29.3947, Review: Applied Linguistics: Zentz (2017)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3947. Thu Oct 11 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3947, Review: Applied Linguistics: Zentz (2017)

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Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2018 22:35:24
From: Magdalena Hackl [magdalena.hackl at gmx.net]
Subject: Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-3594.html

AUTHOR: Lauren Renee Zentz
TITLE: Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy
SUBTITLE: History, Language and Identity in Indonesia
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Magdalena Hackl, Universität Innsbruck

SUMMARY

In “Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy: History, Language and Identity” Lauren
Zentz aims at demonstrating how language policy is inextricably linked to the
purposes of the state and cannot be seen without the broader actions of the
state. The book itself is first and foremost an ethnographic study in which
Zentz sets out to exemplify the implications of postcolonial nation-building,
nationalism and globalisation for language use in Indonesia in general and in
Central Java in particular. With “Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy” Zentz
delivers an insightful introduction to the linguistic ecology, language
beliefs and ideologies of nationalism in today’s Indonesia.

Chapter 1 ‘States, Language(s) and Globalization’ delivers the theoretical
framework for the study. Starting out with a powerful example of top-down
language policy, Zentz underpins the policy- and penalty-driven implementation
of nation-building exercises in Indonesia. Based on this example, she explores
the relationship between the state, nation and language, arguing that
concerning the (socio-)linguistic landscape of a nation ‘(t)he state is of
course most certainly not the only power and this is increasingly the case,
but (…) in general, other centers of orientation exist in relation to it (…)’
(Zentz 2017: 3). In the next section, Zentz investigates the tension field
between globalisation and state formation, especially in the postcolonial
context, where nation-building efforts and attempts to strengthen the national
language have been interrupted by forces of globalisation and the language
connected with it: English. According to Zentz (2017: 15), English travels
globally and is manipulated locally in order to achieve local ends. In this
context, it is important to notice that Zentz takes a postmodern, performative
stance on language, preferring ‘to approach language use as the performance of
differentially available resources’ (Zentz 2017: 16). Within this framework,
she further puts emphasis on ‘communicative repertoires’, a term ‘used to
explore the resources people deploy and have access to in terms of
stylization, use of linguistic codes, and literary practices’ (Zentz 2017:
20). With this in mind, at the end of the chapter, Zentz describes the
linguistic biographies of her focal group participants, university English
majors, and introduces the reader to the linguistic ecology of Central Java
where the study was conducted. The methodology of of the study is ethnography,
based on several methods of data collection, including participant
observation, researcher self-reflection, oral interviews and a collection of
written documents (Zentz 2017: 25). The ethnographic component of the study is
complemented by a historical-structural approach, in order to gain a greater
perspective in the synchronic ethnographic observations.

In Chapter 2 ‘Engineering an Imagined Community’ Zentz outlines the cultural
and political history of the nation and the islands that form today’s
Indonesia. Within this context, she focuses the history of Malay (now
Indonesian) while also exploring the status and uses of local (mostly
Javanese) and foreign languages (Dutch and English). Zentz begins Chapter 2
with presenting extracts of official policy pronouncements which add up to
citizens effectively being obliged to use Indonesian in any public situation,
while the use of other languages is relegated to the private sphere, unless
absolutely necessary (e.g. in the academic study of foreign languages). In a
next step, she outlines the common national narrative, describes the path
toward the creation of the Indonesian nation and the decision to use Malay as
its national language. It is commonly thought that Malay was chosen to be a
national language because of its long-standing role as a lingua franca on the
archipelago. The idea that it ‘belonged to no-one yet could belong to
everyone’ was aimed at avoiding interethnic conflict. In order to examine the
accuracy of this statement, Zentz delves into the history of the Malay
language, from its earliest written records in the 7th–10th century, to the
Malaccan and Sumatran Kingdoms, the arrival of the Portuguese, the Dutch
settlements, the birth of ‘Indonesian’ in the wake of the Youth Pledge of 1928
(which stated that the official language would be called Indonesian), the
Institutionalisation through the creation of the first national Indonesian
Language Congress in 1938, the Japanese occupation during WWII, and the
pronouncement of the first national Constitution in 1945, declaring Indonesian
the official language. Then, she turns to the re-scaling and centralisation
processes taking place during the authoritarian administration of Indonesia’s
second President Suharto. Under his administration, the government pushed the
consolidation of the nation and the promotion of the Indonesian language,
causing the marginalisation of local cultures and languages. Despite lip
service in favour of plurality, the acknowledgement of Indonesia’s cultural
and linguistic diversity only began in 1998 when Suharto stepped down.
However, Zentz argues that these efforts might have been too little too late.
She further ventures the argument this might have been intentional: ‘(n)ow
that the state was treated as a natural fact by most Indonesians, attention to
local languages and cultural practices would never again gain enough power to
threaten national control/unity’ (Zentz 2017: 77).

