Post-National Acts of Identity? Language Ideologies in Multilingual Belize
Final Report Abstract
In this project on language ideologies in multilingual Belize, symbolic meanings of languages were studied in an environment where language choice and ethnic belonging do not coincide. The main goal of the analysis of ethnographic and discourse data was to understand what languages symbolise if they do not express belonging to an ethnic group. A theoretical goal was to understand how languages, understood as elements that are constructed in social discourse, are reproduced in linguistically diverse contexts. The analysis of ethnographic and interview data shows that English, Kriol (an English-lexified creole language) and Spanish are the dominant codes in the Belizean village that was studied. Each of these languages has multiple symbolic functions and can, quite paradoxically, index belonging or nonbelonging and prestige or low social status. This implies that several different types of prestige and belonging co-exist in one setting. The symbolic meaning that is activated in a given situation depends on the genre that is performed, the social domain in which the code is used and on the social relationships of speakers. Ethnic affiliation can but does not necessarily play a role. This multiplication of social boundaries constructed via language indicates the multiple social spaces in which speakers live as social spaces are not generally shared among large groups but appear to be more individualised. This impacts on more diffuse uses of language and in the data set of this study, particularly English and Kriol are fused. And yet, the analysis of interview data demonstrates that languages, as discursive entities, continue to exist – even though languages may be fused in actual practice. Surprising findings of the study were that languages can have multiple, even paradoxical symbolic meanings and that, where this multiplication leads to fusion in language practice, the ability to keep languages apart can become an index for education and therefore social status. In the data set, interviewees regard the competence to perform English and Kriol as distinct codes as sign for educational success, which shows that this competence is difficult to acquire in everyday life. Focusing on the question of how languages are discursively constructed in a diverse and multilingual context, a grounded-theory inspired analysis of discourses in qualitative interviews and in fieldnotes has brought three central aspects to the fore that speakers conceptualise as being indexed by language and that thus dialectically co-constitute languages. These are belonging (social affiliation), prestige (social status) and materiality (discourses that define which code is used in which medium). This metaperspective on the discursive construction of language will be relevant for study the symbolic functions of languages also in other multilingual and culturally diverse settings. Besides the relevance of the study for sociolinguistic theorising, the insights gained can serve to develop new approaches to language education. The use of mixed and non-standard forms in contemporary, individualised societies can be expected to be on the rise so that the acquisition of standard language will have to be a central task of institutional education.
Publications
-
(2018) Lobster, tourism and other kinds of business. Economic opportunity and language choice in a multilingual village in Belize. Language and Intercultural Communication 18 (4) 390–407
Schneider, Britta
-
(2019) Methodological nationalism in Linguistics. Language Sciences 76 101169
Schneider, Britta
-
2017. “Kaleidoscopes of indexicality – the multiplex symbolic functions of language in contexts of unfocused categories.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford XI: 1: 8-24
Schneider, Britta
-
2017. “Language choices in Belizean literature: the politics of language in transnational Caribbean space.” In: Gilmour, Rachael and Tamar Steinitz (eds.). Multilingual Currents in Literature, Translation and Culture. London: Routledge
Schneider, Britta
-
2017. “‘It’s Kriol they’re speaking!’ – Constructing language boundaries in multilingual and ethnically complex communities.” In: Elmiger, Daniel et al. (eds.) Bulletin VALS-ASLA: Bulletin suisse de linguistique appliquée. Neuchâtel : Institut de Linguistique de l’Université de Neuchâtel
Schneider, Britta
-
(2021): The contested role of colonial language ideologies in multilingual Belize. In: Postcolonial Language Varieties in the Americas, S. 291–316
Schneider, Britta
-
“The Multiplex Symbolic Functions of Spanish in Multilingual Belize.” In: Leung, Glenda-Alicia, Miki Loschky & Harald Leusmann (eds.) When Creole and Spanish Collide: Language and Cultural Contact in the Caribbean. Leiden/Bosten: Brill 2021, 253–276
Schneider, Britta
