]
]
]
]
Linguistic Landscapes from a Minority Perspective. Colloquium avec H. Marten à ICMLXII.
Departement(s)
Dates
28/05/2009-30/05/2009
Localisation
Tartu, Estonie (Etranger)
Description
The study of linguistic landscapes, which is commonly understood as the interpretation of "the use of language in its written form in the public sphere" (Gorter, 2006:2), has attracted considerable interest among researchers over the past five years. LL research raises interesting questions as to who puts up what sign(s) where, in what language(s) and last but not least why (or why not)? Therefore, its heuristic potential to "point out patterns representing different ways in which people, groups, associations, institutions and government agencies cope with the game of symbols within a complex reality" (Ben-Rafael et al, 2006:27), is undoubtedly one of its main reasons of success. In our view, LL research aims to look at ways in which the linguistic landscape does (or does not) reflect language use and attitudes, and how (i.e. to what extent and in what ways) it is manipulated in order to confirm or resist existing (or presumed) language prestige patterns and hierarchies. Taken in this sense, LL research clearly feeds into the study of minority language communities, especially since issues of power and resistance are at the heart of its research agenda. We also argue that the systematic analysis of written language in the public sphere should be correlated with other data sources such as oral language practices or language legislation, in order to be fully effective as a research tool.
LL research constitutes a challenging and fresh approach to minority language issues, for it approaches the 'same old issues' of language contact and language conflict from a very specific angle, thus providing new and useful insights into "patterns of language [...] use, official language policies, prevalent language attitudes, [and] power relations between different linguistic groups" (Backhaus 2007:11). Our aim is to illustrate this by presenting original LL work throughout a variety of minority settings in Europe.
