7.707, Disc: Foreign languages in dreams

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-707. Thu May 16 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  64
 
Subject: 7.707, Disc: Foreign languages in dreams
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
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Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Anthony Rodrigues Aristar)
 
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1)
Date:  Mon, 13 May 1996 04:02:37 +0900
From:  kellner at ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp (Birgit Kellner)
Subject:  Re: 7.679 Translation (linguistic analysis of foreign
	   languages in dreams)
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Mon, 13 May 1996 04:02:37 +0900
From:  kellner at ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp (Birgit Kellner)
Subject:  Re: 7.679 Translation (linguistic analysis of foreign
	   languages in dreams)
 
Following up a recent posting by Robert Lawless
(LAWLESS at TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU), who asked how to explain the phenomenon of
translating previously experienced actual conversations into another
language in one's dreams, I would like to add the following query:
 
Has any linguistic research been carried out  (I hope so) on the
representation and function of foreign languages in dreams? I would be
particularly interested in how living in country A affects the manifestation
of country A's language in non-native speakers' dreams. Example: How
learning German affects Turkish immigrant workers' dreams, how learning
Japanese affects Peruvian immigrant workers' dreams or (to use my own case)
foreign students' dreams etc. I would imagine that research on such matters
would be highly complicated in socio-linguistic/psycho-linguistic terms, and
I would expect the result being quite telling in terms of how a country
admits its foreign population to blend in, naturalize etc. If I may take the
liberty to speculate - I would expect the language of a linguistically
closed country such as Japan (i.e. a country with a more or less uniform
colloquial language) with a strong emphasis on foreigners' ghettoization to
manifest itself only with difficulties and only under very peculiar
circumsatances in foreigners' dreams, whereas I could imagine that English,
for a foreigner working in the U.S., seeps in much easier. Having said that,
I have to add that I also would expect this process to be radically
different for different social layers, generations etc.
 
Anyway, any reference would be appreciated,
 
 
Birgit Kellner
Department for Indian Philosophy
University of Hiroshima
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