Speech behavior of a bilingual in everyday discourse

Abstract

The article deals with certain aspects of the Tatar-Russian bilingual individual’s speech behavior in everyday discourse. The object of our analysis is the language of everyday communication of the Tatar-Russian bilinguals belonging to the young, middle and older generations inside and outside the family, as well as the specifics of language use in these spheres. We conducted a comparative analysis of the linguistic behavior of the two categories of respondents on the basis of the factual material, collected through questionnaires and the recordings of spontaneous conversational speech fragments. The research was conducted using descriptive, statistical methods and a correlation analysis, which made it possible to establish the correlation between the language situation, competence and social parameters of the respondents. The first group of respondents was humanities students of Tatar nationality, among whom 67.6 % of the respondents came from rural families and 32.4% were from urban families. The second group of respondents were representatives of different age groups of mono-ethnic and mixed families, as well as two representatives of other ethnic groups who have an above-average level of Tatar language proficiency. The analysis showed that in today’s active bilingual society the language of everyday communication is complex and multidimensional in its nature. Its functionality and range depend on the language personality’s place of residence and a communicative situation. In the course of our research, we identified the specifics and reasons for language mixing in Tatar colloquial speech. As the respondents leave their family society, there is a noticeable increase in the number of Russian words and expressions in their speech, which is especially characteristic of the younger generation of bilinguals. As the research has shown, in modern conditions, Tatar-Russian bilingualism is actively developing, penetrating into such a stable sphere as a family society. This phenomenon is also observed in modern families, which implement Tatar-Russian bilingualism and whose members’ first language is their native Tatar language.