Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T08:52:21.532Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Societal bilingualism, intergroup relations and sociolinguistic variations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2009

Josiane F. Hamers
Affiliation:
Université Laval, Québec
Michel H. A. Blanc
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
Get access

Summary

So far, we have been concerned mainly with the bilingual individual, from a number of different points of view and scientific disciplines: bilingual development (Chapters 3 to 5), neuropsychology (Chapter 6), information processing (Chapter 7), cultural and ethnolinguistic identity (Chapter 8), and intercultural communication (Chapter 9). At the points in the two preceding chapters when intergroup relations were mentioned, it was as an interpersonal process in which individuals interact with each other as members of different ethnolinguistic groups. In the present chapter we examine the role of language in intergroup relations at the societal level, when different languages and cultures are in contact.

This chapter differs from the earlier chapters in a number of respects. Having addressed the problems of the bilingual speaker as an individual and in his interpersonal relations, we now consider relations between ethnolinguistic groups. Thus we move from a micro- to a macro-level of analysis and to disciplines which are concerned with socio-structural factors, like, among others, sociology, sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Because these disciplines deal with a multiplicity of factors and multidimensional phenomena, it is difficult to control all these factors. As a result, theories are thin on the ground and what pass for models are often mere typologies and taxonomies which are more descriptive than predictive; their methodologies include the measures of societal bilingualism reviewed in Section 2.2.3. But social and cultural phenomena have also a psychological reality, and the intergroup and interpersonal levels are the only two poles of the social-interaction dimension.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×