Book notice: Selves in Two Languages

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Selves in Two Languages: Bilinguals' verbal enactments of identity in French and
Portuguese

Series Title: Studies in Bilingualism 34,
2007 John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/


Author: Michele Koven

Abstract:

Bilinguals often report that they feel like a different person in their
two languages. In the words of one bilingual in Koven's book, "When I
speak Portuguese, automatically, I'm in a different world... it's a
different color." Although testimonials like this abound in everyday
conversation among bilinguals, there has been scant systematic
investigation of this intriguing phenomenon. Focusing on French-Portuguese
bilinguals, the adult children of Portuguese migrants in France, this book
provides an empirically grounded, theoretical account of how the same
speakers enact, experience, and are perceived by others to have different
identities in their two languages. This book explores bilinguals'
experiences and expressions of identity in multicultural, multilingual
contexts. It is distinctive in its integration of multiple levels of
analysis to address the relationships between language and identity. Koven
links detailed attention to discourse form, to participants' multiple
interpretations how such forms become signs of identity, and to the
broader macrosociolinguistic contexts that structure participants' access
to those signs. The study of how bilinguals perform and experience
different identities in their two languages sheds light on the more
general role of linguistic and cultural forms in local experiences and
expressions of identity.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-3349.html

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