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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 613

Part of Session 181: Folk linguistics and society (Other abstracts in this session)

Metalinguistic comments in Eurovision Song Contest press conferences

Authors: Motschenbacher, Heiko
Submitted by: Motschenbacher, Heiko (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)

This paper takes a folk-linguistic view at metalinguistic comments on language choice practices in a context of high European salience: Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) press conferences. The term "metalanguage" is used in a number of ways in the linguistic literature and has figured prominently in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics (e.g. Berry 2005, Cameron 2004, Jaworski, Coupland & Galasiński 2004). What is of interest for the present study, however, is the narrower definition of the term in the sense of linguistic practices with which speakers comment on language in an overt and conscious fashion. This kind of metalanguage has been called "metalanguage 1" by Niedzielski and Preston (2000), who contrast it with more covert and unconscious forms of making comments about language such as presuppositions ("metalanguage 2"). As the people talking about language are in many instances not linguists, "metalanguage 1" is closely related to discussions of what has been termed folk linguistics (e.g. Niedzielski & Preston 2000, Preston 2004, Wilton & Stegu 2011). Systematically studying contexts in which speakers make conscious comments about linguistic choices enables the analyst to make statements about shared beliefs concerning linguistic practices in the community at hand (Niedzielski & Preston 2000: 314). 
    The data analysed were collected at the ESC 2010 in Oslo and represent interactions mainly between non-native speakers of English from all across Europe. In this context, participants are found to frequently comment on the use of particular languages. More specifically, one can find comments on language choice during the press conference, language choice in musical performances, English language proficiency, other foreign language skills and accents. Participants also exhibit a traditional "language equals nation" discourse in their talk. The language choice practices reported on will further be related to the participants' actual linguistic behaviour in the press conferences and on the ESC stage. It turns out that there is a competition of discourses about what are deemed appropriate language choice strategies for Europeans. Still there is growing evidence for a conceptualisation of English as a European lingua franca that is less tied to normative notions of nativeness (cf. Jenkins 2007, Seidlhofer 2010).

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