Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious

✍ Scribed by John E. Joseph

• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 281
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Offering a uniquely broad-based overview of the role of language choice in the construction of national, cultural, and personal identity, this textbook examines a wide range of specific cases from various parts of the world in order to arrive at some general principles concerning the links between language and identity. It will benefit students and researchers in a wide range of fields where identity is an important issue, and who currently lack a single source to turn to for an overview from sociolinguistics.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 11
The identity of identity......Page 14
What language has to do with it......Page 15
Fundamental types of identity......Page 16
Construction and multiplicity......Page 19
Other terms used in current research......Page 22
Identity as a linguistic phenomenon......Page 24
Identity and the traditional functions of language......Page 28
Identity and the phatic and performative functions......Page 30
Does identity constitute a distinctive function of language?......Page 33
'Over-reading': identity and the evolution of language......Page 38
Conclusion......Page 52
Introduction......Page 54
Classical and Romantic views of language, nation, culture and the individual......Page 55
The nineteenth century and the beginnings of institutional linguistics......Page 59
The social in language: Voloshinov vs Saussure......Page 61
Jespersen and Sapir......Page 64
Firth, Halliday and their legacy......Page 69
Later structuralist moves toward linguistic identity: Brown & Gilman, Labov and others......Page 71
From 'women's language' to gender identity......Page 74
From Network Theory to communities of practice and language ideologies......Page 76
Input from 1950s sociology: Goffman......Page 80
Bernstein......Page 81
Attitudes and accommodation......Page 83
Foucault and Bourdieu on symbolic power......Page 86
Social Identity Theory and 'self-categorisation'......Page 89
Early attempts to integrate 'social identity' into sociolinguistics......Page 90
Communication Theory of Identity......Page 93
Essentialism and constructionism......Page 96
The nature of national identities......Page 105
When did nationalism begin?......Page 108
Constructing national identity and language: Dante's De vulgari eloquentia......Page 111
Taming and centring the language: Nebrija and Valdés......Page 115
Language imagined as a republic: Du Bellay......Page 119
Fichte on language and nation......Page 122
Renan and the Kedourie–Gellner debate......Page 124
Anderson's 'imagined communities' and Billig's 'banal nationalism'......Page 128
De-essentialising the role of language: Hobsbawm and Silverstein......Page 132
Studies of the construction of particular national-linguistic identities......Page 138
Europe......Page 139
Asia......Page 141
Americas......Page 143
Australasia and Oceania......Page 144
Historical background......Page 145
The 'myth' of declining English......Page 147
Samples of Hong Kong English......Page 153
The formal distinctiveness of Hong Kong English......Page 157
The status of Hong Kong English......Page 161
The functions of Hong Kong English......Page 163
Chinese identities......Page 164
Constructing colonial identity......Page 167
The present and future roles of English......Page 171
Ethnic, racial and national identities......Page 175
From communities of practice to shared habitus......Page 180
The particular power of ethnic/racial identity claims......Page 181
Religious/sectarian identities......Page 185
Personal names as texts of ethnic and religious identity......Page 189
Language spread and identity-levelling......Page 194
Introduction......Page 207
'What language is spoken in Lebanon?'......Page 208
Historical background......Page 209
Distribution of languages by religion......Page 210
The co-construction of religious and ethnic identity: Maronites and Phoenicians......Page 211
Constructing Islamic Arabic uniqueness......Page 213
Recent shifts in Lebanese language/identity patterns......Page 216
Still more recent developments......Page 220
Renan and the 'heritage of memories'......Page 221
Linking marginal ethnic identities: Celts and Phoenicians......Page 225
Language, abstraction and the identity of Renan......Page 228
Maalouf's utopian anti-identity......Page 233
Afterword: Identity and the Study of Language......Page 237
Notes......Page 241
Bibliography......Page 248
B......Page 269
C......Page 270
E......Page 271
G......Page 272
I......Page 273
L......Page 275
M......Page 276
P......Page 278
S......Page 279
T......Page 280
Z......Page 281