Language In Catalonia Research Articles

Sociolinguists and their publics: Epistemological tension and disciplinary contestation over language in Catalonia

AbstractThis article aims to investigate the relationship of sociolinguists with the publics in Catalonia and to disentangle the complex interrelationships among academics within the discipline. By examining material from mainstream media outlets and data from interviews with a selected number of sociolinguist scholars, we show how the public sphere is a site in which competing epistemological and disciplinary visions contest for discursive dominance in language‐in‐society matters, institutional authorization, and resources. Rather than seeing the engagement of sociolinguists with publics as a disinterested activity of knowledge dissemination and the provision of facts, we argue that the publics are better conceived as a terrain toward which sociolinguists direct institutional, disciplinary, and professional interests. Ultimately, our article contributes to a more encompassing understanding of ourselves as sociolinguists.

ECOLOGICAL METAPHORS IN DEBATES OVER LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE POLITICS IN CATALONIA (1999-2009)

In the last two decades, the ecological approach has attracted the interest of Spanish and Catalan linguists. Nonetheless, until recently linguists stated a lack of connection of the fields of language ecology and language policy. The study of language and ecology has not yet become a matter of public interest; it only appears in scientific publications and the media using startling ecological metaphors such as threat of extinction, etc. This contribution analyses the language used both by professional linguists and laypeople in publications and in the public debate on the conflicts in Spanish and Catalan bilingualism in the decade before the constitutional and supreme courts ruled against the prevalence of the Catalan language in Catalonia (1999-2009). The decade analysed here can be characterized by a sensation of growing linguistic conflicts that manifested, for example, through heated debates over what Catalans perceived as life threatening for the Catalan language, on the one hand, and reactions such as demands for the introduction of additional teaching hours to prevent the alleged extinction of Spanish in Catalonia, on the other hand. The Catalan society is reliving the ghost of extinction of their language—probably reinforced by publications which denounce a continuous reduction of living space and the disappearance of more and more niches of the Catalan language. On the other hand, Castilian activists (and among them some linguists) maintain there is a battle the Castilian language in Catalonia has to win in order to survive the said-to-be ferocious reduction of its vital space and the asserted institutionalized suffocation or extermination of the Spanish language. The texts analysed in this contribution belong to a text series which regarding its content and aims corresponds to a reduced number of triggering reference texts. The aim is to determine the importance of the language of ecology in this field and the usage of these elements by both sides, those denouncing the threat of the Castilian language and those fearing the risk of extinction of the Catalan language. It will be shown that in the debate over the struggle for life of Catalan and Spanish in the Catalan speaking areas, the language of ecology and evolution is heavily used and that the re-contextualization of Catalan metaphors in the analysed Spanish texts is systematic.

ECOLOGICAL METAPHORS IN DEBATES OVER LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE POLITICS IN CATALONIA (1999-2009)

In the last two decades, the ecological approach has attracted the interest of Spanish and Catalan linguists. Nonetheless, until recently linguists stated a lack of connection of the fields of language ecology and language policy. The study of language and ecology has not yet become a matter of public interest; it only appears in scientific publications and the media using startling ecological metaphors such as threat of extinction, etc. This contribution analyses the language used both by professional linguists and laypeople in publications and in the public debate on the conflicts in Spanish and Catalan bilingualism in the decade before the constitutional and supreme courts ruled against the prevalence of the Catalan language in Catalonia (1999-2009). The decade analysed here can be characterized by a sensation of growing linguistic conflicts that manifested, for example, through heated debates over what Catalans perceived as life threatening for the Catalan language, on the one hand, and reactions such as demands for the introduction of additional teaching hours to prevent the alleged extinction of Spanish in Catalonia, on the other hand. The Catalan society is reliving the ghost of extinction of their language—probably reinforced by publications which denounce a continuous reduction of living space and the disappearance of more and more niches of the Catalan language. On the other hand, Castilian activists (and among them some linguists) maintain there is a battle the Castilian language in Catalonia has to win in order to survive the said-to-be ferocious reduction of its vital space and the asserted institutionalized suffocation or extermination of the Spanish language. The texts analysed in this contribution belong to a text series which regarding its content and aims corresponds to a reduced number of triggering reference texts. The aim is to determine the importance of the language of ecology in this field and the usage of these elements by both sides, those denouncing the threat of the Castilian language and those fearing the risk of extinction of the Catalan language. It will be shown that in the debate over the struggle for life of Catalan and Spanish in the Catalan speaking areas, the language of ecology and evolution is heavily used and that the re-contextualization of Catalan metaphors in the analysed Spanish texts is systematic.

