Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635986
- eISBN:
- 9780748671472
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635986.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe. One of the outcomes of the profound social transformations that this region has witnessed since the Second World War ...
More
This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe. One of the outcomes of the profound social transformations that this region has witnessed since the Second World War has been the reshaping of the relationship between particular languages and linguistic varieties, especially between ‘national’ languages and regional or ethnic minority languages. Previous studies have investigated these changed relationships from the macro perspective of language policies, while others have taken an ethnographic approach to individual experiences with language. This book brings together these two perspectives for the first time, with a focus on the German language, which has a uniquely complex and problematic history in this region. By drawing on a range of theoretical, conceptual and analytical approaches – language ideologies, language policy, positioning theory, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and linguistic ethnography – and a wide range of data sources (from European and national language policies to individual language biographies) the authors show how the relationship between German and other languages has played a crucial role in the politics of language and processes of identity formation in the recent history of central Europe.Less
This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe. One of the outcomes of the profound social transformations that this region has witnessed since the Second World War has been the reshaping of the relationship between particular languages and linguistic varieties, especially between ‘national’ languages and regional or ethnic minority languages. Previous studies have investigated these changed relationships from the macro perspective of language policies, while others have taken an ethnographic approach to individual experiences with language. This book brings together these two perspectives for the first time, with a focus on the German language, which has a uniquely complex and problematic history in this region. By drawing on a range of theoretical, conceptual and analytical approaches – language ideologies, language policy, positioning theory, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and linguistic ethnography – and a wide range of data sources (from European and national language policies to individual language biographies) the authors show how the relationship between German and other languages has played a crucial role in the politics of language and processes of identity formation in the recent history of central Europe.
Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635986
- eISBN:
- 9780748671472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635986.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
Chapters 5 and 6 draw on the same corpus of material (individual interviews with German-speakers in Hungary and the Czech Republic) but in different ways and for different purposes. In this chapter, ...
More
Chapters 5 and 6 draw on the same corpus of material (individual interviews with German-speakers in Hungary and the Czech Republic) but in different ways and for different purposes. In this chapter, the authors look closely at ways in which narrators make experiences with language an organizing/ structural element in their life stories: what is it about ‘my’ encounters with different languages – their evaluations, the times and places associated with their use, their possibilities and limitations/ constraints – that have made my ‘life’ what it (in my estimation) is or has become, as opposed to what it might have been?Less
Chapters 5 and 6 draw on the same corpus of material (individual interviews with German-speakers in Hungary and the Czech Republic) but in different ways and for different purposes. In this chapter, the authors look closely at ways in which narrators make experiences with language an organizing/ structural element in their life stories: what is it about ‘my’ encounters with different languages – their evaluations, the times and places associated with their use, their possibilities and limitations/ constraints – that have made my ‘life’ what it (in my estimation) is or has become, as opposed to what it might have been?
Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635986
- eISBN:
- 9780748671472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635986.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
As in Chapter 5, the authors here look at ways in which individuals navigate their passage through the changing and sometimes turbulent circumstances of their lives through the accounts they give of ...
More
As in Chapter 5, the authors here look at ways in which individuals navigate their passage through the changing and sometimes turbulent circumstances of their lives through the accounts they give of their personal experiences with language but from a different angle and focusing more on processes of group identification. This entails analysing the narratives as discourses on language and identity, drawing out the relationships between language ideologies and individual practices. This analysis provides insights into some of the ways in which changes in social and political conditions are refracted through personal experience and emerge in individual narratives as expressions of personal (re)alignment with particular social groups in relation to particular times and places.Less
As in Chapter 5, the authors here look at ways in which individuals navigate their passage through the changing and sometimes turbulent circumstances of their lives through the accounts they give of their personal experiences with language but from a different angle and focusing more on processes of group identification. This entails analysing the narratives as discourses on language and identity, drawing out the relationships between language ideologies and individual practices. This analysis provides insights into some of the ways in which changes in social and political conditions are refracted through personal experience and emerge in individual narratives as expressions of personal (re)alignment with particular social groups in relation to particular times and places.
