[---Seminario de Sociolingüística---]

Multilingualism, conflict, and the politics of indigenous language movements
Suzanne Romaine (Merton College, University of Oxford)

Experts know that multilingualism is not the aberration or minority phenomenon supposed by many English speakers. It is, on the contrary, a normal and unremarkable necessity for the majority of the world's population. Because languages and dialects are often powerfull symbols of class, gender, ethnic and other kinds of differentiation, it is easy to think that language underlies conflict. Yet disputes involving language are really not about language, but about fundamental inequalities between groups who happen to speak different languages. It is for this reason that language has been an important focus for various kinds of social and political movements around the world. This paper examines the politics of multilingualism as expressed in the phenomenon of indigenous language movements in various parts of the world. Its not surprising that one of the demands of indigenous language movements are towards some form of bilingual education in the minority language. At the same time demands for state resources for support of the language, often undermine its position further and intensify conflicts between majority and minority.
Key word: multilingualism, conflict, politics of multilingualism, indigenous language movements.

Cultural identity and heteroglossia
Joan A. Argenter (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

The assumption that language and cultural identity can be identify has been questioned with empirical data. However, an exclusive and excessive static and taxonomic concept of socio-cultural identity, a concept that would be vaguely correlated to linguistic variation, understood -at the same time- as a simple juxtaposition of verbal codes still persists. If we conceive socio-cultural identity not only as a historically determinated result, but at the same time as a process under construction and as a consequence of the agents' reactions before new situations, we must direct our research towards the discovering of the function that several varieties fulfill in the dynamic construction of identities. Members of a community must face the question of heteroglossia in daily life and they do it through the management of some codes and voices produced by individuals and social groups. Such codes and voices, built from available verbal resources and through local communicative practices, express particular identities and social positions, revealing speakers' social identifications and exclusions, securities and conflicts, believes and ideologies. Key words: cultural identity and language, dinamic construction of identities, heteroglossia.

Identity among bilinguals: An ecolinguistic approach
Peter Hans Nelde (Research Centre on Multilingualism, Catholic University Brussels)

Identity building among speakers of "lesser used languages" is, in many aspects, incomparable among european minority groups, since many differing research approaches characterize the ethnolinguistic and cultural identities of minorities. In the same way, as contact linguistics by means of the Euromosaic report has revealed, there are several entirely different european language policies within the EU, and as a consequence, the identity of minority speakers has been defined in different ways depending on the nation state concepts of the EU member states. We would like to discuss some internal and external aspects of identity conflicts which can be observed among autochtonous minority members in Europe. It will be shown that these features are of prime importance for the construction of a cultural-linguistic identity within those minority groups who are trying to avoid assimilation through identity building, meanwhile they are trying to be socialized citizens, and accepted by the majority speakers. Can such identity conflicts be overcome by means of effective language planning? Key words: identity building, autochtonous minority groups, identity conflicts, language planning.

Cuando los hablantes se niegan a elegir: multilingüismo e identidad múltiple en la modernidad reflexiva
Mauro A. Fernández (Universidade da Coruña)

The lack of familiarity of sociolinguistics with social theory, leads to use indifferently, as if they were transparent and univocal, items that present problems since the beginning of their use as technical items. This is the case of the term identity. From the modern perspective, theories on identity, formulated by social sciences, can be ascribed to two main groups: essentialists and constructionists. The perspective of this paper belongs to the latter. Because of its relevance, Tajfel's theory of social identity stands out. This theory has been recently developed by Hogg through the theory of self-categorization. This work deals with the relationship that languages can maintain with identities under the light of these theories. Languages and linguistic varieties are, on the one hand, the result of social identity acts, and, on the other hand, the source of social identities (among which ethnic and national identities are found, but not exclusively). Likewise, reflexive modernization theory is based on "the fact that social practices are constantly examinated and improved under the light of the information that is extracted from those practices, that, in this sense, alter their characteristics" (Giddens). All this process affects identities and on their relations to languages and varieties. Key words: bilingualism, identity, social and linguistic identities, reflexive modernization theory.

