Questions Chapter 6 Flashcards
What aspects of language contact influence bilinguals’ attitudes towards English and their employing it?
People may have very ambivaltent attitudes towards the language. The may value it becuase they see it as giving access to certain economic benefits and upward social mobility.
They may also dislike it because it is the mother tongue of people who oppress(ed) them. This is particularly the case in former British colonies.
What is meant by language policy and language planning?
Language policy:
Is the set of broad goals - political, social, economic, linuistic - that policy developers hope to achieve by focusing on aspects of the use of languages.
Typically, legislation regulates which languages are to be used for official purpose in government at all levels, in civil service, educational institution, the lega domain and in relations with other countries.
The language policy is usually determined by politicians, based on their vision of what the country needs internally, and how they want it to be positioned in its region and in the world.
Language planning identifies the processes of policy implementation.
When does language planning take place? Why?
The development of a new language policy takes place only at times of major political change; for example after a war or at the time of declaring independence.
This may be due to the fact that there is great uncertanty and a shared language can bring peace to a nation.
It may also be used to opress another group of people.
Why are the terms official language and national language important in terms of language planning?
Official language
As an official language, which are used in government, civil service, education, legal domain, they are given high status. Languages may have official language status throughout the country.
National language
Some countries may identify an indigenous language as a national language. Its main value is symbolic.
Raplh Sasold said: a national language is like a flag: it is valued as a symbol of national identity and people feel strongly about it. An official language is more like the post office: it is valued as an institution through which things get done, communication happens, but people fon’t feel strongly about it.
In terms of planning the status of a language, what do the following two processes involve?
- Acquisition planning
- Corpus planning
The process of planning hot to give effect to the fact that a national language and the official language may be differently connoted is called status planning.
It is often accompanied by acquisition planing, which is planning for how people will learn the official languages or other languages which the government regards as nevessary.
All languages develop in order to do whatever their speakers need them to do. Sometimes it is necesary to equip a language to handle the range of new functions that com with being an official language. Its linguistic body or corpus has to be developed: vocabulary has to be expanded, nes discourse forms need to be developed (e.g. the use in formulation of laws).
This is the domain of corpus planing, which involces linguists and educators.
Using one example, Pakistan, Tanzania or Namibia, explain how language policy and planning were implemented and how these have shaped the use of language in the respective country.
Pakistan.
P. was under britih controll and after 1947 the terrotory was divided into self-governing dominions Pakistan and India. Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and East Pakistan (now Banglades).
During British controll, Eng. was main language of administration and became known though formal education. During this period other languages were used as identity symbols for nationalist and religious movements.
Engl. has not been associated with any of these and it could be seen as neutral.
This was useful to post-independence government of Pakistan, which was trying to unify the political entity. Because English was already widely used it favoured keeping English as an official language.
Its retention was opposed by religious parties, who thought it to be a symbol of a new form of colonization.
Urdu (language) received strongest support. In 1977 after a military coup an attempt at Urduisation in all doimains happend. Schools were to move towards Urdu. However, schools for the elite continued to teach English. De will to Urduisation in education and administration was loosing strengt and they had emarked on this policy too hastly and withouth adequate planning. Thus the government withdrew the policy and promoted English because of its value in linking the country’s development into global political and economic spheres.
Urdu is the national language, while English and Urdu have official language status.
What difficulties can be encountered in the implementation of language policies.
As seen in Pakistan, there are various reasons why implementing a language policy can be difficult.
For religious and cultural reasons, people (or the new government) wanted to shift away from English to detach themselves from the colonisation, eventhough it has had an official status and it “worked”.
First it needs to be a language which a nation can agree to. This does also not happend to be the case in Namibia.
Then there might be a proces of corpus planning which is a long and complicated process. If not done properly it may lead to problems like in Pakistan.
Also people need to adapt the new policy, which was also not the case in Pakistan, since schools for the elite still were teaching English.
Do you think that language policies are equally important for everyone?
Explain.
When there is a good reason to have such policies (e.g. when wanting to grant acces to the globalised world) it is important to have them for all people.
However, this does not mean that it must be the one and only official language. Other languages can be granted the status of national language.
What is meant by the following in the bilingual contect (lager communities or withing families)? Use an example for each to help explain.
- language maintenance
- language shift
- language death
Stable bilingual communities (new language may be used for the same functions as old language, but is more likely to be used for some kinds of topics and interactions, while O continues to be used tor other and this co-existence persits over a long period of time), are characterised by a strong sense of the impoetance of their O. Their beliefs and daily practises promote language maintenance. For example if a family is speaking another language at home than they are speaking in school.
If a community begins to associate N exclusively with identities or a way of life they prefer, it may happend that N is used for functions tha O used to perform until over 3 or more generations, O is abandoned entirely. This process is known as language shift.
Example: is a community if a family used to speak Tamil at home and thei shift to English.
If a community fails to recerse the process by maintaining and teaching O and the heritage it carries to children, it may lead to language death.
Example: indigenous languages in North America.
What is meant by the following and how do they relate to English?
(1)
- code-switching
Bilinguals may switch between their language within one conversation. The moment-by-moment alternation is called codeswitching.
They may switch from one to another for one phrase or much longer, or also within sentences.
It my be planned or unplanned, conscious or unconscious.
The functions of switches are practical (making best use of available vocabulary), social (signalling aspects of identity) and stylistic (heightening contrast).
Sometimes people switch to a particular language as part of an attempt to present themselves facourably.
What is meant by the following and how do they relate to English?
(2)
- loanwords/borrowings
This may be a brief excursion into another language. Filling vocabulary gaps is one function of loanwords.
Some recent borrowings still retain signs of orifins.
What is meant by the following and how do they relate to English?
(3)
- emblematic switching
An excursion into another language can signal particular “belonging”. This is called emblematic switching.
It is used to indicate ancestry where speaker is no longer familiar with his ancestral language.
What is meant by the following and how do they relate to English?
(4)
- language crossing
When speakers use words or phrases from a language which is not part of their herritage.
It is defined as the use of a language, that isn’t generally felt to “belong” to the speaker.
This is similar to emplematic switching in that the person does not have established proficiency in the language to which he makes a brief excursion, but is able to use a few words.
The main difference is that the crosser has no insider status.
