Language Ideologies and Multilingual Practices of Post-Soviet Migrants in Western Europe from a Translanguaging Perspective

The main point of this paper is to describe, discuss and analyse multilingual practices of non-Russian migrants from the former Soviet Union from a translanguaging perspective uncovering language ideologies underpinning these practices. Using data collected through a 3-month linguistic ethnography supplemented by linguistic analysis of informal online communication, the Author found that fluid, translingual practices are generally not characteristic for the majority of well-educated post-Soviet migrants. Instead, we observe in the normative linguistic behaviour a lack of need or unwillingness to cross language boundaries and create hybrid linguistic forms.

Linguistics and Deception Detection (DD): A Work in Progress

Linguistic Deception Detection DD is a well-established part of forensic linguistics and an area that continues to attract attention on the part of researchers, self-styled experts, and the public at large. In this article, the various approaches to DD within the general field of linguistics are examined. The basic method is to treat language as a form of behaviour and to equate marked linguistic behaviour with other marked forms of behaviour. Such a comparison has been identified in other fields such as psychology and kinesics as being associated with stress linked to the attempt to deceive, typically in such contexts as examined here. Representative authentic examples of some of the most common linguistic indicators of deception that have been identified are discussed, dividing them into two general categories which we here introduce: language as revealer and language as concealer. We will argue that linguistic analysis for DD should be conducted relative to the subject’s individual linguistic patterns of behaviour, not on absolutes related to broad generalisations about what is supposedly normal or unmarked in the population at large. We will also briefly discuss some structured methods for linguistic analysis for DD and the prospect that technology and artificial intelligence will provide the means to automate and digitalise the linguistic DD process. We maintain that caution is advisable when considering these, as DD will, in all probability, always remain a work in progress, with the need for a flexible human evaluator ready to take into account many different aspects of the individual subject and the case in question.

Pragmatic structure of bargaining in Hindi: An (im)politeness and banter-based exposition

Bargaining is an accepted and commonplace practice in fixing the rate of virtually any kind of item purchased in India. Taking excerpts from a corpus of Eastern Hindi, in this paper, I have explored the linguistic behaviour of Eastern Hindi speakers in bargaining context in terms of the theory of banter and discuss how it actually serves to negotiate the competing motivations of protecting ones financial interests in a bargain as well as establishing and maintaining long-term positive inter-personal relationship with each other. As in conventional banter, in bargaining also, potentially impolite linguistic behaviour is used to show the in-group identity and establish a positive inter-personal relationship. I shall further argue that a bargain interaction involves both the conventional and impoliteness mitigation banter as well as conventional (im)politeness. In general, a successful bargain depends on what kind of linguistic behaviour is employed in which phase. The study shows that conventional politeness in initiation phase, conventional solidarity banter in argumentation phase and impoliteness mitigation banter or even non-polite behaviour in settlement phase is employed in successful bargains.

Incidental pragmatics learning in telecollaborative exchanges

This paper aims to explore the outcomes of incidental pragmatics learning in the context of a telecollaboration programme, with a focus on the speech acts of criticising and suggesting. The programme involved Italian learners of English and American learners of Italian. It was organised around weekly Zoom video calls over an academic semester. Every second virtual encounter was devoted to providing and discussing feedback on written texts produced by the partner in the target language. The discussion was held in the feedback provider’s L2. For this study, we focused on three intermediate-to-advanced learners of English whose data were analysed longitudinally. English native speakers’ data, collected during a previous round of the telecollaboration programme, were analysed as a reference baseline. Signs of development in the linguistic behaviour of the three learners were observed with regard to the pragmatic strategies they used to comment on their partners’ errors, but not in the distribution of internal modifiers and supportive moves.

Officiality and strategic ambiguity in language policy: exploring migrant experiences in Andorra and Luxembourg

This article examines de jure language officialization policies in Andorra and Luxembourg, and addresses how these are discursively reproduced, sustained or challenged by members of resident migrant communities in the two countries. Although the two countries bear similarities in their small size, extensive multilingualism and the pride of place accorded to the ‘small’ languages of Catalan and Luxembourgish respectively, they have adopted different strategies as regards according official status to the languages spoken there. We start by undertaking a close reading of language policy documents and highlight the ways that they are informed by ‘strategic ambiguity’, wherein certain key elements are deliberately left open to interpretation via a range of textual strategies. We then conduct a thematic analysis of individual speaker testimonies to understand how this strategic ambiguity impacts on the ways that speakers negotiate fluid multilingual practices while also having to navigate rigid monolingual regimes. In given contexts, these hierarchies privilege Catalan in Andorra and Luxembourgish in Luxembourg, particularly in relation to the regimentation of migrants' linguistic behaviour. In this way, the paper provides insights into the complex ideological fields in which small languages are situated and demonstrates the ways in which language policy is intertwined with issues of power and dominance.

