Sociolinguistics - Lecture 2

Dimensions of Multilingualism

• social vs individual

• productive vs receptive

• primary vs secondary

• additive vs subtractive

• stable vs dynamic

• indigenous vs immigrant

Social Multilingualism

motivations:

• population movements

• shifting political boundaries

• exogamy

social multilingualism doesn’t imply multilingualism at the individual level

Individual Multilingualism

motivations:

• growing up in a multilingual home

• acquiring one language at home while another in the broader community

• formal (or casual) language education later in life; immersion programs

• moving to a new country/region

benefits:

• cognitive capabilities

• identity construction and expression

• cultural and symbolic capital

• affords social mobility

Country Level Multilingualism

the number of official languages is not a good indicator, there are many different versions

• fully multilingual

• overlapping multilingualism

• mix of both (most realistic)

Defining Bilingualism - Bloomfield

• anyone with "native-like" control of two languages

• balanced bilinguals

• uses the L1 and L2 natively

Defining Bilingualism - Edwards

• anyone who can say or understand anything in more than one language

• some level of knowledge in both languages

• probably the entire population

Monolingual Bias

the belief that monolingualism is natural; homogeneity leads to stronger cohesion

in reality multilingualism is the norm

Productive vs Receptive

related to ability in the languages

productive: the ability to produce (speaking or signing) more than one language

receptive: some 'passive' capability in one of the languages

Primary vs Secondary

related to how you learned the languages

primary: both languages are picked up naturally from social surroundings

secondary: one language is learned through formal education or immersion programs

Additive vs Subtractive

related to retention of language

additive: individual (or group) retains all and full knowledge and sue of L1 as they learn L2

subtractive: a new language comes in at the gradual expense of others

additive is common for adult immigrants, subtractive is common to children of immigrants

Stable vs Dynamic - Individual

stable: knowledge of L1 and L2 stays the same over time

dynamic: knowledge changes through the lifespan

Stable vs Dynamic - Society

stable: the use and distribution of languages are unchanged in a society

dynamic: the use and distribution of languages changes over time (language shift)

Language Shift

when the use of a language is dynamic at the societal level - changes over time

Indigenous vs Immigrant

indigenous: languages that arrived with the people(s) who first came to the land and lived there permanently

immigrant: languages of later arrivals

Heritage Language

a language that someone speaks because it is a legacy of their family background

Studying Multilingualism Approaches

three main approaches

• sociology of language

• ethnolinguistic vitality

• critical-constructivist approaches

Sociology of Language

trying to diagnose social issues through how people use language(s) → micro

goal: better understand social issues through the lens of language (more sociology-oriented than linguistics)

focus: how languages operate in societies – relative status and standing, their functions, social distributions

unit(s) of analysis: researchers study entire languages of large-scale groups (nations, ethnicities)

methods: researchers typically rely on large-scale survey questions

Ethnolinguistic Vitality

An approach to investigating the links between language and ethnic/racial/cultural background → micro

goal: evaluate the vitality (health) of a language

focus: predicting how languages will survive, shift, or be transmitted

unit(s) of analysis: researches study entire languages of multilinguals

methods: researchers make use of both objective and subjective measures

Objective Measures of Vitality

status

• higher status → stronger vitality → greater likelihood of survival

• how prestigious is the linguistic group in the community

demography

• higher population size → stronger vitality → greater likelihood of survival

• population size, birth rates, rates of migration

institutional support

• more support → stronger vitality → greater likelihood of survival

• is the language used in school, in courtrooms, in signages

• does the language have government funding and support

Critical-Constructivist Approaches

takes on a critical lens and questions whether languages are truly separate entities in practice → macro

goal: understand how and why multilinguals use their different languages as resources to achieve social goals (shift in focus from languages to language users)

focus: the overall linguistic practices of multilinguals (individual or groups) in a given interaction, discourse, context

unit(s) of analysis: researchers study entire languages and their interaction (ex. code switching) within particular interactional contexts

methods: researchers rely on ethnographic methods, observations of interactions, and language ideologies

Canada Languages - Official

English; French

• only 18% of Canadians can converse in both

• more Anglophones than Francophones

• multilingualism is one-sided

Canada Languages - Indigenous

more than 70 indigenous languages

• three with wide-spread use, rest endangered

  • Cree

  • Ojibwe

  • Inuktitut

• signs of improvement but still a long way to go

Canada Languages - Heritage 

while the use of indigenous language declines, the use of heritage languages is increasing

Canada Language Trends

• most use one of two official languages

• most users of indigenous/heritage/French are multilingual

• less identity split between Anglophones and Francophones

• rise of French use among heritage users in Quebec

Canada Indigenous Language Trends

• very small number of people who identify as indigenous and use indigenous languages more than English/French

• vast majority of Indigenous languages are endangered

• lot of Canada's history is stories told by white settlers and people who had access to power

• there is increasing awareness and acknowledgment of Indigenous perspectives