Forward: "The Unifying Aspects of Cultures - Standardvariations"

[Harold F. Schiffman]

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


*****
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.

***********************************************
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.

**************************
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