Book review: bilingual couples

[Harold F. Schiffman]

LINGUIST List 13.2819




Title: Bilingual Couples Talk
Subtitle: The discursive construction of hybridity
Series Title: Studies in Bilingualism 25

Publication Year: 2002

Publisher: John Benjamins
           http://www.benjamins.com/, http://www.benjamins.nl

Book URL: http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=SiBil_25


Author: Ingrid  Piller, University of Sydney


Hardback: ISBN: 158811287X, Pages: xii, 315 pp., Price: USD 68.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9027241368, Pages: xii, 315 pp., Price: EUR 75.00


Abstract:

This sociolinguistic study of the linguistic practices of bilingual
couples describes the conditions, processes and results of private
language contact. It is based on a unique corpus of more than 20 hours
of private conversations between partners in bilingual
marriages. Adding to its breadth of coverage, these private
conversations are supplemented with larger public discourses about
international couplehood. The volume thus offers a corpus-driven
investigation of the ways in which ideologies of gender, nationality
and immigration mediate linguistic performances in private
cross-cultural communication. The author embraces
social-constructionist, feminist and postmodern approaches to second
language learning, multilingualism and cross-cultural
communication. In contrast to other titles in the field which have
focused almost exclusively on the socialization of bilingual children,
this book explores what it means to one's sense of self to become
socialized into a second langua!  ge and culture as a late bilingual.


Table of Contents

Acknowledgements  vii
Transcription  ix
1. Researching bilingual couple talk: A discourse-analytic approach to
	language contact 1
2. What we know: Bilingual couples in linguistic research  19
3. "It needs to be natural": Building a corpus  37
4. The couples  59
5. "I speak English very well": Linguistic backgrounds  75
6. "We speak bilingually": Language choice  133
7. "We are citizens of the world": Identity and cross-cultural
	couplehood 183
8. "Talk is essential": Doing couplehood 221
9. The doors of Europe will be open to them": Private language
	planning 245
10. "I'm a hybrid": Hybrid identities, multiple discourses 265
Notes 277
References 281
Couples index 301
Name and subject index 303

Lingfield(s):
Bi- & Multilingualism (Sociolinguistics)
Sociolinguistics

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)