Investigating syntactic priming cumulative effects in MT-human interaction

Background: A question that deserves to be explored is whether the interaction between English language learners and the popular Google neural machine translation (GNMT) system could result in learning and increased production of a challenging syntactic structure in English that differs in word order between speakers first language and second language. Methods: In this paper, we shed light on this issue by testing 30 Brazilian Portuguese L2 English speakers in order to investigate whether they tend to describe an image in English with a relation of possession between nouns using a prepositional noun phrase (e.g. the cover of the book is red) or re-use the alternative syntactic structure seen in the output of the GNMT (e.g. the book cover is red), thus manifesting syntactic priming effects. In addition, we tested whether, after continuous exposure to the challenging L2 structure through Google Translate output, speakers would adapt to that structure in the course of the experiment, thus manifesting syntactic priming cumulative effects. Results: Our results show a robust syntactic priming effect as well as a robust cumulative effect. Conclusions: These results suggest that GNMT can influence L2 English learners linguistic behaviour and that L2 English learners unconsciously learn from the GNMT with continuous exposure to its output.

Accent or not? Language attitudes towards regional variation in British Sign Language

British Sign Language (BSL) has been shown to have a high degree of regional variation especially at the lexical level. This study explores awareness and attitudes of the British deaf community towards this regional variation. We studied interview data from the BSL Corpus (http://bslcorpusproject.org/data) from 121 deaf, BSL signers from six regions across the UK including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London and Manchester, focusing on responses to five questions in relation to regional variation in BSL. Responses were analysed using thematic analysis, following (Braun, V. & V. Clark. 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2). 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa). Findings reveal that BSL signers exhibited overall high levels of meta-linguistic awareness, as many of their attitudes and beliefs were in line with what has been reported in relation to linguistic behaviour with BSL such as mouthing, fingerspelling and accommodation. In addition, BSL signers seem to place enormous value on regional variation in BSL, believing that such variation contributes to the richness of BSL as a language and puts it on equal footing with the surrounding majority language, i.e. English. We explore the implications of these attitudes towards a broader understanding of language ideologies, including the concept of accent.

Towards the Stabilisation of Zimbabwean English: Progress and Prospects

The systematic description of African Englishes, including Zimbabwean English (ZE) is gradually increasing in the continent’s ongoing sociolinguistic research. The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the progress currently made in stabilising the Zimbabwean variety of English since its emergence in the 1980s using Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic framework for stabilisation of “New Englishes”. ZE is perceived to be at the nativisation stage, encompassing indigenisation of Standard English before a full adoption into a new socio-cultural context. Evidence of nativisation includes phonological innovations and structural indigenisation of English. It is noted that complete nativisation would follow after full adoption and functionalisation by the speech community. Furthermore, the study establishes that the task at hand is to carry out in-depth research that probes deeper into ZE’s evolution process; explaining its key structural features and its sociolinguistic traits. This will uncover its general linguistic behaviour, functional role and possibly strengthen its visibility, use and eventual growth. One major limitation of the study is that its focus is restricted to the Zimbabwean variety of English. Recommended future studies should include comparative studies of the development of “New Englishes” in other outer circle regions, so as to methodologically inform the stabilisation process of ZE.

Linguistic hybridization in a television talk show: A sociolinguistic analysis

This paper aims to determine the functions of hybridizing languages in the television talk show discourses in Bangladesh. Though hybridization of Bangla is harshly criticized in the media discourses for its alleged pollution of Bangla language, this linguistic practice, which seems to be rampant and pervasive in the society, is demonstrated not only as part of their habitual and natural linguistic behaviour but also to accomplish certain discourse functions. Analysing the video-recorded episodes selected from the archives of “Tritiyomatra”, a popular television talk show broadcasted on Channel i, a privately owned satellite television channel in Bangladesh, this study reveals that the speakers are found to use hybrid Bangla in their talk show conversation for a variety of discourse functions such as to establish cohesion in the discourse, to clarify concepts, to give emphasis and focus on the particular notions, to draw glocal attention, and to make the discussion more topic-specific and relevant. Moreover, the speakers are found to perform these discourse functions through the hybridization of languages very strategically and purposively.

Migration Discourse in Croatian News Media

This paper investigates migration discourse in Croatian news media by combining corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis approach. It first focuses on the phraseological and grammatical context of the terms migrant, imigrant, izbjeglica and azilant, whereupon it investigates the background of such linguistic behaviour. The latter is examined by means of critical discourse analysis, hence, by taking into account the non-linguistic context. This includes the analysis of historical, cultural and political context or sometimes even the relevant case law and standards of protection guaranteed in international humanitarian and human rights law. Results of the study suggest that discrimination does not occur only in the most obvious acts of inhuman treatment, such as pushbacks, but also in the language the media use when reporting on migration process.