Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe

Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe PDF Author: J. Carl
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230241662
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Central Europe has always been a highly multilingual region but how has this been affected by the social and political transformations of the last 20 years? The German language in particular has long played a key role in processes of identification here: but what role is the relationship between German and other languages playing today in the reshaping of societies and communities in this rapidly changing region? How is this relationship articulated in discourses on language and language ideologies? How is it manifested in individual repertoires and social practices? How is it determined by social and cultural policies? How is it exploited in the construction of European identities? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book, in which individual studies explore language practices in the multilingual contact zones of central Europe and the impact of both past and present migrations. Analysing a wide range of sources from media texts to language biographies and from business meetings to salsa classes, the authors demonstrate the local effects of global processes and some of the many ways in which language figures in contemporary social change.

Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe

Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe PDF Author: J. Carl
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230241662
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
Central Europe has always been a highly multilingual region but how has this been affected by the social and political transformations of the last 20 years? The German language in particular has long played a key role in processes of identification here: but what role is the relationship between German and other languages playing today in the reshaping of societies and communities in this rapidly changing region? How is this relationship articulated in discourses on language and language ideologies? How is it manifested in individual repertoires and social practices? How is it determined by social and cultural policies? How is it exploited in the construction of European identities? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book, in which individual studies explore language practices in the multilingual contact zones of central Europe and the impact of both past and present migrations. Analysing a wide range of sources from media texts to language biographies and from business meetings to salsa classes, the authors demonstrate the local effects of global processes and some of the many ways in which language figures in contemporary social change.

Language and Social Change in Central Europe

Language and Social Change in Central Europe PDF Author: Patrick Stevenson
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748635998
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe in the context of the end of the Cold War and eastern expansion of the European Union. One outcome of the profound social transformations in central Europe since the Second World War has been the reshaping of the relationship between particular languages and linguistic varieties, especially between 'national' languages and regional or ethnic minority languages. Previous studies have investigated these transformed relationships from the macro perspective of language policies, while others have taken more fine-grained approaches to individual experiences with language. Combining these two perspectives for the first time--and focusing on the German language, which has a uniquely complex and problematic history in the region--the authors offer an understanding of the complex constellation of language politics in central Europe. Stevenson and Carl's analysis draws on a range of theoretical, conceptual and analytical approaches - language ideologies, language policy, positioning theory, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and life histories - and a wide range of data sources, from European and national language policies to individual language biographies. The authors demonstrate how the relationship between German and other languages has played a crucial role in the politics of language and processes of identity formation in the recent history of central Europe.

European Identities in Discourse

European Identities in Discourse PDF Author: Franco Zappettini
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350042994
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Based on empirical research, this book closely analyses how European identities are discursively produced. It focuses on discourse from members of a civic association active in promoting democracy and attempting participation in the transnational public sphere. Unlike previous books that have addressed the question of European identity from top-down stances or through methodological nationalism, this book engages with the multifaceted concept of transnationalism as a key to the negotiation of 'glocal' identities. Applying a discourse historical approach (DHA) through a transnational reading, it shows how grassroots actors/speakers construct their different cultural and political affiliations as both world and European citizens. They negotiate institutional identities and historical discourses of nationhood through new forms of mobility, cultural diversity and the imagination of Europe as a proxy for a cosmopolitan civil society. These discourses are ever more important in a fractured and polarised Europe falling prey to contrary discourses of nationhood and ethnic solidarity. Highlighting how transnational narratives of solidarity and the de-territorialisation of civic participation can impact on the (re)imagination of the European community beyond tropes like 'Fortress Europe' or intragovernmental politics, this important book shows how identification processes must be read through historical and global as well as localised contexts.

Political Discourse in Central, Eastern and Balkan Europe

Political Discourse in Central, Eastern and Balkan Europe PDF Author: Martina Berrocal
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027262225
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This edited volume offers new insights into contemporary political discourses in Slavic speaking countries by focusing on discursive and linguistic means deployed in relevant genres, such as parliamentary discourse, commemorative and presidential speeches, mediated communication, and literal and philosophical essays. The depth of the linguistic analysis reflects different levels of linkage between language and social practice constituting the discourse. The theoretical and methodological approaches discussed range from interactional pragmatics over corpus linguistics to CDA. The chapters contain original language material in Russian, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian, and the authors address issues such as the affiliation to different political and social groups within parliamentary settings, national identity, gender and minorities, as well as cultural memory and reconciliation.

