Bilingualism

• Everybody knows what bilingual means; yet…as soon as we start trying to define the concept precisely, things get very complicated. This is not just hair splitting: if bilingualism is complex, it is because it is directly related to complex issues (Riley, 1986: 31).

Four Questions

• What is a bilingual society?

• Where are they found?

• What are the functions of and attitudes toward languages in bilingual societies?

• What are some bilingual strategies?

What is bilingualism?

No one speaks the whole of a language

• ‘Stubs to can wall penetration welds’ are?

• ‘Injury and tort’

• A ‘treble top’

The fact that we cannot compare the same individual’s abilities in two different

languages is central to our discussion of bilingualism

• Recognizing languages as different tools

• There are many definitions • None is satisfactory

One• The mastery of two or more languages—

bilingualism or multilingualism—is a special skill. Bilingualism and multilingualism are relative terms since individuals vary greatly in types and degrees of language proficiency (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1965).

Two

• Bilingualism is native-like control of two languages…Of course, one cannot define a degree of perfection at which a good foreign speaker becomes a bilingual: the distinction is relative (L. Bloomfield, 1933).

Three

• Bilingualism is understood…to begin at the point where the speaker of one language can produce complete, meaningful utterances in the other language (E. Haugen, 1953)

Two Issues

• Bilingual individuals are part of a society--contact between speakers

• The relative nature of bilingualism--degrees of bilingualism

Relative competence versus relative use.

• He speaks Swedish and Italian equally well.

Versus

• He speaks Swedish and Italian everyday.

Where can we find bilingual societies?

• Where there is contact between linguistic groups: ---political, economic (Examples: Mexico, USA)

• Historical and political changes:---changing borders, (example: Alsace, France)

• Widespread bilingualism: Swahili, Tanzania

Monolingual and bilingual countries

• Half the population• Contradicts unilingualism absolute link to

national and individual identity• Official bilingualism does not indicate high

percentage of bilinguals and vise versa.• Examples: France and Tanzania versus

Canada and Belgian

What are the functions of and attitudes toward languages in

bilingual societies?

• Diaglossia: (Ferguson , 1959) Refers to circumstances where each language is systematically employed in certain domains and events.

--- high form and low form ----urban (Madina, Ghana) or rural (New

Guinea) ---trades and occupations

Example of Diaglossia: Paraguay

• Two languages spoken: Spanish and Guarani

• Choice of language determined by context

Joan Rubin’s four contextual factors:

1. Location of interaction

2. Degree of formality

3. Degree of intimacy

4. Seriousness of discourse

Decline of Indigenous languages in bilingual communities

Chorti Maya (Mexico)

• Proximity to dominant language

• Political and economic factors

• Upward social mobility

Language and historical events:

• Which historical events have contributed to the disappearance of north American Indigenous languages?

• Language transformation, changes in attitudes and practices, adjusting to other languages, overtime language shifts

Power struggles and language death

• Equally in multicultural as well as in small-scale societies (Australia versus Yimas village)

• Example one: Hungarian language in Austria

---peasant life versus modern life ---positive versus negative social meanings

Strategies utilized by Bilinguals

• Code switching and code mixing

• Code switching: When bilinguals integrate linguistic resources from two languages within the same discourse segment, this strategy has a number of linguistic and interactional functions

Code Switching: integration of linguistic resources from two languages

within the same segment

• to express a more precise meaning--i.e.Mohawk:“Then I woke up Sunday Morning.”“She turned sixty-five in July.”

• to compensate for memory lapses. I.e. Necesito un string para la kite (I need a string for the kite)

As an attention-getting deviceNow let me do it. Put your feet

down. Mira

To express social valueSociety hii aisii hai

“The society is like that.”

Code Mixing

• Is a linguistic process that incorporates material from a second language in a base language: morphological markers.

To watch TV: Watchando Television

Language Death

• Typically based on economic and political imperatives

• Historical reasons: overwhelming forces• Central American case: colonialism and

conquest• Assimilative policies: North America and

Australia

Language death among the Arapaho

• English associated with power

• Bilingualism becomes an asset

• Bilingualism gives way to monolingualism

• Indigenous language loses prestige

Other reasons for language death

• Being outnumbered: Normandy, Hungarian speakers of Austria

• Negative attitudes towards local languages

Tiwa opposite example• Immigration• Cultural imperialism; mass media, Hollywood

Summary

• Bilingualism is difficult to define ----depending of the purpose of the particular

language use• More than half of the population is bilingual ---monolingualism versus bilingualism• The functions of and attitudes of languages in

depend on social contexts ---diaglossia: High and low form: depend on

context

Discussion Question

• What do you think is the future of most languages in the world? What can we do to prevent the death of these languages.