Article published in:
Pragmatics
Vol. 22:4 (2012) ► pp. 651–669

Performing bilingualism in Wales

Arguing the case for empirical and theoretical eclecticism

This article examines Welsh young people’s “performance” and construction of their bilingualism with the help of empirically grounded conversation analysis (CA) and performativity theory grounded in poststructuralism. Some of the incompatibilities, particularly conversation analysts’ narrow conception of context are resolved with reference to dialogical theory. It is argued with the help of video-recorded empirical data that a fine-grained analysis using CA is able to trace the emergence of varying bilingual identities as well as the negotiation of meaning in situ. To take the analysis beyond single situated actions, however, it is argued that we need recourse to the broader situation-transcending constructs offered, for example, by dialogical and performativity theory.
Keywords: Dialogism, Conversation analysis, Performativity, Wales, Bilingualism
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 01 December 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22.4.05mus
References
Académie française
(1635) Statuts et règlements. http://​www​.academie​-francaise​.fr​/role​/index​.html
Althusser, L.
(1971) Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (trans. by B. Brewster). In L. Althusser (ed.), Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. New York/London: Monthly Review Press, pp. 127–186.Google Scholar
Auer, J.C.P.
(1999) From codeswitching via language mixing to fused lects: Toward a dynamic typology of bilingual speech. International Journal of Bilingualism 3.4: 309–332. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Austin, J.L.
(1962) How to do things with words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M.
(1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays (trans. by M. Holquist & C. Emerson). Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Butler, J.
(1990a) Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(1990b) Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. In S.-E. Case (ed.), Performing feminisms: Feminist critical theory and theater. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 270–282.Google Scholar
(1993) Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of ‘sex’. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(1997) Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ceredigion County Council [CCC]
(2001) Welsh education scheme: A language scheme for education prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Welsh Language Act 1993. Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Derrida, J.
(1977) Signature event context (trans. by S. Weber & J. Mehlman). In G. Graff (ed.), Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, pp. 1–23.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C.A.
(2000 [1959]) Diglossia. In L. Wei (ed.), The Bilingualism Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 65–80.Google Scholar
Foucault, M.
(1990) The Use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality Volume 2 (trans. by R. Hurley). New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H.
(1967) Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Grixti, J.
(2008) ‘Glocalised’ youth culture as linguistic performance: Media globalisation and the construction of hybrid identities. Noves SL. Revista de Sociolingüística Winter 2008. http://​www6​.gencat​.net​/llengcat​/noves​/hm08hivern​/docs​/grixti​.pdf
Heritage, J.
(2008) Conversation analysis as social theory. In B. Turner (ed.), The new Blackwell companion to social theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, pp. 300–320.Google Scholar
Hutchby, I., and R. Wooffitt
(1998) Conversation analysis: Principles, practices and applications. Oxford: Polity Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, G.
(2004) Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G.H. Lerner (ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 13–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, J.N., and A. Holmen
(1997) The integrated bilingualism approach: Introduction. In J.N. Jørgensen, and A. Holmen (eds.), The Development of Successive Bilingualism in School-Age Children. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism 27. Copenhagen: Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, pp. 7–14.Google Scholar
Linell, P.
(1998) Approaching dialogue: Talk, interaction and contexts in dialogical perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Crossref  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2005) The language bias in linguistics: Its nature, origin and transformations. Oxford: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: Interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.Google Scholar
Milani, T.M.
(2006) Language planning and national identity in Sweden: A performativity approach. In C. Mar-Molinero, and P. Stevenson (eds.), Language ideologies, policies and practices: Language and the future of Europe. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 104–117. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2005) Om performativitet: Ett postmodernistiskt angreppssätt på språkpolitik och språkplanering. In B. De Geer, and A. Malmbjer (eds.), Språk på tvärs. Rapport från ASLA:s höstsymposium 2004. Uppsala: ASLA, Svenska föreningen för tillämpad språkvetenskap, pp. 23–38.Google Scholar
Musk, N.
(2006) Performing bilingualism in Wales with the spotlight on Welsh. Linköping: LiU-Tryck. http://​urn​.kb​.se​/resolve​?urn​=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva​-8042
Norrby, C.
(1996) Samtalsanalys: Så gör vi när vi pratar med varandra. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Pennycook, A.
(2001) Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. New Jersey, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  BoP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2003) Global Englishes, rip slyme, and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7.4: 513–533. Crossref  BoPGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, A.
(1986) Extreme case formulations. Human Studies 91: 219–230. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rommetveit, R.
(1984) The role of language in the creation and transmission of social representations. In R.M. Farr, and S. Moscovici (eds.), Social representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 331–359.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., E. Schegloff, and G. Jefferson
(1974) A simplest semantics for the organization of turn taking in conversation. Language 501: 697–735. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sarkar, M., and L. Winer
(2006) Multilingual codeswitching in Quebec rap: Poetry, pragmatics and performativity. The International Journal of Multilingualism 3.3: 173–192. Crossref  BoPGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E., G. Jefferson, and H. Sacks
(1977) The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 531: 361–82. Crossref  BoPGoogle Scholar
Seedhouse, P.
(2004) The interactional architecture of the language classroom: A conversation analysis perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Speer, S.A., and J. Potter
(2002) From performatives to practices: Judith Butler, discursive psychology and the management of heterosexist talk. In P. McIlvenny (ed.), Talking gender and sexuality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 151–180. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stroud, C.
(2004) The performativity of codeswitching. International Journal of Bilingualism 8.2: 145–166. Crossref  BoPGoogle Scholar
Welsh Assembly Government [WAG]
(2003) Iaith Pawb: A national action plan for a bilingual Wales. http://​www​.bwrdd​-yr​-iaith​.org​.uk​/cynnwys​.php​?cID​=&pID​=109​&nID​=96​&langID​=2

Full-text

Performing bilingualism in Wales
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Chen, I-Hsuan, Yunfei Long, Qin Lu & Chu-Ren Huang
2021. Orthographic features for emotion classification in Chinese in informal short texts. Language Resources and Evaluation 55:2 ► pp. 329 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.