35.786, Books: Grammatical systems without language borders: Wiese (2023)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-786. Wed Mar 06 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.786, Books: Grammatical systems without language borders: Wiese (2023)

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Date: 17-Jan-2024
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [sebastian.nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Grammatical systems without language borders: Wiese (2023)


Title:  Grammatical systems without language borders
Subtitle: Lessons from free-range language
Series Title: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science
Publication Year: 2023
Publisher: Language Science Press
                http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/423

author: Heike Wiese
Abstract:


Current research in grammatical analysis and sociolinguistics points
to two core characteristics of language that seem incommensurable at
first sight: (1) research on linguistic structure indicates internal
organisation and coherence, and the workings and interactions of
distinct grammatical systems, but (2) sociolinguistic research
suggests that language borders and bound ‘languages’ are
counterfactual social constructs that cannot capture the diversity and
fluidity of actual language use. This seems to constitute something
like a “quantum-linguistic” paradox: language systems aren’t real
(they are just ideological constructions), but at the same time, they
are a reflection of actual structure.

This book shows how this paradox can be resolved through an
architecture that allows for grammatical systems without presupposing
language borders: this architecture puts communicative situations,
rather than languages, at the core of linguistic systematicity, while
named languages are captured as optional sociolinguistic indices. The
approach builds on insights from “free-range” language, a metaphor for
language in settings that are less confined by monoglossic ideologies.
The author looks at four different kinds of settings: urban markets,
heritage language settings, multiethnic adolescent peer-groups, and
digital social media.

Central lessons to be learned from such free-range language settings
are: (1) communicative situations support linguistic differentiation
and can thus be the basis for fluid registers; (2) grammatical
systematicity is grounded in communicative situations and does not
require bound languages and linguistic borders; (3) named ‘languages’
can emerge as social indices signalling belonging, but this is an
optional, not a necessary development.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Written In: English (eng)



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