CFP (AAA 2013) Scaling Linguistic Diversity

[Kerim Friedman]

Dear Colleagues,

In response to my earlier CFP Sonia Das (NYU), Elizabeth Spreng (U. of
Kansas), and Janina Fenigsen (N. Arizona U.) have joined with me to write
the following panel abstract, but we are still short one panelist.
Judith Irvine
has graciously signed on to be a discussant if the panel is accepted.

*Scaling Linguistic Diversity: Language Standardization as a Scale-making
Project*

Language standardization can be usefully understood as a “scale-making
project” (Tsing 2000). Standardization and linguistic differentiation
(Irvine and Gal 2000) can solidify existing sociolinguistic hierarchies at
the level of the nation-state, or they can challenge them, redrawing the
map so as to link the local with the global in new ways. The metaphor of
“sociolinguistic scale” (Blommaert 2007), based on the notion of “indexical
order” (Silverstein 2003), further rejects a micro-macro dichotomy to
instead measure processes of typification and framing through linguistic
practice. This allows scholars to talk about the role of language in both
social and geographic mobility. Also by treating scale as a “project,” it
becomes possible to articulate its contested, ideological nature. Doing so
opens up new possibilities for productive exchange between work on
“language ideology” (Woolard and Schieffelin 1994) and “language and
political economy” (Irvine 1989), as well as opening up the possibility for
interdisciplinary exchange around issues of heteroglossia, mobility, and
indigeneity. In situations of linguistic “superdiversity” (Blommaert and
Rampton 2011), scale accomplishes a lot of the work done by ecological
approaches (Mühlhäusler 1996) without the burden of biological metaphors.
Viewing language standardization as a scale-making project also helps to
focus discussion of “linguistic fields” (Bourdieu 1977) onto processes by
which official and “alternative linguistic markets” (Woolard 1985) are
created. Finally scale has a temporal dimension, bringing together language
trees and language maps to create vertical linkages that can either
reinforce or transcend horizontal boundaries.  Whether working with
minorities, migrants, vernacular or endangered language communities, the
papers on this panel treat language standardization as a scale-making
project to explore contestations and debates surrounding language
ideologies, interdiscursive processes, code-switching, and sociolinguistic
boundary-making.

If you are interested in joining us, please contact me directly:
kerim.friedman at oxus.net (If there is enough interest we could also consider
a double-session, but that would require six more participants.)

I've included the citations below.

Cheers,

Kerim
* BibliographyBlommaert, J.M.E. 2007. Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural
Pragmatics, 4(1), 1-19.

Blommaert, J and B Rampton. 2011. Language and superdiversity.
Diversities13 (2): 1-22.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social
Science Information Social Science Information 16 (6): 645-668.

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1996. Linguistic Ecology : Language Change and
Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region. London: Routledge. Web.

Irvine, Judith T. 1989. When talk isn't cheap: Language and political
economy. American Ethnologist 16:248-67.

Irvine, J. T. and Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic
differentiation. In P. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language. (pp. 35-83).
Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of
sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication. 23(3-4): 193-229.

Tsing, Anna. 2000. The global situation. Cultural Anthropology 15 (3):
327-360.

Woolard, Kathryn A. 1985. Language variation and cultural hegemony: Toward
an integration of sociolinguistic and social theory. American Ethnologist 12
(4): 738-748.

Woolard, Kathryn A and Bambi B Schieffelin. 1994. Language ideology. Annual
Review of Anthropology 23:55-82. *


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*P. Kerim Friedman 傅可恩 <http://kerim.oxus.net/>*
*
*

Associate Professor
Department of Indigenous Cultures
College of Indigenous Studies
National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
副教授國立東華大學民族文化學系