The Bilingualism Reader

Li Wei, Li Wei

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000143249
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Bilingualism Reader is the definitive reader for the study of bilingualism. Designed as an integrated and structured student resource it provides invaluable editorial material that guides the reader through different sections and covers:

• definitions and typology of bilingualism
• language choice and bilingual interaction
• bilingualism, identity and ideology
• grammar of code-switching and bilingual acquisition
• bilingual production and perception
• the bilingual brain
• methodological issues in the study of bilingualism.

The second edition of this best selling volume includes nine new chapters and postscripts written by the authors of the original articles, who evaluate them in the light of recent research. Critical discussion of research methods, revised graded study questions and activities, a comprehensive glossary, and an up-to-date resource list make The Bilingualism Reader an essential introductory text for students of linguistics, psychology and education.

PART ONE
Sociolinguistic dimensions of bilingualism

Introduction to Part One

LI WEI

The articles reprinted in Part One of this Reader serve to illustrate what may be called the sociolinguistic approach to bilingualism. There are nine articles altogether; three are grouped under ‘Language choice’, four under ‘Bilingual interaction’ and two under ‘Identity and ideology’.

Language choice

Researchers of bilingualism generally agree that language choice is an ‘orderly’ social behaviour, rather than a random matter of momentary inclination. Where perspectives differ is in the conceptualisation of the nature of achievement and management of that orderliness. Charles A. Ferguson’s article on diglossia (Chapter 1) is a true classic in that it not only defines a concept but also develops an approach to bilingualism which has been extremely influential. It originates from the fact that the co-existing languages of a community are likely to have different functions and to be used in different contexts. The notion of diglossia describes the functional differentiation of languages in bilingual and multilingual communities. A distinction is made between High (H) and Low (L) language varieties, and Ferguson noted nine areas in which H and L could differ. One important implication of Ferguson’s conception of diglossia is that bilingual speakers’ language choice is seen to reflect a set of society-wide norms.

The concept of diglossia can be usefully examined alongside the notion of bilingualism, as Joshua A. Fishman does in Chapter 2. Bilingualism, argues Fishman, is a subject matter for linguists and psychologists and refers to an individual’s ability to use more than one language; diglossia, on the other hand, is a concept for sociologists and sociolinguists to study. He describes four language situations where bilingualism and diglossia may exist with or without each other. In doing so, Fishman has incorporated the factor of change in language use. According to Fishman, relative stability can be maintained as long as societal compartmentalisation of language lasts. When two languages compete for use in the same situations, as in the case of bilingualism without diglossia, language shift – a process in which a speech community collectively gives up a language in favour of some other – may occur.

The second article by Fishman (Chapter 3) asks the now famous question ‘Who speaks what language to whom and when?’, a question which set the agenda not only for bilingualism research but also for the study of language in society in general. The way in which Fishman proposes to answer this question is through what he calls domain analysis. Domain refers to a cluster of characteristic situations around a prototypical theme which structures both the speakers’ perception of the situation and their social behaviour, including language choice. Extending Weinreich’s (1953) earlier work, Fishman tries to link the analysis of societal norms and expectations with language use in face-to-face encounters, using the concept of domain as a pivot. His analysis concentrates on stable systems of choice, or ‘proper’ usage as he calls it, and relates specific language choices to general institutions and spheres of activity, both in one society and between societies comparatively.

Bilingual interaction

The second section of Part One focuses more specifically on the microinteractional aspects of language choice. The article by Jan-Petter Blom and John J. Gumperz (Chapter 4) is one of the most frequently cited articles on bilingualism. It introduces the now widely used dichotomy of ‘situational’ versus ‘metaphorical’ code-switching. On the basis of extensive participant observation in a bi-dialectal community in Hemnesberget, Norway, Blom and Gumperz identify two types of linguistic practice which they argue have different social meanings:

1. changes of language choice corresponding to changes in the situation, particularly participant, setting and activity type, i.e. situational code-switching; and
2. changes in language choice in order to achieve special communicative effects while participant and setting remain the same, i.e. metaphorical code-switching.

They regard metaphorical code-switching as symbolic of alternative interpersonal relationships; in other words, choices of language are seen as a ‘metaphor’ for the relationship being enacted. This study of the meaning of language choice exemplifies what is meant by an integrated sociolinguistic approach. Both ethnography and linguistics are drawn upon. The outcome is an understanding of social constraints and linguistic rules as parts of a single communicative system.

The idea that language choice and code-switching are symbolic of the social relationships between individuals is further developed in Carol M. Scotton’s (later as Myers-Scotton) paper (Chapter 5). She proposes the notion of markedness as a basis for understanding the effectiveness of code-switching in defining social rights and obligations. She shows how certain sets of rights and obligations are conventionally associated with certain social situations, and how language use in those situations is unmarked. She goes on to discuss two ways in which situation and language use co-vary: externally motivated language choice signals changes in situation and, therefore, change in unmarked language choice. However, within single encounters participants can deviate from conventional verbal behaviour and, through such marked switches, redefine role relations and, consequently, situations.

The article by Peter Auer (Chapter 6) approaches the meaning of language choice and code-switching from a different perspective. Auer uses a framework derived from conversation analysis (CA) to account for the ways in which speakers use code-switching either to manage social relations or to accomplish discourse objectives. He argues that the primary function of language alternation – a general term that Auer uses to cover various types of code-switching and transfer – is to establish various kinds of footing (in Goffman’s terms: Goffman, 1979), which provide the basis for the conversation to be interpretable by participants. This analysis of bilingual conversation offers a useful alternative to the macro-sociolinguistic studies of language choice and code-switching. It provides the basis for a pragmatic theory of code-switching.

The article by Li Wei, Lesley Milroy and Pong Sin Ching (Chapter 7) proposes a two-step analysis which integrates language choice at the macrocommunity level with code-switching at the micro-interactional level. Utilising the analytic concept of social network and framework provided by conversation analysis (similar to Auer’s analysis), they demonstrate, via an analysis of the sociolinguistic patterns of a Chinese community in Britain, that bilingual speakers use code-switching as an organisational procedure for conversational interaction and that the different code-switching practices displayed by speakers of different generations may be described as interactional reflexes of the network-specific language choice preferences. They further argue that, while network interacts with a number of other variables, it is capable of accounting more generally for patterns of language choice than variables such as generation, sex of speaker, duration of stay and occupation with which it interacts. It can also deal in a principled way with differences within a single generational group. In their view, therefore, social network analysis can form an important component in an integrated social theory of language choice: it links with the interactional level in focusing on the everyday behaviour of social actors, and with the economic and socio-political level in that networks may be seen as forming in response to social and economic press...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• How to use the Reader
• INTRODUCTION
• Dimensions of bilingualism
• Notes for students and instructors
• PART ONE SOCIOLINGUISTIC DIMENSIONS OF BILINGUALISM
• PART TWO LINGUISTIC DIMENSIONS OF BILINGUALISM
• PART THREE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AND ΝEUROLIΝGUISTIC DIMENSIONS OF BILINGUALISM
• Resource list
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index