Subsequently, Zentz enters into a discourse analysis of the Indonesian
Language Congress Resolutions, documents written to summarise the five-yearly
Indonesian Language Congress. She describes arguments between language
planners in favour of Westernisation (mainly Alisjahbana) and those supporting
‘traditional’ views (Moeliono). In a next step, Zentz implicitly puts forward
the question ‘can language even be planned?’ by contrasting spontaneous with
planned development of Indonesian and pointing out the the gap between
official creation and dissemination of terminology. At the end of the chapter,
she takes a look at the role of English and globalisation in the language
planners’ and the state’s discourse, emphasising that ‘(g)lobalization and
English are also used to drum up nationalist sentiment against external powers
while erasing the fact that the state holds primary responsibility for the
erasure of languages and increases in interethnic conflict’ (Zentz 2017: 94). 

In Chapter 3 ‘Locating Languages in Time and Space’ Zentz discusses the status
of Javanese in post-colonial Indonesia, mainly focusing on the relations
between the local (Javanese) and the national (Indonesian) Zentz argues that
as a result of the tremendous nation-building efforts, the Indonesian state
has created a situation where Indonesian has become the acceptable form of
communication in most contexts, while the formal Javanese register “kromo” has
been relegated to the status of the language of local heritage. At the same
time the informal register of Javanese “ngoko” which is used quite frequently
has been ideologically erased as a language, dismissed as ‘daily talk’ and  as
not fulfilling the criteria of being a language in the eyes of its users. In a
next step, Zentz explores the possible causes of language shift, i.e. the loss
of “kromo” and the erasure of “ngoko”, among her focal group participants, who
conveyed ideas of common modern linguistic ideologies about the symbolic value
of languages. A common notion of “kromo” Javanese, for instance, suggests that
the language is grammatically complex and thus difficult to learn. While there
is some evidence that youths still try to speak “kromo” as a signal of respect
for elders, they tend to shy away from conversing in “kromo” due to heavy
correction by interlocutors. Zentz (2017: 133) concludes that ‘it is not
simply that this kromo language is disappearing; rather, it is that each
speaker’s linguistic repertoire is constructed in proportion with the spaces
where s/he spends time and the amounts of time that they spend there.’ Due to
the power of the state and its preference for Indonesian, spaces for kromo
dwindle. Zentz concludes the chapter with a compelling discussion of the
language use in social media and the perceived incapacity of “ngoko” of
handling abbreviations which are a crucial part in online communication.

Chapter 4 ‘Preserving the nation’ discusses the role of English in Indonesia.
Like English in  many other (postcolonial) countries, English in Indonesia is
seen both as a threat to the national identity and as an opportunity for the
individual and the state, promoting the creation of a skilled workforce that
is able to compete in an increasingly globalized marketplace with English as
lingua franca. Zentz (2017: 159) emphasises  the state’s ambivalence towards
English, especially in the education system, by stating that ‘students
sometimes get caught in a no-man’s land of the state’s battle for a modern and
globally relevant yet independent national identity.’ As in many other
postcolonial settings, in Indonesia English is associated with a Western
lifestyle and way of (critical) thinking that at times is rejected as vulgar
and non-compliant with Indonesian culture, being perceived as too direct. At
the same time, it is also seen as a prestige symbol, as ‘English (…) has
frequently been synecdochically mistaken for access to wider educational
opportunity and the wealth and privilege’ (Zentz 2017: 204) that are necessary
to gain access. The commodification of language (English, but also standard
Indonesian) encourages the use of ‘purely semiotic’ uses of language,
especially of English, indexing simply ‘English’, the language or the concept
of it, and the attributes that travel along with it (Zentz 2017: 117). In this
context, representations of English in Indonesia become bound in local time
and space and are measured on an entirely local scale, erasing the
significance of any formal linguistic structure. Zentz (2017: 189) pointedly
concludes: ‘English is a foreign language, yet it has entirely local meaning:
local values and systems of meaning-making ensure English’s status as a symbol
of wealth and privilege among possible Indonesian lifestyles and identities’. 

