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Sociolinguistics in a languagised world: Introduction

  • Jürgen Jaspers

    Jürgen Jaspers is associate professor of Dutch linguistics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. He publishes widely on classroom interaction, linguistic standardisation and urban multilingualism. Recent work of his can be found in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society, Language in Society, Language Policy, Science Communication, Journal of Germanic Linguistics, and Annual Review of Anthropology.

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    and Lian Malai Madsen

    Lian Malai Madsen is associate professor of the psychology of language at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research concerns linguistic diversity, social categorisation, socialisation and education. Her work has been published in International Journal of Multilingualism, Linguistics and Education and Language in Society. She is the author of Fighters, Girls and Other Identities (Multilingual Matters) and co-editor of Everyday Languaging (Mouton De Gruyter).

Published/Copyright: August 24, 2016

Abstract

The idea that there exist separate, enumerable languages has in the last decades been widely criticised, and it has led scholars to propose various new terms and concepts such as ‘polylingualism’, ‘metrolingualism’, and ‘translanguaging’, among others. As these terms are attracting considerable acclaim within the academy, this paper argues it is time to reflect on their occurrence, provenance and pertinence for future research and theorisation. We devote particular attention to the risk of confusion if newly proposed terms interchangeably serve descriptive, ontological, pedagogical and political purposes; to the continuing relevance of language separation outside as well as inside the academy; and to the purported transformative and critical potential of fluid language practices in education and beyond. We suggest a close consideration of each of these concerns is central to a sociolinguistics of rather than for particular linguistic practices.

About the authors

Jürgen Jaspers

Jürgen Jaspers is associate professor of Dutch linguistics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. He publishes widely on classroom interaction, linguistic standardisation and urban multilingualism. Recent work of his can be found in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society, Language in Society, Language Policy, Science Communication, Journal of Germanic Linguistics, and Annual Review of Anthropology.

Lian Malai Madsen

Lian Malai Madsen is associate professor of the psychology of language at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research concerns linguistic diversity, social categorisation, socialisation and education. Her work has been published in International Journal of Multilingualism, Linguistics and Education and Language in Society. She is the author of Fighters, Girls and Other Identities (Multilingual Matters) and co-editor of Everyday Languaging (Mouton De Gruyter).

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Published Online: 2016-8-24
Published in Print: 2016-9-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

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