Le jeu des langues dans les familles bilingues d'origine étrangère
Christine Deprez (Université René Descartes-Paris V)

The observation in vivo of family bilingualism that have their origin in the inmigration in Paris, reveals that theoretic methods that prove to be more familiar (through notions like diglossia or domains), do not prove to be the most suitable for describing such situations. In these cases, a "double mediation" occurs in families, to the effect that parents transmit their native language to their children, but these ones, at the same time, take French home. The strict separation "one language / one person" is not fit for daily interactions and the researcher must make use of models of a preferential kind. Likewise, children from these families build a strong functional bilingualism, acquiring their parents' language not only inside the family but also on the occasion of their holiday season in their parents' native land. On the other hand, code-switching fulfills the actual asymmetry between the repertoires of both generations, and constitutes the implementation of a real poliphony through the simultaneous inter-play of conversational alliances and expressive modalizations. The bilingual speech of these families receives a negative picture in the case of the native monolingual speakers from both countries, and frequently this picture is also internalized by bilinguals. However, some designations ("fran-yougo") and some demands for the normality of such speech, and also for its natural character, are signs of a change in the emergent identities framework among this new generation. Key words: bilingual families, urban migrations, bilingual speech, code-switching, identities.

L'accès de l'enfant sourd à la parole: une situation particulière de bilinguisme entre une langue gestuelle et une langue vocale
Danielle Bouvet (Université Lumière Lyon 2)

Deaf children from hearing parents (about the 95% of cases), can't acquire the Sign language within their families. It will be necesary to turn to the educative structure where the child, together with other deaf children, can acquire the Sign language inside an atmosphere of enjoyment and satisfactory communication. In this way, through the sign word, the child will identify with his/her deaf teachers; in the same way, the oral word will be for him/her a privileged means of identification with his/her hearing parents, and he/she will probably wish to talk also "like daddy" or "like mummy". To fulfill this wish, a bilingual education is required from the beginning, presenting, in a parallel way, both languages (the Sign language and the oral language) to the child. Within this education, written language acquisition is going to play a crucial role, because of writing provides the child with the chance of discovering the structural differences between both languages. In any case, the knowledge and manipulation of a language that appears to him/her as natural, are essential for his/her access to the oral language within its oral and written varieties. On the other hand, bilingual language acquisition requires a narrow collaboration between deaf and hearing teachers. Key words: deaf children from hearing parents, deaf children's bilingual education, sign / oral bilingualism, access to the oral language (oral and written language).

Bilingual and trilingual competence: Problems of description and differentiation
Charlotte Hoffmann (University of Salford)

Research into child bilingualism over the last twenty years has yielded a considerable amount of data and opened possible new ways for its description as well as theoretical approaches. Most studies have been concerned with bilingualism. Trilingualism has received much less specific attention. Sometimes authors acknowledge the existence of trilingualism with additions such as "two or more languages", but only rarely have attempts been made to contrast the phenomena of bilingualism and trilingualism. The aim of this paper is to investigate linguistic competence in trilingual children in terms of how it manifests itself and how it can be explained. The paper will examine certain aspects of this issue which are related to the establishment and manifestation of bilingual and trilingual competence, such as language awareness, language choice and language mixing. It will also consider some strategies of language use such as code-switching and translation on the one hand, and certain learning strategies on the other. Key words: child bilingualism, trilingualism, child trilingualism, linguistic competence.

Phonological and cultural innovations in the speech of Samoans in Southern California
Alessandro Duranti & Jennifer F. Reynolds (University of California at Los Angeles)

Bilingualism is a concept that critically relies on and interacts with a variety of other theoretical constructs, including the notions of "language", "speakers", and "community". Subjecting these key notions to new empirical and theoretical challenges, this study struggles to invent a new language able to describe what we are learning to see without the faulty presuppositions of earlier labels. This is particularly difficult in the study of what is probably the most emblematic phenomenon of bilingualism, namely, code-switching. Starting from these considerations, this paper examines audio-visual recordings of spontaneous interactions collected during a three year project in a Samoan community in Southern California, with the goal of applying an anthropological approach to code-switching. The paper concentrates on three phenomena: (i) the routine adoption of kinship terms like Dad and Mom in Samoan discourse; (ii) the "island-like" status of certain proper names which are not adapted to the Samoan phonological register called "bad speech" spoken at home; (iii) the code-switching to Samoan words that do have an English equivalent and are associated with church activities. It's argued that all three phenomena are indexes of social change, albeit in different ways and for different reasons. The variation found in this corpus suggests that linguistic phenomena like code-switching should be considered as indexical of degrees of cultural assimilation and different types of positioning vis-à-vis "tradition". Key words: code-switching, anthropological approach, indexes of social change, kinship terms, proper names.

