Session 8 - Edgar Schneider: Sociolinguistics and multilingualism

The discipline of sociolinguistics has come a long way since its tentative beginnings in the mid-twentieth century. Topics investigated have broadened considerably, encompassing anything from sound changes or grammatical variability via anthropological and ethnographic approaches or language planning to discourse pragmatics or the commodification of usage. Fundamental theoretical insights have been gained, on topics such as structured variability, language change, indexicality, audience design, the linguistic marketplace, or linguistic imperialism, to name but a few. The methodological toolkit, from concern for elicitation and fieldwork techniques to software development and sophisticated statistical machinery, has grown and matured.

The variationist approach, pioneered by William Labov’s groundbreaking studies of the 1960s, correlates usage variants with social parameters (most notably, gender, class, age, and ethnicity), applying a strictly quantitative methodology. More recently, the importance of social networks and “communities of practice”, in addition to the classic concept of the speech community, has been recognized, and the creative role of speakers in manipulating their public images and projecting sociocultural alignments by making active linguistic choices has been highlighted. Qualitative approaches have deepened our understanding of discourse-pragmatic interactions in their respective ecologies, e.g. the ethnography of communication, the performance of gender or identities, “crossing”, language in the workplace, narrative strategies, or intercultural communication. Such “micro-sociolinguistic” approaches have been complemented by “macro-sociolinguistics”, concerned with language planning, policy, and ideology, often in contexts of societal multilingualism. Postcolonial changes and globalization have produced new ecologies and language varieties, have brought many regional languages in competition with English, and have generated new “World Englishes” in many countries. International media and global internet communication have exposed individuals next to anywhere to transnational discourses and manifestations of other cultures (such as successful films or TV series, hip-hop, or advertisement strategies), often foreign at first and then localized. In young nations and multiethnic countries bilingualism and multilingualism require choices loaded with symbolic significance and social relevance both from individuals and from decision makers, and have resulted in new manifestations of linguistic and cultural hybridity, e.g. mixed codes or multiscriptural signage. Socially responsible linguistics is concerned with empowering the disadvantaged and with language endangerment, caused by gradual shifts to English or large regional languages. The importance of language contact and its effects has been recognized, and the role of contact-induced varieties, including pidgins and creoles, needs to be understood in their respective sociolinguistic settings, often co-existing alongside “standard” linguistic norms.

These major directions in current research interests and activities, and more, will be reflected in the sessions of ICL:

• Variationist sociolinguistics: parameters, communities, principles
• Performing cultures and projecting solidarity alignments through language
• Usage in context: discourse, ecology, conversation
• The sociolinguistics of globalization and transnational diffusion
• Bilingualism and multilingualism in nations and individuals
• Sociolinguistic perspectives on language contact, mixing, and hybridity

22.07.2013   10:30-12:30

Title: Multilingualism and contact: French and Arabic
Chair: Edgar W. Schneider

10:30 - 11:00 Michael PICONE

The Use and Abuse of Multilingual Literary Dialect for the Purpose of Sociolinguistic Reconstruction
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11:00 - 11:30 Sara MERLINO

Séquences de traduction spontanée et phénomènes de contact de langues
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11:30 - 12:00 Myriam KSOURI

Les particularités morphologiques et sémantiques du langage en interférence. Cas de l'alternance Français/arabe dans le dialecte tunisien
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12:00 - 12:30 Raoudha KAMMOUN

Gender Stereotypes and Humor in Tunisia
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22.07.2013   14:00-16:00

Title: Discourse in context: French
Chair: Michael Picone

14:00 - 14:30 Roberto PATERNOSTRO

Le « français parisien multiculturel » : aspects socio-phonétiques et questions méthodologiques
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14:30 - 15:00 Magali HUSIANYCIA

Types de discours au travail: les liens entre langage, contexte et activité
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15:00 - 15:30 Virginie ANDRÉ

Manifestations interactionnelles de processus cognitifs et collaboratifs au sein de réunions de travail
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15:30 - 16:00 Nathalie AUGER

Sortir du stéréotype du bilingue à l'Ecole française ?
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22.07.2013   16:30-18:30

Title: Multilingual discourse: Switzerland
Chair: Sara Merlino

16:30 - 17:00 Lorenza MONDADA et al.

"Was sprichst für 'ne Sproch?" Recognition and categorization of languages in multilingual interactions
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17:00 - 17:30 Elena Maria PANDOLFI et al.

Swiss multilingualism and receptive competences: the CIR project
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17:30 - 18:00 Claudia BUCHER et al.

Formal aspects of code-switching in SMS communication: the Swiss sms4science corpus
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18:00 - 18:30 Daniel PERRIN et al.

Translating the News: Internal and external multilingualism in the newsroom
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22.07.2013   18:30-19:30

Title: -- Poster session --
Chair: -- Poster session --

18:30 - 19:30 Adcharawan BURIPAKDI

Hegemonic English and Fragmented Identities in a Professional Writing Domain in Thailand
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18:30 - 19:30 Alexandra RIVLINA

Creativity and Intertextuality in English-Russian Interaction Today
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18:30 - 19:30 Dimitra KAROULLA-VRIKKI et al.

