Search results for "sociology of language"
showing 10 items of 16 documents
Language Policy and Ethnic Tensions in Quebec and Latvia
2004
Introduction Concern for the French language in Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s and the Latvian language in the then Soviet Union in the late 1980s and in the new Latvian state in the 1990s were ignited by some of the same demographic and assimilative forces in the two societies. Both Quebec and Latvia had lost their independence to larger powers. The birth rate and population declined abruptly in the two subnations. Schools in English (in Quebec) and Russian (in Latvia) attracted most immigrants. The elites were disproportionately drawn from outside the majority ethnic groups. To counter these trends, language policies were drafted, restricting access to English and Russian languages in scho…
The Cultural Component in the First Language (L1) Teaching: Cultural Heritage, Identity and Motivation in Language Learning
2015
Abstract After almost three decades since the insertion of Catalan (Valencian) within the Valencian education system, its use hasn’t spread through all of the geographical domains and social scopes. In a context of language minorisation, an actual usage of a language is not guaranteed by just acquiring a sounder language competence. For a start we take into consideration a hipothesis defending that even though a comprehension of the goal culture in L2 is not just necessary for a significant use of the language within its society, we also have to realise the importance of the cultural import when using L1. We’ve framed our working field within some research projects which focus on the value …
Dialogicality and spiritual quest in Christian metal lyrics
2013
Abstract: Christian metal (CM) music provides a good example of how religious discourse is undergoing change in today’s world. CM merges religion with popular cultural forms and ways of expression, thereby also transforming the meaning of religion and religious practice. However, the phenomenon has attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention; most writers have treated CM as yet another example of North American Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). The present article takes a detailed look into what is “said” by Finnish CM groups with a particular focus on religious ideology in a context outside the original national and religious context of the genre. Drawing on the sociology of langu…
LEGAL COMMENTS IN RELATION TO THE LATGALIAN WRITING LANGUAGE AS A HISTORICAL VARIETY OF LATVIAN
2012
<p>The paper is aimed at provision of legal assessment of the Latgalian language as a variant of Latvian, using mainly the analytical and historical method.</p><p>Notwithstanding the fact that the Official Language Law recognizes that the Latgalian language is a variant of the Latvian language, there is no absolute clarity with regard to the status of this language and its practical use in formal communication. Also the attitude from public authorities is inexcusably inappropriate – as far as declaring the Latgalian language to be a foreign language. However, from historical point of view the Latgalian language was recognised and applied in official communication, includin…
Language as an instrument of nationalism in Central Europe
2001
This article presents a brief survey and analysis of the most intimate coupling of culture and national projects that occurred in Central Europe following the success of the Italian and German nation-states established in this manner during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Language is the very ‘stuff’ of culture as well as the instrument of communicating and reaffirming cultural difference vis-a-vis other cultures. As such, language became central to the processes of nation- and nation-state-building in Central Europe, leading to politicisation of language and also of linguistics and philology, which were expected to fortify the nations and their nation-states than rather to len…
The birth of language ecology: interdisciplinary influences in Einar Haugen's “The ecology of language”
2015
Abstract Einar Haugen is generally regarded as the founding father of ‘language ecology’ or ‘ecology of language’. In his classic 1971 paper, he suggested that “[l]anguage ecology may be defined as the study of interactions between any given language and its environment”. After tracing the roots of language ecology in the social sciences and biology and the use of similar locutions by other linguists before him, the present paper discusses major conceptual and theoretical issues surrounding his proposal. Fundamental discrepancies between how the concept of ecology is understood in biology and sociology, on the one hand, and the attempted application to language, on the other, render details…
Implementing language policy for deaf students in a Texas school district
2013
Language policy implementation is a complex, multilayered process. Understanding this process can be achieved by identifying the agents, layers, and processes of language planning and policy activities, analyzing the layers independently, and examining the relations among the layers. Considering these dimensions, this article explicates how U.S. special education policy functions as de facto language policy for deaf students. Turning to implementation in local contexts, data from a larger multi-sited, qualitative case study of a Texas school district is presented to show how individuals act as policy-implementing agents and how their beliefs about language and education policy influences th…
Els discursos fundacionals sobre el català
2021
This paper attempts to draw a general perspective, from the main aspects that take part in them, of the discourses on the origin and the appearance of Catalan language that have been proposed since there has been works of historical reflection on this language. Without claiming to be exhaustive, authors and works are cited only with the intention of illustrating the different positions S’intenta traçar una perspectiva general, a partir dels principals aspectes que hi prenen part, dels discursos sobre l’origen i l’aparició de la llengua catalana que s’han proposat d’ençà que hi ha hagut treballs de reflexió històrica sobre aquesta llengua. Sense pretendre l’exhaustivitat, se citen autors i o…
Foundations of language perceptions and the role of external factors: a Norwegian case
2009
Non-linguists' perceptions of language in use are generally considered to be strongly influenced by evaluative factors: attitudes, values and ideology. Such a perspective represents a somewhat biased approach to ordinary people's knowledge about language, which is characteristic of both sociolinguistics and its sub-branch, perceptual dialectology. This paper presents an alternative approach, which comprised interviewing 44 Norwegian informants about language spoken locally. The data from the interviews suggests that external (i.e. non-mental) factors play a prominent role in the formation of their perceptions of language. Firstly, observations of language in use seem to be of great importan…
Rafael l. Ninyoles: Recorregut biogràfic i intel·lectual
2020
This article presents the biography and intellectual legacy of Valencian sociologist Rafael L. Ninyoles (1943- 2019). It reviews his formative itinerary, his early contributions to the field of the sociology of language, his latest contributions to the sociology of cities and cultural spaces, and his key involvement in the promoti-on and consolidation of the sociological study of Valencian society. The article includes a note on public acknowledgements to the author, plus an annex with a selective bibliography aimed at serving the interested reader and the posthumous diffusion of Ninyoles? oeuvre.