19.1336, Calls: Anthropological Ling/South Africa;Anthropological Ling/UK

Sun Apr 20 15:56:19 UTC 2008

LINGUIST List: Vol-19-1336. Sun Apr 20 2008. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 19.1336, Calls: Anthropological Ling/South Africa;Anthropological Ling/UK

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1)
Date: 18-Apr-2008
From: Nigel Love < nigel.love at uct.ac.za >
Subject: The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue 

2)
Date: 18-Apr-2008
From: Fiona Copland < f.copland at aston.ac.uk >
Subject: Advances in Ethnography, Language and Communication

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:53:20
From: Nigel Love [nigel.love at uct.ac.za]
Subject: The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue
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Full Title: The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue 

Date: 11-Dec-2008 - 13-Dec-2008
Location: Cape Town, South Africa 
Contact Person: Nigel Love
Meeting Email: nigel.love at uct.ac.za

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Historical Linguistics;
Language Acquisition; Sociolinguistics 

Call Deadline: 31-Jul-2008 

Meeting Description:

The International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and
Communication (IAISLC)

in collaboration with

The Amsterdam Center for Language & Communication (Research group
Sociolinguistic aspects of multilingualism)

announces an international symposium on

The Native Speaker and the Mother Tongue

Cape Town, Dec 11-13, 2008 

Call for Papers

It is an article of faith within mainstream linguistics that linguistic
communities should be defined by reference to hypostatised linguistic objects
called 'languages'.  

Quite apart from the implications of this stance for theories of language and
communication themselves, it has significant social and political consequences,
in that it confers privileged status on certain members of a linguistic
community. Thus privileged are those who have been born and brought up to speak
the language from birth, as their 'mother tongue', in a family where the parents
or other adults were also brought up to speak the language from birth. Such
people are often referred to by linguists as 'native speakers' of the language,
although the precise definition of this term is disputed. In this way a
potential ranking is established among members of a linguistic community. This
ranking in practice reflects the utility to the linguist of particular persons
as potential 'informants'. At the top come the native speakers. Next come those
who are almost native speakers but not quite. Then will come those who did not
learn the language until adulthood. And so on. On the fringes of the community
will be the hangers-on, those whose command of the language is poor or suspect
(typically recent immigrants, foreign workers, semi-speakers etc.). 

The notion also has implications for the ranking of linguistic communities
themselves. The monoglot community has long been projected as the 'normal' case.
Communities in which two or more languages are spoken, and in which various
forms of so-called language interference are rife, are in this theoretical
perspective automatically marginalised.  

>From the mainstream linguist's point of view the principal desideratum here is
that the language the 'native speaker' speaks shall be 'pure', uncontaminated by
any external linguistic influences. This concern is supposedly motivated by
scruples akin to those in the physical sciences, where it is often important
that only unadulterated samples are subject to analysis, for fear of producing
unreliable results. However, it is no coincidence that 'purity' features as an
important concept in many totalitarian systems of thought, as well as being
reflected in linguistic legislation of a plainly chauvinistic character. For
these reasons among many others it would be naïve to suppose that mainstream
linguistics is ideologically neutral.    

The integrationist approach to language rejects the myth of the native speaker,
as part of its rejection of the orthodox postulate of idealised linguistic
communities bound together by shared systems of known rules and meanings. The
integrationist agenda offers the prospect of a demythologised linguistics which
corresponds more realistically to our day-to-day communicational experience.
High on this alternative agenda is the demythologisation of received ideas about
the linguistic relationships between the individual and society and the
development of alternative perspectives on the construction and maintenance of
the individual's linguistic identity. 

This symposium aims not only to further the integrationist project itself but,
more broadly, to bring together researchers of various theoretical stripes
engaged in critical assessment of the notions 'native speaker', 'mother tongue'
and related ideologies. The discourse of monoglot normality has influenced
general linguistic theory in many different ways; in historical linguistics, for
example, 'normal' language change is, typically, the kind of change that happens
in languages with a clear 'genetic' pedigree.    This leads to a treatment of
languages that emerge in multilingual settings with only informal linguistic
transmission, such as creoles, as 'exceptional'  Another area in which the
discourse of normality creates problem is multilingualism, in at least two ways:
(i) the relationship between language and identity is typically seen as a
monolingual affair, with multilingual communities usually misrepresented and
misunderstood in their linguistic practices; (ii) language shift is related to
identity loss, notwithstanding the fact that the multilingual individual can
construct her identity on the basis of multiple codes. Thirdly, in the discourse
of language endangerment the 'native speaker' is constructed as a valuable
asset, but in the case of the multilingual individual it is not clear how
nativity is assigned. In recent research in all these fields there have been
calls to move beyond a normative, Eurocentric notion of 'mother tongue' in order
to develop an understanding of, and a theoretical apparatus capable of dealing
with, language in heteroglossia as a normal, rather than an extraordinary,
phenomenon. We are particularly interested in contributions on the following topics:

- Identity in multilingual societies
- Creole exceptionalism
- Language rights vs linguistic citizenship
- Maintenance and endangerment of language/identity 
- Purism in historical linguistics

Inquiries, abstracts and proposal for papers should be addressed to 
Nigel Love (nigel.love at uct.ac.za)  and 
Umberto Ansaldo (uansaldo at gmail.com)

Closing date for abstracts: 31 Jul 08

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:53:27
From: Fiona Copland [f.copland at aston.ac.uk]
Subject: Advances in Ethnography, Language and Communication  	 
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Full Title: Advances in Ethnography, Language and Communication 

Date: 20-Sep-2008 - 20-Sep-2008
Location: Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Melissa de Graaff
Meeting Email: melissa.de_graaff at kcl.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-May-2008 

Meeting Description:

This one-day conference aims to explore the possibilities and problems of
employing ethnographic approaches to the analysis of verbal and textual data,
and consider how such methods can complement other perspectives and methods of
inquiry. Plenary speakers include Janet Maybin (Centre for Language and
Communication, Open University). 

Call for Papers

Advances in Ethnography, Language and Communication
20th September 2008, Aston University

Abstracts for papers and posters are invited from social scientists using
ethnographically sensitive perspectives and tools in any area which involves the
study of language and communication (for instance, researching social processes,
institutions, education, culture or identity). 

Abstracts are particularly encouraged from social science researchers in the
early stages of their careers. Oral presentations will be 20 minutes in length,
followed by a 10-minute discussion period. Dedicated time will be allocated for
poster presentations.

Abstracts, of up to 300 words, should be submitted by e-mail attachment (Word
files) to melissa.de_graaff at kcl.ac.uk. Please submit two files, one containing
the abstract and details of the author(s) (name(s), affiliation, email address)
and one containing an anonymous abstract. Under the title for the abstract,
please give four keywords which summarise the paper/poster. In the body of your
email please specify whether the abstract is for a poster or paper presentation.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15th May 2008. 

Registration for the conference will open in June 2008. The conference fee is
£15, including a buffet lunch, tea and coffee.

The conference is organised by Fiona Copland (Institute for the Study of
Language and Society, Aston University), Julia Snell (Department of English,
University of Leeds) and Sara Shaw (Department of Primary Care and Population
Health, University College London).

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