Chapter 5 ‘The State Marches On’ is a powerful conclusion that carves out the
connections between the previous chapters in a clear and compact way. Zentz
(2017: 206) illustrates the state’s efforts in re-scaling languages with the
goal of cultivating nationalism and concurrently not only developing the
Indonesian language, but also developing its citizens towards a model of
‘rationality’ perceived to be inherent in European and North American states.
In taking up issues discussed in the first chapter and filling the framework
with learnings from chapters 2-4, she has built a compelling arch culminating
in the final chapter in which she underlines her point with a final example of
the state’s attempts to enforce the dominance of Indonesian by attempting to
introduce changes in language requirements for foreign workers employed in
Indonesia.

EVALUATION

Zentz’s “Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy: History, Language and Identity” is an
exceptionally insightful ethnographic study exploring the tension between
postcoloniality, nationalism and globalisation and its impacts on linguistic
patterns in Central Java and Indonesia. In contrast to other scholars, most
prominently Phillipson (1992; 2012), Zentz sustains the opinion that
globalisation and English as its lingua franca may not necessarily be linked
exclusively to linguistic imperialism, but rather suggests that the ensuing
hybridisation of identity may also be reflected in new linguistic patterns
(similar to Wright 2012 or Blommaert 2014) and a valuable component in
renegotiating one’s identity (Zentz 2017: 202) in a globalised world.

In general, it is impressive how Zentz gently uncovers the ambivalence, one
might even say the absurdity, of postcolonial nations’ efforts to ‘develop’
their language as well as their economic and political structures towards a
Western model, resulting in ‘a perpetual game of catch-up’ (Zentz 2017:207)
without passing judgement or adopting the partly very martial terminology of
linguistic imperialism and language death that is employed by Phillipson
(1992) when dealing with this topic. At the same time, however, Zentz often
neglects to mention that processes of language shift and renegotiation of
identity are not unique to Central Java or Indonesia but are rather part of a
mechanism that is common to postcolonial states and can even be discernible in
‘developed’ non-English-speaking countries.

With this book Zentz offers a comprehensive analysis of the linguistic ecology
of Central Java. It is a carefully assembled mosaic of historic insights,
analysis of written documents, in situ observations and – at the heart of the
mosaic –interviews with the focal group participants. The analysis of the
linguistic biographies of her focal group participants not only make the
reader identify with the objects of the study but also form a powerful tool
for analysing both the motivation for studying English and the shifting
identities within the context of re-scaling.

There are many figures, such as photos and maps, and excerpts of documents,
which neatly illustrate the author’s arguments. Especially the introductory
chapter delivers very dense theoretical background that is less amenable to a
non-specialist readership, making it to hard read the book without a sound
knowledge of post-modern linguistic theory, language planning and linguistic
ecology. The main chapters, 2-5, however, are more accessible to a wider
readership as arguments are underpinned by relatable examples and excerpts
from focal group participants’ interviews or texts.

As rescaling and language shift are ongoing processes (as Zentz also points
out throughout the book and especially in the closing section of the final
chapter) research on this these topics is never concluded. Especially the
particularly compelling Section 3.4 ‘A Transition: New Technology, National
Scales’ on linguistic patterns in mobile and online communication could
provide an introduction for further research on this topic. In conclusion, the
book is highly recommendable to scholars interested in language policy and
planning, especially in a postcolonial context, the role of English as a
global lingua franca and language shift.

REFERENCES

Blommaert, Jan. 2014. State Ideology and Language in Tanzania: Second and
revised edition (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Spolsky, Bernard (ed.). (2012) The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Phillipson, Robert. 2012. ‘Imperialism and colonialsm’, in Spolsky, Bernard
(ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 203-225.

Wright, Sue. 2012. ‘Language policy, the nation and nationalism’, in Spolsky,
Bernard (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 59-78. 

Zentz, Lauren. 2017. Statehood, Scale, Hierarchy: History, Language and
Identity in Indonesia. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Magdalena Hackl completed her MA in Translation Studies at the University of
Innsbruck in 2017. Her MA-thesis focuses on language policy in a postcolonial
context. Accordingly, her research interest are postcoloniality,
nation-building, globalisation and language as well as English as a lingua
franca.





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