Invitation - Conf. "The Unifying Aspects of Cultures - Standardvariations"

[Rudolf Muhr]

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(This mail is particularly addressed to scholars working on fields like sociolinguistics, pluricentric languages, language policy, foreign language teaching, discourse analysis, political discourse, pragmatics, language ideologies, lexicology of BE/AE/AUE etc. I apologize, if this mail is unsolicited.)

Dear Colleague,

I would like to draw your attention to the international conference "The Unifying aspects of Cultures" which will be held from Nov. 7-9th 2003 in Vienna (Austria) and in particular to the section "Standard Variations and Conceptions of Language in Various Language Cultures" which is organized by myself.

If these topics are part of your working areas, I would like to invite you to present a paper (30 Min.) or a statement (15 Min.). The papers will be published in the proceedings of the conference (TRANS ). Papers from the Americas, from Asia and Australasia about aspects of pluricentric languages and language ideologies are particularly welcomed as it is in my intention to achieve a broad overview on different approaches to concepts like "mother tongue", "our common language", "language attitudes of dominating varieties vs. attitudes of the "other varieties", "standard variation", "one language-different norms" etc.

The title of your paper + abstract should be sent to me: muhr at gewi.kfunigraz.ac.at
The details of the registration are found under: http://www.inst.at/kulturen/2003/org_anm_teilnehmerinnen_e.htm

The conference is hosted by the "Research Institute for Austrian and International Literature and Cultural Studies" (INST-Vienna)
(http://www.inst.at) and will take place in the Austria Conference Centre. General information about the conference can be found under: http://www.inst.at/kulturen/index_e.htm.

A details description of the section can be found below or under the following internet address:
http://www.inst.at/kulturen/2003/06sprachen/sektion_muhr_e.htm (English)
http://www.inst.at/kulturen/2003/06sprachen/sektion_muhr.htm (German)
http://www.inst.at/kulturen/2003/06sprachen/sektion_muhr_f.htm (French)


Yours sincerly
R. Muhr


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Standard Variations and Concepts of Language in Various Language Cultures
Chair of the section/Suggestions, Abstracts, Papers to:
Email: Rudolf Muhr (Graz)

The aim of this section is to discuss differences and commonalities in the ideas about language and language norms in various language cultures. These differences concern, for example, one's openness to "foreign" elements (purist versus integration), one's attitude to one's own language (language pride versus language shame), one's attitudes toward variants of one's own language (multilingualism vs. monolingualism) as well as association with stigmatisation or prestige of languages and language variations. Another topic could be the differences in the association with language norms in mono- and pluricentric languages and their effects on the concerned language cultures. In the "smaller" variants a discrepancy always exists between the norms of one's own country and the norms of the entire language, which are normally determined by the largest country. How to deal with these uncertainties and the differences in the standard norms can also be one of the many additional themes!
  of this section.

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Das Verbindende der Kulturen
SEKTION:
Standardvariationen und Sprachauffassungen in verschiedenen Sprachkulturen
Email: Rudolf Muhr (Graz) muhr at gewi.kfunigraz.ac.at

Inhalt:
Die Sektion hat das Ziel, Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten in den Vorstellungen von Sprache und Sprachnorm in verschiedenen Sprachkulturen zu diskutieren. Diese Unterschiede betreffen z.B. die Offenheit gegenüber "fremden" Elementen (Purismus versus Integrismus), die Einstellungen zur eigenen Sprache (Sprachstolz versus Sprachscham), die Einstellungen gegenüber Varianten der eigenen Sprache (innersprachliche Mehrsprachigkeit vs. Einsprachigkeit) sowie den Umgang mit Stigmatisierung bzw. Prestige von Sprachen und Sprachvarianten. Ein weiteres Thema könnten die Unterschiede im Umgang mit Sprachnormen in mono- und plurizentrischen Sprachen und ihre Auswirkungen auf die jeweiligen Sprachkulturen sein. In den "kleineren" Varianten besteht stets eine Diskrepanz zwischen den Eigennormen des Landes und den Normen der Gesamtsprache, die in der Regel vom größten Land bestimmt werden. Der Umgang mit diesen Unsicherheiten und den Unterschieden in den Standardnormen kann eines von vielen!
  weiteren Themen dieser Sektion sein.

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Rudolf Muhr.
Projekt Österreichisches Deutsch
Austrian German Project
Dept. of German, University of Graz
Heinrichstr. 22/2
A-8010 Graz, Austria
Tel. +43-316-380-8176
www.oedeutsch.at / www.oewort.at

Rudolf Muhr.
Projekt Österreichisches Deutsch
Austrian German Project
Dept. of German, University of Graz
Heinrichstr. 22/2
A-8010 Graz, Austria
Tel. +43-316-380-8176
www.oedeutsch.at / www.oewort.at