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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 652

Part of Session 105: Language and Superdiversity (Other abstracts in this session)

Aspects of Poly-languaging in Superdiversity

Authors: Jørgensen, J. Normann (1); Møller, Janus Spindler (2)
Submitted by: jørgensen, j. normann (university of copenhagen, Denmark)

Humankind is a languaging species. Human beings use language to achieve their goals, and with a few exceptions by using language to other human beings. It is a widely held view that language as a human phenomenon can be separated into different “languages”, such as “Russian”, “Latin”, and “Greenlandic”. This paper is based on the recently developed sociolinguistic understanding that this view of language cannot be upheld on the basis of linguistic criteria. “Languages” are sociocultural, or ideological, abstractions which match real-life use of language poorly. This means that sociolinguistics must apply another level of analysis with observed language use. The first part of our paper is based on analyses of observed language use among young languagers in superdiverse societies. Our data are to a large extent collected in the so-called Amager project (Madsen et al. 2010), but the examples are representative of youth linguistic practices as they have been reported from a range of European sites over the past few decades (such as Rampton 1995, Møller 2009, Jørgensen 2010). We show that the level of feature is better suited as the basis for analysis of language use than the level of language. In the second part of the paper we present our concept of languaging, in particular polylanguaging. We use the level of (linguistic) features as the basis for understanding language use, and we claim that features are socioculturally associated with “languages”. Both features individually and languages are socioculturally associated with values, meanings, speakers, etc. This means that we can deal with the connection between features and languages. In the paper we do so.

References

Jørgensen, J. Normann (2010): Languaging. Nine Years of poly-lingual development of young Turkish-danish grade school students, volume I-II. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, the Køge Series, Volume K15-K16. University of Copenhagen.

Madsen, Lian Malai, Janus Spindler Møller & J. Normann Jørgensen (2010): "Street Language" and "Integrated": Langauge Use and Enregisterment among Late Modern Urban Girls. In: Ideological Constructions and Enregisterment of Linguistic Youth Styles. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism Volume 55. University of Copenhagen, 81-113.

Møller, Janus Spindler (2009): Poly-lingual interaction across childhood, youth and adulthood. University of Copenhagen.

Rampton, Ben (1995): Crossing: language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents. London: Longman.