English for young learners in Cyprus education: Exploring parents' attitudes from ideological and utilitarian perspectives.
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18:30 - 19:30 Eduardo FAINGOLD

Official English in the constitutions and legislative statutes of the 50 states in the United States
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18:30 - 19:30 Jean-François MICHARD

La double utilisation du latin et du suédois dans les rapports d'autopsie en Suède
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18:30 - 19:30 Kyong-Sook SONG

Variation in Language Attitudes Towards Standard English and World Englishes: Among American and Korean University Students
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18:30 - 19:30 Yizhou LAN et al.

A probe into the nature of L2 interlanguage through articulatory gestures: examples from alveolar clusters by Cantonese speakers of English
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18:30 - 19:30 Yoon Mi OH et al.

Effect of Bilingualism on Speech Rate: the Case of Catalan and Basque Bilinguals in Spain
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18:30 - 19:30 Yulia DANYUSHINA

Business and Governance Linguistics: an Interdisciplinary Approach
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23.07.2013   10:30-12:00

Title: American variationist sociolinguistics
Chair: Magnus Huber

10:30 - 11:00 John BAUGH

Speaking While Black or Speaking While Brown in Global Perspective
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11:00 - 11:30 Patricia CUKOR-AVILA et al.

Temporal reference and verb morphology in the narratives of African American Vernacular English speakers
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11:30 - 12:00 Dagmar DEUBER et al.

American influence across Caribbean Standard Englishes
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23.07.2013   14:00-16:00

Title: Globalization of English
Chair: Stephanie Hackert

14:00 - 14:30 Markku FILPPULA

Language contacts and universals in Englishes in post-colonial settings
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14:30 - 15:00 Anne FABRICIUS et al.

Globalization, sociolinguistics and the international university: a case-study of the Danish higher education landscape
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15:00 - 15:30 Patricia FRIEDRICH et al.

New technologies, old myths: A study of language ideologies in the discourses of online English schools in Brazil and their implication for the sociolinguistics of globalization
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15:30 - 16:00 Zoya PROSHINA

English in Russia -an ELF or a WE variety?
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23.07.2013   16:30-18:30

Title: World Englishes and multilingualism: Africa
Chair: Dagmar Deuber

16:30 - 17:00 Magnus HUBER

A variationist approach to the phonological history of an Outer Circle variety: Early recordings from Ghana
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17:00 - 17:30 Inyang UDOFOT

Spoken English in the West African Region
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17:30 - 18:00 Sarah BUSCHFELD et al.

English in Namibia or Namibian English? - Evidence from a survey on identity constructions and language attitudes and use
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18:00 - 18:30 Christine OFULUE

Bilingualism and Language maintenance in small language communities in Nigeria: the case of Oko and Gungbe
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25.07.2013   10:30-12:30

Title: Performing identities: Greek and European
Chair: Anne Fabricius

10:30 - 11:00 Eleni SAVVA

Boundaries between Standard Modern Greek and Cypriot Greek, as perceived by their native speakers
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11:00 - 11:30 Concha Maria HÖFLER

Constructing and negotiating inter- and intra group boundaries in Georgia's Greek community
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11:30 - 12:00 Alina BUGHESIU

A sociolinguistic approach to virtual names in the context of migration
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12:00 - 12:30 Maria STOPFNER

The Construction of Identity in User Comments of the Far and Extreme Right
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25.07.2013   14:00-16:00

Title: Multilingualism and identity: Asia
Chair: Andy Kirkpatrick

14:00 - 14:30 Adcharawan BURIPAKDI

Cosmopolitan English: Acts of Appropriation and Negotiating English Hegemony in Thailand
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14:30 - 15:00 Ying WANG et al.

Social Identity and Cantonese Learning: The Impact of the Length of Residence and Gender on Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
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15:00 - 15:30 Keiko HIRANO

A new-dialect formation in an L2 setting: A rudimentary levelling among native speakers of English in Japan
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15:30 - 16:00 Jakob LEIMGRUBER

Visualising multilingualism: Linguistic landscapes in Singapore, Wales, and Québec
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25.07.2013   16:30-18:30

Title: Bilingualism and multilingualism: Russian in contact
Chair: Zoya Proshina

16:30 - 17:00 Olga IVANOVA

Language identity and identification in a Post-Soviet bilingual community
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17:00 - 17:30 Evguenia SEREBRENNIKOVA et al.

La synergie du nouveau multilingualisme: vu de la Siberie
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17:30 - 18:00 Anastassia ZABRODSKAJA

Attitudes towards multilingual signs in monolingual from above and multilingual from below Tallinn
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18:00 - 18:30 Aleksandrs BERDICEVSKIS

Internet as a source of evidence about contact-induced language change: the case of Russian
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26.07.2013   11:00-12:30

Title: Bilingualism and contact: Israel; session retrospect
Chair: Markku Filppula

11:00 - 11:30 Malka MUCHNIK et al.

Hebrew-Spanish Bilingualism at Kibbutzim and Urban Centers in Israel
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11:30 - 12:30 Edgar SCHNEIDER

Sociolinguistics and multilingualism: where we stand, and where we are heading for
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