As a discipline, the study of Biblical Hebrew grammar began largely among Arabic-speaking Jews of the Middle Ages, particularly in the ʿAbbasid period (750–1258 CE). Indeed, it has long been ...acknowledged by scholars that the Hebrew grammatical tradition, in many ways, grew up out of and alongside the Arabic grammatical tradition. Many concepts present in Hebrew grammar have their origins in the writings of Arabic grammarians of the ʿAbbasid period. And yet, as recent linguistic and anthropological work has shown, setting down ‘the grammar’ of a language can be as much an ideological or political activity as an academic one. In addition to the language itself, speech communities also share beliefs and attitudes about that language—what linguistic anthropologists would term a ‘language ideology’. Language ideology can have a dramatic impact on what forms of the language one regards as acceptable and what sort of rules one imposes on and through their description of the language. Nevertheless, while much work has been done on the interface between Hebrew and Arabic grammar and literature in the Middle Ages, interface of their respective language ideologies has yet to be treated theoretically or systematically. In the present book, then, we survey six specific characteristics of a ‘standard language ideology’ that appear in both the writings of the Hebrew grammarians who wrote in Judeo-Arabic and the Arabic grammarians during the ʿAbbasid period. Such striking lines of linguistic-ideological similarity suggest that it may not have been only grammatical concepts or literary genres that the medieval Hebrew grammarians inherited from the Arabic grammatical tradition, but a way of thinking about language as well.
This study examines a prevalent discourse on Taiwanese politeness as part and parcel of identity and ideological work among Taiwanese residing in China. Using as data spontaneous discussions about ...politeness in interviews and online forum posts that evaluate politeness, this study explores how politeness is taken up as a sign to index Taiwan–China differences and how identity is simultaneously constructed throughout this ideological work, focusing on the succession of semiotic differentiations within or across talks and texts. Throughout this process, various qualitative contrasts are made and grouped by the soft/hard schema, and differentiation between Taiwan and China is constructed. The study also considers relevant historical and social conditions and explores how the complex Taiwan–China relations may give rise to the prevalence of such a discourse.
摘要
此研究探討「禮貌」的相關討論, 如何成為建構群體認同和區分你我的過程的一部份。以居住於中國大陸的台灣人之訪談及網路論壇討論中, 關於「禮貌」的討論為語料, 此研究探討「禮貌」如何成為代表兩地語言文化差異的符號。在評價討論「禮貌」之時, 以「軟」「硬」為區分主軸, 層層堆疊的符號關係, 連結了語言和非語言的各種現象與特質, 也同時建構認同, 形塑語言意識形態。此研究同時也探究了台灣與中國兩地的社會及歷史因素如何影響「禮貌」相關討論。
Although the literature suggests that multilingual augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions hold benefits for children from multilingual backgrounds, there is little guidance on ...how such interventions can be implemented. While various barriers to this process have been noted, language ideology has not received much attention in the AAC literature. This paper aims to highlight multilingualism as both a linguistic and a sociopolitical phenomenon. An awareness of the influence of language ideology on AAC practice may lead to more considered and reflective approaches when supporting multilingual clients and their families. A description of the multilingual experience is followed by a discussion of language ideologies and views of multilingualism and how these may translate into AAC practices. Through a series of questions, AAC practitioners are encouraged to reflect on the influence of language ideology on their practices. The influence of language ideology on the legal and policy context, service models, and family language practices and choices is then explored. By situating AAC interventions for children from multilingual backgrounds within a macrosystemic and ideological framework, researchers and practitioners may be able to identify not just constraints on but also opportunities for providing person- and family-centered intervention.
Ideophones (also known as expressives, mimetics or onomatopoeia) have been systematically studied in linguistics since the 1850s, when they were first described as a lexical class of vivid sensory ...words in West-African languages. This paper surveys the research history of ideophones, from its roots in African linguistics to its fruits in language description and linguistic theory around the globe. It shows that despite a recurrent narrative of marginalization, scholars working on ideophones have made important advances in our understanding of sensory language, iconicity, lexical typology, and morphosyntax. Due to their dual nature as vocal gestures that grow roots in linguistic systems, ideophones provide opportunities to reframe typological questions, reconsider the role of language ideology in linguistic scholarship, and rethink the margins of language. With ideophones increasingly being brought into the fold of the language sciences, this review synthesizes past theoretical insights and empirical findings in order to enable future work to build on them.
