variable Feature

Previous work has found that speakers who move to a new dialect region may come to adopt features of the second dialect. This study investigates whether other types of dialect exposure – those present without ever leaving one’s home dialectal region – similarly result in differences in language use. An identification task and a dialect contact questionnaire were administered to two Spanish-speaking dialect groups in Latin America to determine the effect of different types of dialect contact on the perceptual categorization of the regionally and socially variable feature of syllable-final /s/-aspiration (e.g., <em>fresco</em> [fɾeh.ko], ‘fresh’). Short-term travel and exposure to Media from /s/-weakening regions were not found to play a role in identification of aspirated-/s/. However, the regional background of reported social contacts (i.e., the social network) was a significant factor in how the regional variant was identified. Findings highlight the importance of live social interaction in language contact and change.

Transient international groups (TIGs): exploring the group and development dimension of ELF

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Luise Pitzl
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Clusters

AbstractIn the past years, it has become generally accepted that the social dynamics of ELF cannot be captured by the notion of a speech community. Instead, the concept Community of Practice (CoP) has gained widespread currency in ELF research. While applications of the CoP framework have given rise to valuable insights, even ELF scholars who work with the concept often acknowledge its limitations. Since factors like situationality and ad hoc negotiation are seen as particularly important in ELF interactions, many ELF researchers have recently emphasized the transient and dynamic nature of the social clusters in which ELF communication typically takes place, especially in light of the multilingualism and language contact. This paper offers a first sketch of how the social dimension of ELF might on many occasions be conceptualized as involving Transient International Groups (TIGs) rather than more stable CoPs. Building on the idea that the Individual Multilingual Repertoires (IMRs) of ELF speakers make up a Multilingual Resource Pool (MRP) in each ELF interaction, the paper argues that ELF theory-building and descriptive work would benefit from exploring the group and the development dimension of ELF more thoroughly than has been done so far. In support, the paper provides a qualitative case study of a TIG in the leisure domain of VOICE. This case study illustrates how an in-depth micro-diachronic analysis of multilingual practices and instances of explicit reference to languages, countries, places, etc., can make visible the group’s development of shared translingual and transcultural territory.

scholarly journals Language Choice of Balinese and Japanese Mixed Marriage Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 604
Author(s):  
Lukia Zuraida ◽  
Made Budiarsa ◽  
I Ketut Darma Laksana ◽  
I Wayan Simpen
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Mixed Marriage ◽  
Acquisition Period ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mixed Code

Japanese and Balinese mixed marriage children have become bilingual since the early years of the language acquisition period. They acquired the inheritance of the languages (Indonesian, Japanese, and Balinese) from their parents. This research was conducted to find the language choice of mixed marriage children of Balinese and Japanese in Bali. The language use domain is divided into two: family and social. In each domain, the topic, the background of the situation, and the people involved are determined. The data was gathered using questionnaires employed to 10 mixed married families. The method includes observation and interviews. The result of data analysis showed that in the family domain there are variations of the children's language preferences when communicating. The children choose Indonesian when communicating with the father, and Japanese with the mother. However, there are also other options for using mixed code between Indonesian, Japanese and also English. In the social domain, the language choice is more homogeneous, which is Indonesian. Meanwhile, it was found that there was resistance towards the use of Balinese by Japanese-Balinese Mixed Marriage Family (JBMF) and the factors that affected the children's language choice were also discovered.

Negotiating Boundaries Between Gender and Social Identities in the Principality of Samos: The Case of Divorces (1902–1911)

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Vasilios Gialamas ◽  
Sofia Iliadou Tachou ◽  
Alexia Orfanou
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Gender Ratio ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Qualitative Characteristics

This study focuses on divorces in the Principality of Samos, which existed from 1834 to 1912. The process of divorce is described according to the laws of the rincipality, and divorces are examined among those published in the Newspaper of the Government of the Principality of Samos from the last decade of the Principality from 1902 to 1911. Issues linked to divorce are investigated, like the differences between husbands and wives regarding the initiation and reasons for requesting a divorce. These differences are integrated in the specific social context of the Principality, and the qualitative characteristics are determined in regard to the gender ratio of women and men that is articulated by the invocation of divorce. The aim is to determine the boundaries of social identities of gender with focus on the prevailing perceptions of the social roles of men and women. Gender is used as a social and cultural construction. It is argued that the social gender identity is formed through a process of “performativity”, that is, through adaptation to the dominant social ideals.

Institutional actors: Children’s emerging beliefs about the causal structure of social roles

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes ◽  
Frank Keil ◽  
Yarrow Dunham
Keyword(s):  
Soccer Player ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Executive Orders ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Children's Beliefs ◽  
Institutional Actors ◽  
The U.S

Institutions make new forms of acting possible: Signing executive orders, scoring goals, and officiating weddings are only possible because of the U.S. government, the rules of soccer, and the institution of marriage. Thus, when an individual occupies a particular social role (President, soccer player, and officiator) they acquire new ways of acting on the world. The present studies investigated children’s beliefs about institutional actions, and in particular whether children understand that individuals can only perform institutional actions when their community recognizes them as occupying the appropriate social role. Two studies (Study 1, N = 120 children, 4-11; Study 2, N = 90 children, 4-9) compared institutional actions to standard actions that do not depend on institutional recognition. In both studies, 4- to 5-year-old children believed all actions were possible regardless of whether an individual was recognized as occupying the social role. In contrast, 8- to 9-year-old children robustly distinguished between institutional and standard actions; they understood that institutional actions depend on collective recognition by a community.