Para um modelo do "code-switching" e a alternância de variedades como fenómenos distintos: dados do discurso galego-português/espanhol na Galiza
Celso Alvarez Cáccamo (Universidade da Coruña)

In this paper, a model is outlined for the interactional analysis of code-switching (CS) as a communicative phenomenon separate from the alternation of speech varieties (AL, alternancia linguística) which is a purely structural phenomenon. Communicative codes are viewed as general mechanisms to manifest intentions at several levels of discourse organization. A given communicative code mobilizes and organizes sets of both linguistic and non-linguistic contextualization signals. A switch of communicative codes, or CS, is therefore a detectable recontextualization strategy by which contrasting sets of varied signals are deployed. CS may or may not involve AL, as language alternations may or may not be interactionally significant in terms of signalling intentions. The interplay between CS and language alternation results in four possibilities: (1) CS with AL (CSconAL); (2) AL without CS (ALsenCS); (3) CS without AL (CSsenAL); and (4) neither CS nor AL (NinCSninAL). The first three possibilities are examined and illustrated through the interactional analysis of two cases of Galizan-Portuguese/Spanish public discourse from two television programs. Finally, it is proposed that an interactional approach to CS must steer away from preconceived notions about languages in contact and their supposed, respective signalling values. Key words: code-switching (CS), alternation of speech varieties (AL), interactional analysis.

Why should we and how can we determine the "base language" of a bilingual conversation?
Peter Auer (University of Freiburg)

Many researchers on bilingualism feel the need to state that a given bilingual stretch of talk is "basically" in language A, although elements of language B may also be present in some way or other within it. The goal of this paper is to discuss both the limits of analysts abilities to attribute a given stretch of bilingual talk to language A or language B -i.e. to determine a "base language" at all-, and the proper way of proceeding within these limits -i.e. in those cases in which it is indeed possible and useful to reconstruct what language participants are "basically" speaking at a given point (or during a given activity). In this paper, it is also argued that in an interpretative approach to code-switching, based on conversation and using an analytically inspired methodology, great care is required not to confound linguists and participants' identifications of languages. Several examples of how the "language-of-interaction" is negotiated sequentially are shown in this contribution. Joined to these, others that point to the numerous strategies of ambiguity by which bilingual participants may choose to leave the question of one language-of-interaction locally unsettled, are discussed here. Key words: bilingual conversation, base language, code-switching, code-mixing, language-of-interaction.

Language contact phenomena in deaf communities
Ceil Lucas (Gallaudet University, Washington)

Sociolinguistic research in deaf communities has been shaped by at least four interrelated considerations: (1) the relationship between the spoken language of the majority of the community and sign language, mainly in educational settings; (2) the limited knowledge of the linguistic structure of the sign language; (3) doubts as to the status of the sign language as a "real language"; and (4) the application of spoken language sociolinguistic models to sign language situations. This paper will focus specifically on language contact phenomena in deaf communities. Firstly, the general effect of each of these four considerations will be discussed, and a model of language contact phenomena will be presented, making the distinction between the outcomes of contact between two sign languages, and the outcomes of contact between a sign language and a spoken language. Secondly, the findings of an investigation of language contact in the American deaf community will be presented and discussed as they pertain to these four considerations. And thirdly, this paper will suggest directions for future research on the sociolinguistics of deaf communities. Key words: language contact in deaf communities, Sign language, model of language contact phenomena, sociolinguistics of deaf communities.