Multilingual Encounters in Europe's Institutional Spaces

Multilingual Encounters in Europe's Institutional Spaces PDF Author: Johann W. Unger
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441144846
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Multilingual encounters have been commonplace in many types of institutions, and have become an essential part of supranational institutions such as the EU since their inception. This volume explores and discusses different ways of researching the discursive dimension of these encounters, and critically examines their relevance to policy, politics and society as a whole. This includes institutions at the local, regional and supranational level. Multilingualism in institutions is currently often seen as an obstacle rather than an opportunity, at least with respect to European public and private spheres. The volume asks: - exactly how is multilingualism conceptualized and talked about in different institutions? - how do different institutions 'deal' with multilingualism, both internally and externally? - what are the policy making rules and challenges for the future for various institutions with respect to multilingualism?

Exploring the Dynamics of Multilingualism

Exploring the Dynamics of Multilingualism PDF Author: Anne-Claude Berthoud
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027271372
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This book addresses the meanings and implications of multilingualism and its uses in a context of rapid changes, in Europe and around the world. All types of organisations, including the political institutions of the European Union, universities and private-sector companies must rise to the many challenges posed by operating in a multilingual environment. This requires them, in particular, to make the best use of speakers’ very diverse linguistic repertoires. The contributions in this volume, which stem from the DYLAN research project financed by the European Commission as part of its Sixth Framework Programme, examine at close range how these repertoires develop, how they change and how actors adapt skilfully the use of their repertoires to different objectives and conditions. These different strategies are also examined in terms of their capacity to ensure efficient and fair communication in a multilingual Europe. Careful observation of actors’ multilingual practices reveals finely tuned communicational strategies drawing on a wide range of different languages, including national languages, minority languages and lingue franche. Understanding these practices, their meaning and their implications, helps to show in what way and under what conditions they are not merely a response to a problem, but an asset for political institutions, universities and business.

Discourse and Identity

Discourse and Identity PDF Author: Anna De Fina
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107320607
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation. In more recent times, the field has been revolutionized as previous models - which assumed our identities to be based on stable relationships between linguistic and social variables - have been challenged by pioneering new approaches to the topic. This volume brings together a team of leading experts to explore discourse in a range of social contexts. By applying a variety of analytical tools and concepts, the contributors show how we build images of ourselves through language, how society moulds us into different categories, and how we negotiate our membership of those categories. Drawing on numerous interactional settings (the workplace; medical interviews; education), in a variety of genres (narrative; conversation; interviews), and amongst different communities (immigrants; patients; adolescents; teachers), this revealing volume sheds light on how our social practices can help to shape our identities.

Language, Space and Identity in Migration

Language, Space and Identity in Migration PDF Author: G. Liebscher
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137316438
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This book explores both theoretical and practical issues of language use in a migration context, using data from a German urban immigrant community in Canada. Through this transcontinental perspective, the book makes a new contribution to the literature on both language and identity and language and globalization.

Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies

Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies PDF Author: Christopher Hart
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472527046
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
CDS is a multifarious field constantly developing different methodological frameworks for analysing dynamically evolving aspects of language in a broad range of socio-political and institutional contexts. This volume is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary account of these theoretical and empirical developments. It presents an up-to-date survey of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), covering both the theoretical landscape and the analytical territories that it extends over. It is intended for critical scholars and students who wish to keep abreast of the current state of the art. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, the chapters are organised around different methodological perspectives for CDS (history, cognition, multimodality and corpora, among others). In the second part, the chapters are organised around particular discourse types and topics investigated in CDS, both traditionally (e.g. issues of racism and gender inequality) and only more recently (e.g. issues of health, public policy, and the environment). This is, altogether, an essential new reference work for all CDS practitioners.

The Languages and Linguistics of Europe

The Languages and Linguistics of Europe PDF Author: Bernd Kortmann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110220261
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 934

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Book Description
Open publicationThe Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide is part of the multi-volume reference work on the languages and linguistics of the continents of the world. The book supplies profiles of the language families of Europe, including the sign languages. It also discusses the areal typology, paying attention to the Standard Average European, Balkan, Baltic and Mediterranean convergence areas. Separate chapters deal with the old and new minority languages and with non-standard varieties. A major focus is language politics and policies, including discussions of the special status of English, the relation between language and the church, language and the school, and standardization. The history of European linguistics is another focus as is the history of multilingual European 'empires' and their dissolution. The volume is especially geared towards a graduate and advanced undergraduate readership. It has been designed such that it can be used, as a whole or in parts, as a textbook, the first of its kind, for graduate programmes with a focus on the linguistic (and linguistics) landscape of Europe.