Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada
Building on the concept of “imagined community” developed by Anderson (1983), Cohen (1985) put forward a model in which any community is the product of a specific construction that revolves around a shared symbolic repertoire. In bilingual communities, that repertoire is built around the shared lang...
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Presses Universitaires du Midi
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Anglophonia |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/anglophonia/1140 |
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| author | Charles Brasart |
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| description | Building on the concept of “imagined community” developed by Anderson (1983), Cohen (1985) put forward a model in which any community is the product of a specific construction that revolves around a shared symbolic repertoire. In bilingual communities, that repertoire is built around the shared languages (and cultural backgrounds) of its speakers. Mixing languages is an act of identity with an “emblematic function” (Matras 2009: 57): it makes it possible to determine who is part of the group and who is not. A bilingual speaker may thus adopt a converging strategy by using his/her languages with members of his/her narrow community, or by sticking to one language with members of the wider monolingual community. Conversely, a strategy of divergence (Giles, Coupland & Coupland 1991) may be adopted by using two languages when addressing a monolingual speaker.Beyond the matter of the choice available to bilingual speakers, that issue is rarely addressed from the opposite point of view: what strategy can a monolingual speaker adopt when wishing to accommodate a bilingual speaker? In traditionally monolingual countries, or countries with important immigrant populations, bilingualism may be perceived as a threat to national cohesion because of its marginal dimension. Conversely, if a monolingual speaker tries to adopt a strategy of convergence, that may be perceived as over-accommodation, a rhetorical trick likely to result in a face-threatening act both for bilingual speakers and other monolingual speakers.The present article is a reflection based on three case studies, namely the way or ways in which Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau address (or do not) linguistic minorities. In the United States, where Hispanics form the largest minority, they are both vilified for threatening the unity of a wider community supposed brought together by English, and courted for their votes as the famed electoral “sleeping giant.” In Canada, relationships between linguistic communities raise questions as well, in so far as bilingualism may be perceived as a class privilege by English-speakers and as a threat by French-speakers. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9d994bd8829b49edb3a83d1f059545a0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1278-3331 2427-0466 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires du Midi |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Anglophonia |
| spelling | doaj-art-9d994bd8829b49edb3a83d1f059545a02025-01-30T12:33:02ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiAnglophonia1278-33312427-04662017-11-012410.4000/anglophonia.1140Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au CanadaCharles BrasartBuilding on the concept of “imagined community” developed by Anderson (1983), Cohen (1985) put forward a model in which any community is the product of a specific construction that revolves around a shared symbolic repertoire. In bilingual communities, that repertoire is built around the shared languages (and cultural backgrounds) of its speakers. Mixing languages is an act of identity with an “emblematic function” (Matras 2009: 57): it makes it possible to determine who is part of the group and who is not. A bilingual speaker may thus adopt a converging strategy by using his/her languages with members of his/her narrow community, or by sticking to one language with members of the wider monolingual community. Conversely, a strategy of divergence (Giles, Coupland & Coupland 1991) may be adopted by using two languages when addressing a monolingual speaker.Beyond the matter of the choice available to bilingual speakers, that issue is rarely addressed from the opposite point of view: what strategy can a monolingual speaker adopt when wishing to accommodate a bilingual speaker? In traditionally monolingual countries, or countries with important immigrant populations, bilingualism may be perceived as a threat to national cohesion because of its marginal dimension. Conversely, if a monolingual speaker tries to adopt a strategy of convergence, that may be perceived as over-accommodation, a rhetorical trick likely to result in a face-threatening act both for bilingual speakers and other monolingual speakers.The present article is a reflection based on three case studies, namely the way or ways in which Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau address (or do not) linguistic minorities. In the United States, where Hispanics form the largest minority, they are both vilified for threatening the unity of a wider community supposed brought together by English, and courted for their votes as the famed electoral “sleeping giant.” In Canada, relationships between linguistic communities raise questions as well, in so far as bilingualism may be perceived as a class privilege by English-speakers and as a threat by French-speakers.https://journals.openedition.org/anglophonia/1140bilingualismcode-switchinglanguage contactCommunication Accommodation TheorysociolinguisticsTrump |
| spellingShingle | Charles Brasart Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada Anglophonia bilingualism code-switching language contact Communication Accommodation Theory sociolinguistics Trump |
| title | Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada |
| title_full | Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada |
| title_fullStr | Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed | Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada |
| title_short | Les monolingues parlent aux bilingues : Plurilinguisme et parole politique aux États-Unis et au Canada |
| title_sort | les monolingues parlent aux bilingues plurilinguisme et parole politique aux etats unis et au canada |
| topic | bilingualism code-switching language contact Communication Accommodation Theory sociolinguistics Trump |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/anglophonia/1140 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT charlesbrasart lesmonolinguesparlentauxbilinguesplurilinguismeetparolepolitiqueauxetatsunisetaucanada |