Sociolinguistics
Bi- and Multilingualism
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger
Content
1. What is Bi- and Multilingualism?
1.1 A definition.
2. Some general Aspects.
2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages
3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
3.1 Daily life
3.2 Speech communities
3.3 Where do Bi- and Multilingualism come from?
4.What does is mean to speak or learn two languages?
4.1 Cognitive Developement
4.2 The problem of code-switching
5. Sources
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger
1. What is Bi- and Multilingualism?
1.1 A definition (from Michael Clyne)
The term “multilingualism“ can refer to:
o the language use
o The competence of an individual
o The language situation in a whole nation or society
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1. What is Bi- and Multilingualism?
o but at the individual level it is called
“bilingualism“
o more bilinguals than monolinguals in the
world
o but not so many people using more than
two languages regularly
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2. Some general Aspects
2.1 Advantages
Disadvantages
o In contact with other cultures
o Get the chance to learn other
o Can lead to conflicts between
o
o
o
o
languages
Bi- or multilinguals can
communicate much easier with
other nations
More variety
Two or more ways of looking
at things
Keeps you mentally agile
cultures
o Misunderstandings because of
different languages
o Code-switching (mix up
languages)
o Speakers of the same
languages may find themselves
“distanced“ by deep cultural
gaps
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
3.1 Daily life
Bilingualism in Canada
Multilingualism in Canada
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
Multilingualism in a Hair Salon
in Somerville (Massachusetts)
Bilingualism in Cameroon
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
3.2 Speech communities
Definition from Labov: (made a study about East Side New
York)
“The speech community is not defined by any marked agreement in the
use of languages elements, so much as by participation in a set of
shared norms; these norms may be obsereved in overt types of
eveluative behaviour, and by the uniformity of abstract patterns of
variation which are invariant in respect to particular levels of usage:“
 This means:
o speakers don´t have to agree about the same language
o they use or speak in the same way
o have to be in agreement in evaluative norms to understand each
other
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
Definition from Saville-Troike (2003; 15)
“the essential criterion for `community`is that some
significant dimension of experience has to be shared, and
for the `speech community` that the shared dimension be
related to ways in which members of the group use, value
or interpret language.“
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger
3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
-goes on with a informal typology of speech communities
`Hard shelled`
- strong bounderies
- allows minimal inter-
&
action between outsiders
and members of the s.c.
- serves to preserve the norms
of language and culture
`Soft shelled`
- much weaker bounderies
- less likely to preserve
existing language and
culture
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
Some speech communities in the world
o
o
o
o
Berlin Kreuzberg (Turkish speech communities)
Mannheim (Turkish speech communities)
China Town, e.g. in New York
Spanish speech communities in Florida
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3. Where do we find Bi- and Multilingualism?
3.3 Where do Bi- and Multilingualism come from?
o
o
o
o
o
immigration
ousting and expulsion
political persecution
developement of languages
spreading of languages
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
4.1 Cognitive development:
Definition:
Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes
including remembering, problem solving and decision making, from
childhood through adolescence to adulthood.
2 cognitive processes:
1. Analysis of representation:
- process of constructing mental representations
- knowledge around abstract categories and details
- representational redescription as primary mechanism of development
- with development  increasing mental representation in their
explicitness, organization and abstractness
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
2. control of attention:
- process with attention to specific aspects of a
representation
- problem solving requires intentional focus on some
types of information and the exclusion of others
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
4.1 The problem of code-switching
A definition:
o a common feature of the speech of bilinguals
o
where a speaker changes from one language to
another during a conversation with another
bilingual from the same language background
used in many parts of the world in situations of
native bi- and multilingualism (Africa, India),
immigration (Europe, USA), and regional
minorities
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger
4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
There is a distinction between:
SITUATIONAL Code-switching:
o Changes in language choice
o Refers to language switches
CONVERSATIONAL Code-switching:
o it is motivated by factors within the conversation itself
o Subdivision: metaphorical code-switching
a switch carries a particular purpose
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
Models of code-switching:
matrix language
o determines the fundamental form of a code-switched
utterance
embedded language
o contributes specific elements
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
Code-switching and language structure:
o 84% of switches within the sentence are isolated words
o 10% are phrases
o 6% are switches for whole clauses
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
There are 2 main restrictions:
1. The 'free morpheme constraint':
o The speaker must not switch language between a
word and its endings unless the word is pronounced as
if it were in the language of the ending
o  “runeando“ impossible
o  “flipeando“ possible
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4.What does it mean to speak or learn two
languages?
2. The 'equivalence constraint':
o The switch at a point in the sentence where not
Violating the grammer
o  so no French-English switches as “a car Americaine“
or “une American voiture“
o  possible is the French-English switch “J´ai acheté an
American car“
 shares the construction object follows verb
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4.What does is mean to speak or learn two
languages?
Examples:
1. English-French: Je vais faire checker ma voiture
- checker for verifier
- -er Infinitive sign in French
2. Hindi-English: Maine bahnt bardas kiya hai but
now it´s getting too much
3. French-English: Maman, j´ai envie de faire pipi
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5. Sources
 Edwards, John (1994) Multilingualism (New York: Routledge London
and New York)
 Bolton, Kingsley and Kwok, Helen (1992) Sociolinguistics Today,
International Perspektives (New York: Routledge London and New
York)
 Myers-Scotton, C. (1993) Duelling languages: grammatical structure
in code-switching (Oxford)
 Bialystok, Ellen (1991) Language Processing in bilingual Children
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
 Coulmas, Florian (1997) the handbook of sociolinguistics
(Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher inc.)
 Coupland, N. and Jaworski, A. (1997) Sociolinguistics: a reader and
course book (London: Macmillian Press Ltd.)
 Llamas, C., Mullany, L. & Stockwell, P. (2007) The Routledge
Companion to Sociolinguistics. (London: Routledge)
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger
5. Sources
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual
Picture sources
 www.fonlon.org/fonlon_and_bilingualism/index.html
 www.petfoodcookbook.com/factsheet.php?title=Bilingualism_in_Canada
 http://wiki.elearning.ubc.ca/Multilingualism
 http://ase.tufts.edu/anthropology/faculty/pacini/students/lexcc/somervill
e.htm
 www.waece.org/linksnuevosespana/IndexINGLES.php
C. Hüppe and C. Schwerdtfeger