Publications

Publication details [#54433]

Horner, Kristine. 2011. Media representations of multilingual Luxembourg: Constructing language as a resource, problem, right and duty. Journal of Language and Politics 10 (4) : 491–510.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/jlp

Annotation

Following Ruiz's discussion of orientations in language planning, distinguishing between language as right, resource and problem, this paper unpacks the ways in which related discourses are circulated in the Luxembourgish print media. Particular attention is paid to how these discourses are interwoven with debates on education and citizenship and how they draw on deeply entrenched language ideological beliefs about language and society, e.g. that “valuable“ forms of individual multilingualism are a desirable goal, whereas linguistic heterogeneity constitutes a problem. Moreover, the analysis shows that the texts thematizing multilingualism are bound up with a discourse of rights and duties, and that right and duty, as well as problem and resource, need to be conceptualized as two intersecting continua informing language ideological debates.