Recent sociopolitical events have profoundly changed the status and functions of German and influenced its usage. In this study (published by Cambridge in 1984) Michael Clyne revises and expands his original analysis of the German language in Language and Society in the German-speaking Countries in the light of such changes as the end of the Cold War, German unification, the redrawing of the map of Europe, increasing European integration, and the changing self-images of Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. His discussion includes the differences in the form, function and status of the various national varieties of German; the relation between standard and non-standard varieties; gender, generational and political variation; Anglo-American influence on German; and the convergence of east and west. The result is a wide-ranging exploration of language and society in the German-speaking countries, all of which have problems or dilemmas concerning nationhood or ethnicity which are language-related and/or language-marked.

Recent sociopolitical events have profoundly changed the status and functions of German and influenced its usage. In this textbook Michael Clyne revises and expands his original analysis of the German language in Language and Society in the German-Speaking Countries (CUP, 1984) in the light of such changes as the end of the Cold War, German unification, increasing European integration, and the changing self-images of Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. His wide-ranging exploration shows that the German-speaking countries all have problems or dilemmas concerning nationhood or ethnicity that are language-related and/or language-marked.

The "one-nation-one-language" assumption is as unrealistic as the well-known Chomskyan ideal of a homogeneous speech community. Linguistic pluricentricity is a common and widespread phenomenon; it can be understood as either differing national standards or differing local norms. The nine studies collected in this volume explore the sociocultural, conceptual and structural dimensions of variation and change within pluricentric languages, with specific emphasis on the relationship between national varieties. They include research undertaken in both the Cognitive Linguistic and socolinguistic tradition, with particular emphasis upon the emerging framework of Cognitive Sociolinguistics. Six languages, all more or less pluricentric, are analyzed: four Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch and Swedish) and two Romance languages (Portuguese and French). The volume describes patterns of phonetic, lexical and morphosyntactic variation, and perception and attitudes in relation to these pluricentric languages. It makes use of advanced empirical methods able to account for the complex interplay between conceptual and social aspects of pluricentric variation and other forms of language-internal variation.

Different national varieties of Spanish, for instance Argentinian, Colombian and Mexican, use different address systems, with different numbers of pronouns, and also give pronouns a different social significance. For the first time, this study discusses and analyses these paradigms in the context of inter-varietal contact in a third country, with English as an additional contact language. A multiplicity of data collection methods made it possible to uncover many new insights into address behaviour. New definitions for address pronouns are proposed, and issues arising from address are discussed, such as: awareness, proficiency, avoidance, accommodation, and uncertainty. In addition, some unexpected practices emerged, which call into question all previously accepted norms of usage.

Explores the roots of Europe's struggle with multilingualism. This book argues that, over the centuries, the pursuit of linguistic homogeneity has become a central aspect of the mindset of Europeans. It offers an overview of the emergence of a standard language ideology and its relationship with ethnicity, territorial unity and social mobility

"This book investigates the history of national disunity in Germany since the end of the Second World War from a linguistic perspective: what was the role of language in the ideological conflicts of the Cold War and in the difficult process of rebuilding the German nation after 1990?" "German division and re-unification were crucial to the development of Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. This account of the relationship between language and social conflict in Germany throws new light on these events and raises important questions for the study of divided speech communities elsewhere. The book will interest sociolinguists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists."--BOOK JACKET.

This book emerges as a response to the increasing use of English as a lingua franca in the multilingual European context. It provides an up-to-date overview of the sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and educational aspects of research on third language acquisition by focusing on English as a third language.

This work examines the world's indigenous peoples, their cultures, the countries in which they reside, and the issues that impact these groups.

This anthology of papers, written by Christina Schäffner, brings together a selection of articles on the theme of translation and politics. Written from the perspective of translation studies and critical discourse analysis, it provides an overview of the textual and ideological factors that determine processes of translation within the arena of international politics. The selected articles afford a fascinating insight into the dynamics of intercultural exchange against the backdrop of European politics from the fall of the Berlin Wall to debates on EU enlargement. By taking a context-sensitive approach to linguistic description, this book will be of interest to scholars in various adjacent fields of research, such as (applied) linguistics, (intercultural) communication studies, media studies, political science and the sociology of globalisation, as well as to relevant higher education programmes around the world. The discipline of translation studies has made its mark by conceptualising translation as a form of cross-cultural communication that transcends asymmetrical relations of power, foregrounding issues such as (colonial) domination, (cultural) hegemony, and ideology. To date, however, there has been no compelling evidence of the linguistic implications of transnational political communication, and little research has been done to help us to understand how political discourse at the international level presupposes translation. Featuring a wealth of examples from political text and talk, each article here links contextual features to the linguistic choices of political actors. By moving beyond national and cultural boundaries, these analyses help the reader to get to grips with the discursive implications of power politics, and to open up a new debate for a novel area of studies that might be termed cross-cultural political discourse analysis.

This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the connection between language and ethnicity.