Week 7—Between a nation and a speech community

Week 7—Between a nation and a speech community

Main reading: Zentella (2003)

Other reading: Haviland (2003); Urciuoli (1991); Woolard (1989)

We continue to examine the social consequences of an ideology that valorizes monoglot standard language.

Every society will have a significant number of people who are multilingual and who need to switch among different languages and ways of speaking in the course of their everyday routines. They also look like a problem in the perspective of a monoglot standard linguistic ideology. How should we interpret the presence of multiple languages and codes in everyday life?

References

Haviland, John B. 2003. “Ideologies of Language: Some Reflections on Language and U.S. Law.” American Anthropologist 105 (4): 764–74. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.4.764.

Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1991. “The Political Topography of Spanish and English: The View from a New York Puerto Rican Neighborhood.” American Ethnologist 18 (2): 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1991.18.2.02a00060.

Woolard, Kathryn A. 1989. “Sentences in the Language Prison: The Rhetorical Structuring of an American Language Policy Debate.” American Ethnologist 16 (2): 268–78. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00050.

Zentella, Ana Celia. 2003. “‘José, Can You See?’: Latin@ Responses to Racist Discourse.” In Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations, edited by Doris Sommer, 51–66. New Directions in Latino American Cultures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982704_4.