The French Language And Questions Of Identity

Download or read book The French Language and Questions of Identity written by Wendy Ayres-Bennett and published by MHRA. This book was released on 2007 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our choice of linguistic code is one of the most fundamental ways open to us of establishing our membership of some groups and our distance from others. This symbolic value of language may often leave it open to exploitation, especially by the state. The present volume demonstrates how the multi-faceted nature of the concept of identity makes its relationship with language both complex and unpredictable. Because of its particular historical and social characteristics, the French language provides especially fertile territory for the exploration of this theme. Four main axes stand out in the French context: 'institutionalised' identity, regional identity, social identity and competing identities. These themes are explored from different perspectives by leading experts from Britain, Europe and North America: Roger Baines, Kate Beeching, Danielle Bouverot, David Cowling, Edith Esch, François Gadet, Penelope Gardner-Chloros, David Hornsby, John E. Joseph, Dominique Lagorgette, Jacques Landrecies, Dawn Marley, Nicolas Pepin, Tim Pooley, Gilles Siouffi, Albert Valdman, Barbara von Gemmingen and Chantal Wionet.

Download or read book The Language Question under Napoleon written by Stewart McCain and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a new perspective on the cultural politics of the Napoleonic Empire by exploring the issue of language within four pivotal institutions - the school, the army, the courtroom and the church. Based on wide-ranging research in archival and published sources, Stewart McCain demonstrates that the Napoleonic State was in reality fractured by disagreements over how best to govern a population characterized by enormous linguistic diversity. Napoleonic officials were not simply cultural imperialists; many acted as culture-brokers, emphasizing their familiarity with the local language to secure employment with the state, and pointing to linguistic and cultural particularism to justify departures from which what others might have considered desirable practice by the regime. This book will be of interest to scholars of the Napoleonic Empire, and of European state-building and nationalisms.

Download or read book Language, Citizenship and Identity in Quebec written by Leigh Oakes and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-02-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Awarded the 2008 Pierre Savard prize by the International Council for Canadian Studies! 'The Pierre Savard Awards are designed to recognize and promote each year outstanding scholarly monographs on a Canadian topic. The awards form part of a strategy that is aimed at promoting, especially throughout the Canadian academic community, works that have been written by members of the Canadian Studies international network. The awards are intended to designate exceptional books, which, being based on a Canadian topic, contribute to a better understanding of Canada.' Globalization is calling for new conceptualizations of belonging within culturally diverse communities. This book takes Quebec as a case study and examines how it fosters a sense of belonging through a common citizenship with French as the key element. As a nation without a state, Quebec is driven by two distinct imperatives: the need to affirm a robust Francophone identity within Anglophone North America, and the civic obligation to accommodate an increasingly diverse range of migrant groups, as well as demands for recognition by Aboriginal and Anglophone minorities.

Download or read book Identity, Community, Discourse written by Giuseppina Cortese and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2005 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Languages are inseparable from their contexts of use. They are not only congruent with, but also involved in the configuration of the worldviews and value systems manifested in cultures and embodied in texts. The spread of English worldwide foregrounds the issue of textual dynamics in intercultural settings. The production/reception of texts in English facilitates international contacts and exchanges, yet it also triggers hegemonic practices. The volume aims to investigate the representations and negotiations of sociocognitive identities in intercultural settings relevant for 'good practice'. Contributions explore 'languaging' strategies (verbal, visual, multimodal; English monolingual, bilingual, multilingual) through a range of methodological perspectives wherein the respect for sociocultural differences is a constitutive value.

Download or read book Selves in Two Languages written by Michèle Koven and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2007-09-07 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bilinguals often report that they feel like a different person in their two languages. In the words of one bilingual in Koven’s book, “When I speak Portuguese, automatically, I'm in a different world...it's a different color.” Although testimonials like this abound in everyday conversation among bilinguals, there has been scant systematic investigation of this intriguing phenomenon. Focusing on French-Portuguese bilinguals, the adult children of Portuguese migrants in France, this book provides an empirically grounded, theoretical account of how the same speakers enact, experience, and are perceived by others to have different identities in their two languages. This book explores bilinguals’ experiences and expressions of identity in multicultural, multilingual contexts. It is distinctive in its integration of multiple levels of analysis to address the relationships between language and identity. Koven links detailed attention to discourse form, to participants’ multiple interpretations how such forms become signs of identity, and to the broader macrosociolinguistic contexts that structure participants’ access to those signs. The study of how bilinguals perform and experience different identities in their two languages sheds light on the more general role of linguistic and cultural forms in local experiences and expressions of identity.

Download or read book Language Policy and National Unity written by William R. Beer and published by Government Institutes. This book was released on 1985 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central focus of each chapter is language policy and how it accomplishes-or fails to accomplish-the task of maintaining national unity in the face of linguistic diversity. Included among the nations considered are examples of postcolonial cultures, as well as nations that have sheltered linguistic minorities within their borders throughout their history, countries fragmented into tribal groups, and those divided by a plethora of local dialects.

Download or read book The French-Speaking World written by Rodney Ball and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French-Speaking World is an accessible textbook that offers students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the French language and its role in the world. This new edition has been fully revised to reflect the many political and social changes of the last 15 years, including the impact of technology on language change. It continues to combine text with practical exercises and discussion questions to stimulate readers to think for themselves and to tackle specific problems. Key features of this book: Informative and comprehensive: covers a wide range of current issues Practical: contains a variety of graded exercises and tasks plus an index of terms Topical and contemporary: deals with current situations and provides up-to-date illustrative material Thought-provoking: encourages students to reflect and research for themselves The French-Speaking World is the ideal textbook for undergraduate students who have a sound practical knowledge of French but who have little or no knowledge of linguistics or sociolinguistics.