Language change across a lifetime: A historical micro-perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Bergs
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Social ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Micro Analysis

Abstract This paper focuses on the micro-analysis of historical data, which allows us to investigate language use across the lifetime of individual speakers. Certain concepts, such as social network analysis or communities of practice, put individual speakers and their social embeddedness and dynamicity at the center of attention. This means that intra-speaker variation can be described and analyzed in quite some detail in certain historical data sets. The paper presents some exemplary empirical analyses of the diachronic linguistic behavior of individual speakers/writers in fifteenth to seventeenth century England. It discusses the social factors that influence this behavior, with an emphasis on the methodological and theoretical challenges and opportunities when investigating intra-speaker variation and change.

Understanding and translating Confucian philosophy in the Analects: a sociosemiotic perspective

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Min
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Intercultural Understanding ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Confucian Philosophy ◽  
The Analects

Abstract As the representative of Chinese classical works, the Analects represents a source of difficulty in both understanding and interpretation of Confucian philosophy. Confucian philosophy as a philosophy of creativity and otherness is closely related with the social and cultural values in society. Therefore, the study of Confucian philosophy in the Analects cannot be separated from the descriptive study of the effects of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, contexts, language use, and the effects of language use on society. This article attempts to explore how the meaning of Confucian philosophy in the Analects is interpreted and accepted by Western readers through complex social semiotic interactions. The article focuses on the interpretation of Confucian philosophy as a reflection of cultural assumptions, values and prohibitions, and the manipulation of the social semiotic resources in the process of understanding, translation, and acceptance of Confucian philosophy in the Analects through a discussion of its original text, different versions and the reasons behind the social semiotic activities. The article concludes with a consideration of significant social semiotic interactions that influence the translator’s interpretation and reader’s acceptance of Confucian philosophy so as to facilitate intercultural understanding.

Die Macht der Bilder und Bilder der Macht: die sprachliche Konstruktion von Nationalismus und Konservatismus in der strategischen politischen Kommunikation von Vox España

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
pp. 538-566
Author(s):  
Sandra Issel-Dombert
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Media ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractFrom a theoretical and empirical linguistic point of view, this paper emphasizes the importance of the relationship between populism and the media. The aim of this article is to explore the language use of the Spanish right wing populism party Vox on the basis of its multimodal postings on the social network Instagram. For the analysis of their Instagram account, a suitable multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) provides a variety of methods and allows a theoretical integration into constructivism. A hashtag-analysis reveals that Vox’s ideology consists of a nativist and ethnocentric nationalism on the one hand and conservatism on the other. With a topos analysis, the linguistic realisations of these core elements are illustrated with two case studies.

Childhood Autism and Social Class: A Question of Selection?

1980 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
pp. 410-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Wing
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Early Years ◽  
National Society ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Class Bias ◽  
Class A ◽  
The Social ◽  
Autistic Behaviour ◽  
Childhood Psychoses

SummaryChildren with typical autism, other early childhood psychoses and severe mental retardation without autistic behaviour were identified in an epidemiological study in an area of South East London. The social class distribution of their fathers was examined and no significant differences were found between the groups, nor in a comparison with the general population of the area. Fathers of children with autism and related conditions referred to an out-patient clinic with a special interest in autism, mostly at their own request, and fathers joining the National Society for Autistic Children, were of higher social class than both the average for England and Wales and the fathers of the study children. Joining the NSAC during its early years, and keeping up membership were also linked with higher social class. The findings supported the view that reports of a social class bias in autism may be explained by factors affecting referral and diagnosis.

scholarly journals Meanderings Around the Notion of ‘Contact’ in Reference to Languages, their Dynamics, and to ‘we’

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548
Author(s):  
Robert Nicolaï
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
As If

This paper is a linguistic, anthropological and philosophical exploration of language, with particular focus on language contact. The goal is not to address linguistic phenomena from a descriptive perspective, in the classical sense of the term, nor as if they were a “given”, and nothing further. Nor is the goal to craft a model. Instead it is an attempt to account for all relevant elements which (empirically) come into play in ordinary language use, considering them both in terms of language dynamics and in terms of language usage; this necessarily entails taking into consideration our own practices, as actors of communication and as builders of knowledge. We are ever stakeholders in this play (and its plays) because we are the ones who identify and/or attribute relevance. In other words, this text is a reflection on the (our) frameworks established through communication practices (frameworks which naturally have an impact on the form of our tools, including languages!) It highlights that the objectivization of phenomena which underlies our practices (whether academic or not) is closely dependent on the means by which we grasp the phenomena—this is nothing new but is worth noting afresh. Methodologically speaking, observing this point is an essential element in the elaboration of a theory to account for how phenomena are empirically grasped, and more particularly what it entails in the field of ‘language contact’.

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