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Chapter 5. Us, them and all the others

Analyzing belonging among Japanese immigrant women in The Netherlands
  • Anna Banaś
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The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging
This chapter is in the book The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging

Abstract

This study examines the linguistic practices of a group of Japanese immigrant women temporarily living in Amstelveen, and their ways of constructing belonging. Taking as an example three linguistic variables: (i) personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’; (ii) specific ethnic labels (single self-referring label Nihonjin ‘The Japanese’ versus multiple labels Orandajin, Oranda no hito/hitotachi, Orandajin no hito/hitotachi, Oranda ‘The Dutch’); and (iii) the use of non-standard Osaka Japanese negation I discuss how speakers in this group (re)create various boundaries, and how they draw on ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy as a way of achieving group cohesion.

Abstract

This study examines the linguistic practices of a group of Japanese immigrant women temporarily living in Amstelveen, and their ways of constructing belonging. Taking as an example three linguistic variables: (i) personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’; (ii) specific ethnic labels (single self-referring label Nihonjin ‘The Japanese’ versus multiple labels Orandajin, Oranda no hito/hitotachi, Orandajin no hito/hitotachi, Oranda ‘The Dutch’); and (iii) the use of non-standard Osaka Japanese negation I discuss how speakers in this group (re)create various boundaries, and how they draw on ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy as a way of achieving group cohesion.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Interpersonal relations, place, and belonging
  5. Chapter 2. The boundaries of belonging 17
  6. Chapter 3. Language socialization and making sense of place 27
  7. Chapter 4. Cité Duits 55
  8. Chapter 5. Us, them and all the others 89
  9. Part II. Parodic performances from the margins
  10. Chapter 6. Playing against peripheralization 115
  11. Chapter 7. The politics of place-making and belonging through language choice within center-periphery dynamics in Limburg, The Netherlands 125
  12. Chapter 8. Peripheral performances 149
  13. Chapter 9. What’s up in town 177
  14. Part III. Agency in linguistic place-making
  15. Chapter 10. Language, place, agency 207
  16. Chapter 11. Place-making and dialect 213
  17. Chapter 12. Alternative place naming in the diverse margins of an ideologically mono-lingual society 239
  18. Chapter 13. Yooperisms in tourism 261
  19. Subject index 287
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.05ban

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Interpersonal relations, place, and belonging
  5. Chapter 2. The boundaries of belonging 17
  6. Chapter 3. Language socialization and making sense of place 27
  7. Chapter 4. Cité Duits 55
  8. Chapter 5. Us, them and all the others 89
  9. Part II. Parodic performances from the margins
  10. Chapter 6. Playing against peripheralization 115
  11. Chapter 7. The politics of place-making and belonging through language choice within center-periphery dynamics in Limburg, The Netherlands 125
  12. Chapter 8. Peripheral performances 149
  13. Chapter 9. What’s up in town 177
  14. Part III. Agency in linguistic place-making
  15. Chapter 10. Language, place, agency 207
  16. Chapter 11. Place-making and dialect 213
  17. Chapter 12. Alternative place naming in the diverse margins of an ideologically mono-lingual society 239
  18. Chapter 13. Yooperisms in tourism 261
  19. Subject index 287
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