El dialecto murciano como resultado del contacto lingüístico medieval castellano-catalán
Jordi Colomina i Castanyer (Universitat d'Alacant)

The Christian conquest of Murcian lands in the 13th century -at that time under the Moslem dominance-, started by Jaime the First of Aragón and culminated by Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, meant the settlement in this territory of a quite important mass of settlers that spoke different romanic varieties. Departing from the analysis of the play Libros de Repartimiento of Murcia, Orihuela and Lorca, it can be fancied how the sociolinguistic situation of the Murcian area was during the Late Middle Age. It appears as unquestionable that the present Murcian dialect must be considered as a result of the contact between Catalan and Castilian during the 13th and 14th centuries. Colomina (1997) studied the Catalan influence in Murcian texts from the 13th to the 17th century. Catalanisms abound in the agriculture and fishing sector but also in urban activities as the building sector or the textile industry. In this work, the previous studies will be completed with the analysis of Murcian Catalanisms, departing from the dialectal vocabularies and the popular literature from the 19th and 20th centuries. Key words: Murcian dialect, Catalan / Castilian contact, catalanisms.

On the unpredictability of contact effects
Sarah G. Thomason (University of Michigan)

Historical linguists know that any search for deterministic predictions on language change is bound to fail. But the urge to explain linguistic change is strong, and many linguists have proposed generalizations that make limited predictions about what can and what cannot happen in language history. In language contact situations, the major predictors of possible linguistic results are social rather than linguistic. But, specifying the crucial social factors turns out to be difficult. Only one social factor appears to yield a reliable constraint on the linguistic effects of contact: the presence or absence of full bilingualism among the speakers who introduce interference into a language. On the other hand, trying to find a reliable correlation, across a wide range of contact situations, between any specific attitudinal factors and specific linguistic results is probably doomed. Therefore, the goal of this paper is not to offer predictive generalizations about ways in which attitudes determine the linguistic results of contact, but rather to show why it is so difficult to find any. Key words: language contact, linguistic change, predictive generalizations, bilingualism, interference features.

Langues et développement: agir sur les représentations?
Louis-Jean Calvet (Université de Provence)

It is very well-known the importance that gregarious or vernacular languages have in the fight for development, because they are essential for the transmission of the necessary knowledge and techniques for this process. This fact is especially evident in Africa, where "national" languages (already known by children before they arrive to school) are more effective than the "official" language (French, English, Portuguese). In the language policy field, when suggested solutions in vitro have the same direction as speakers' practices in vivo, this operation is usually a success. Problems arise when speakers do not agree with politicians' resolutions; in this case, the result is usually a failure. In the framework of these general problems, it may be interesting to extend the labovian notion of linguistic insecurity, since language images or representations cause security or insecurity in several domains: form, status, image and identity function of languages. The interference of these parameters presents a typology of different situations. Since this insecurity is a social result, the notions of securization and insecurization can be added to this typology, in the following way: to raise the question whether it would be possible to act on the images and representations that speakers create about languages, and to fight against, for instance, the originating forces of linguistic insecurity, with the aim of carrying out in vivo the choices of language policy executed in vitro. Key words: language policy and development, resolutions in vitro, language practices in vivo, linguistic representations, linguistic insecurity, securization and insecurization.

Planification linguistique, droit à la langue et développement
Robert Chaudenson (Institut d'Etudes Créoles et Francophones, Université de Provence)

The strong multilingualism of many African states makes unfeasible the officialization and planning of many of these languages (even though regional or vehicular languages are promoted). Apart from economic obstacles, the choice of these languages presents considerable political difficulties. On the other hand, being the official language either French (or other European language) or an African language, the great problem of its large-scale spreading among the population always arises, who, if they don't know that language, will be deprived of their right to use it and also of access to human development. In this sense, the audio-visual space represents a means of high importance for language planning, conceived in connection with development and within the respect to linguistic rights, because it allows the coexistence -inside the same territory and through different media (radio, television, video)- of several languages, at the same time that it avoids the great part of planning problems and costs, bound to language spelling and exploitation. Likewise, it allows a total adjustment to a wide variety of functions and audiences. The audio-visual space represents, in short, a means of development specially effective and adapted to African countries. Key words: language planning, african multilingualism, development, linguistic rights, audio-visual space.