The author situates language education policy and scholarship on Academic English within the broader historical context of standard language ideology, the view that the language variety of ...socio-economic elites is intrinsically more complex than other varieties. It is argued that the current predominant focus on the nature of school language gives the impression that school language alone can express complex ideas or use complex grammar, leaving little conceptual space for leveraging children’s home language varieties. The author calls for a return to historical commitments to an asset-based approach to school and home language differences in mainstream language education research.
Studies on Brunei Malay have made inconsistent findings: while some have asserted that this variety is thriving and is in no way endangered, others have found that its use is now waning. As the ...dynamics of family speech can inform what is happening linguistically at the community level, this study seeks to investigate the family language policies of the Brunei Malays by assessing parents' language ideologies, practices and management strategies. This is done via a survey involving 178 ethnically Malay parents. The overall results paint an unpromising picture of the future of Brunei Malay, shaped by the parents' weak beliefs on this Malay variety, and defined further by their home language practices and management strategies. The majority of the Brunei Malay families are bilingual, but English features prominently in most investigated items. The findings reveal that the parents are motivated to maintain Brunei Malay but have little confidence in their abilities to pass down the home language to their children. That a majority agrees for the introduction of lessons on Brunei Malay in schools is an indicator that the home domain is no longer adequate for the maintenance of this Malay variety.
It is now some decades since the study of “linguistic ideology” was first proposed (Silverstein 1979), and the time is ripe for taking stock. This article considers some developments in this field as ...it has emerged and, in some respects, become normalized. Yet, normalized can mean backgrounded, taken for granted—perhaps obscuring important theoretical issues and methodological challenges. I revisit what is entailed by “ideology”; the debate between explicit and implicit sources of evidence (and why this binary is itself problematic); issues of ideological multiplicity and dominance; and questions such as: Must ideology be internally consistent? Why turn to semiotics, and should “language ideology” then be re‐labeled “semiotic ideology”? Are ideologies big programs, distinct from local metapragmatic activity? I address these questions while making methodological recommendations about research sites, contrasts and boundaries, attention to flows and connections, and a “centerpiece” method for tracing ideological work. An extended example concerning sociolinguistic variation in Maryland illustrates the discussion.
This paper, using the case of South Korea, empirically examines how university students in EFL countries understand the neoliberal emphasis of English and EMI, and interpret and respond to different ...language ideologies. The findings demonstrate that many South Korean English language learners are caught up in a nexus of conflicting language ideologies influenced by the neoliberal promotion of English and the increasing socioeconomic polarization within South Korea. On the one hand, their investment in English language learning is largely driven by the belief that English is essential for their socioeconomic advancement. On the other hand, many perceive that the role of English as an important resource and a major criterion to measure one's academic and professional abilities is not objective or fair. Finding calls for a more critical approach to understanding the adoption and implementation of EMI in higher education.
With the relentless internationalization and marketization of higher education in the past decades, English has been increasingly adopted as a medium of instruction at universities across the world. ...Recent research, however, has shown that despite its various optimistically envisioned goals, English-medium instruction (EMI) is not without problems in practice. This article reports a case study of an EMI Business Administration program for undergraduate students at a major university of finance and economy in mainland China. Informed by Spolsky's language policy framework, the study made a critical analysis of national/institutional policy statements and interviews with professors and students to uncover EMI-related language ideologies, language practices, and language management mechanisms. Findings evinced a complex interplay of these three constitutive components of language policy in the focal EMI program and revealed considerable misalignment between policy intentions and actual practices in the classroom. These findings raise concerns about the quality and consequences of EMI in Chinese higher education. The article concludes with recommendations for further research on EMI policies and practices in China. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).
Spanish is the second most populous language in the United States, which makes the United States the third largest Spanish speaking country in the world. However, throughout the history of the ...southwestern United States, language, as a major factor in cultural rights and the representation of bilingual state governments, is a controversial issue. These issues often cause social and cultural “conflicts” between English speakers and Spanish speakers. In a “white supremacy” racial society like the United States, although there are a large number of Spanish speakers, the racial discrimination against Spanish speakers is inevitable. Based on the sociological points, the use of Spanish is not only influenced by the current social factors in the United States, but also hindered by the rule of racism and colonialism in the United States for a long time.
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