Language, Borders and Identity - Softcover

Dominic Watt; Carmen Llamas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0748669779 ISBN 13: 9780748669776

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This is a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary discussion of the connections between language, borders and identities. Looking at a broad, geographically diverse spectrum of border contexts, this volume illustrates a range of methodological approaches. It examines political borders that divide monoglossic and heteroglossic territories, as well as regional and local and symbolic borders. The authors assess the linguistic implications of these borders contexts such as language planning and policy (e.g. for multilingual education and protection of minority languages) and border control (via the chapter on language analysis for the determination of origin, 'LADO'). Each border is unique, making generalisations about how language functions in 'borderlands' difficult to formulate but casting the net as wide as we intend will, however, equip us to develop and refine models of how language is used to construct borders, and to indicate on which side of a border speakers situate themselves. It covers political, socio-psychological and symbolic borders. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach by combining sociolinguistic research with human geography, anthropology and social psychology. It uses international case studies and examples throughout.

About this title

About the Author

Dominic Watt lectures in forensic speech science at the University of York. Carmen Llamas lectures in sociolinguistics at the University of York.

From the Back Cover

A wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary discussion of the connections between language, borders and identities. Drawing on a broad, geographically diverse spectrum of studies of language use and attitudes in a variety of border contexts, Language, Borders and Identity takes an integrative interdisciplinary approach by combining sociolinguistic research with insights and investigative techniques from human geography, anthropology and social psychology. The book illustrates a range of methodological approaches used by researchers in the field and examines socio-psychological and symbolic borders alongside the political borders that divide monoglossic and heteroglossic territories. Using international case studies and examples throughout, this book also looks to symbolic borders, which may be encoded via the semiotic manipulation of the linguistic landscape. It further assesses the linguistic implications of the presence of borders in applied contexts, including language planning and policy (e.g. in multilingual education or for the protection of minority languages) and the role of linguistic behaviour in the enforcement of border controls. Language, Borders and Identity develops and refines models of how language is used to construct borders, and how it serves to index how speakers place themselves with respect to these boundaries. Through exploration of the tensions between essentialist and constructionist approaches to identity, this book brings into focus the dual reactive and proactive functions that language fulfils in this respect, and offers a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Dominic Watt is Senior Lecturer in Forensic Speech Science at the University of York, UK. Carmen Llamas is Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of York, UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0748669779
• ISBN 13: 9780748669776
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288