Audio description meets Easy-to-Read and Plain Language: results from a questionnaire and a focus group in Catalonia

Summary: Providing accessible audiovisual content which caters for diverse user needs is one of the challenges of today’s digitized society. Easy-to-understand language is currently being explored as a powerful tool to foster accessibility among different user groups, including persons with cognitive disabilities and reading difficulties. Audio description is an access service that provides an aural translation of visuals for those who cannot access the images in audiovisual content. This paper discusses whether audio description could incorporate the principles of easy-to-understand language in order to produce easy-to-understand audio descriptions by focusing on the Catalan working context. Specifically, the paper reports on a survey distributed among experts in Easy-to-Read and Plain Language in Catalonia and a focus group which brought together audio description and Easy-to-Read experts working in Catalonia to discuss the feasibility and potential means of implementation of an easy-to-understand audio description. Both research actions were undertaken in the framework of the EASIT project. Keywords: easy-to-understand language, plain language, easy-to-read language, audio description

But Singing Makes it So: Occitan as Poetic Language inthe French Crusade against the Medieval Crown of Aragon

In this article, I argue that genre is a determining factor in language use in the Occitan literature in the multilingual Crown of Aragon and especially in the "cycle of sirventes of 1285." After an examination of grammatical treatises written by the Catalan troubadours Ramon Vidal and Jofre de Foixà, I demonstrate that Occitan was so closely associated with lyric poetry in Catalonia that the language came to be considered the appropriate language for all lyric compositions from the twelfth to the thirteenth centuries. Through a study of the intersection of nationalistic rhetoric and language use in the prose of Bernat Desclot and the poems of the sirventes cycle, I argue that, far from being a "foreign" language in Catalonia, Occitan is the language of medieval Catalan poetry.

Interpreting Differences in Parental Encouragement to learn the host language: California and Catalonia Compared

Este artículo está basado en un subconjunto de datos recogidos en el marco de una investigación predoctoral binacional en relación a las medidas de estímulos por parte de los estímulos paternos comparando grupos de estudiantes de procedencia inmigrante en Cataluña (España) como España (Estados Unidos) (n=233). Los resultados de los ANOVA sobre estos estímulos parentales hechos con datos procedentes de estudiantes autóctonos y los inmigrantes de primera y segunda generación muestran una disminución de los puntuaciones entre los participantes de origen inmigrante en California mientras que se evidencia un incremento en los de Cataluña. La hipótesis propuesta es que en Cataluña los padres recién llegados tardan en darse cuenta de la importancia del catalán, a diferencia de EEUU, donde los padres de los estudiantes recién llegados son conscientes de la importancia de aprender el inglés. Sin embargo, se necesitan más datos para confirmar esta hipótesis. Por lo que los resultados se combinan con una revisión de los estudios recientes para argumentar la necesidad de aportar más datos empíricos sobre cómo los alumnos perciben las actitudes de los padres inmigrantes hacia el aprendizaje de la L2, especialmente en Cataluña.

Saying Catalan Words in Spanish: Social Representations of Xava Catalan

This article studies the social representations of a Catalan accent known as Xava. I examine the discourses of participants in a chat show produced by TV3, the Catalan television channel. In this programme, members of the general public gave their views about the inhabitants of Barcelona and also about their accent. The language ideologies of the participants in the programme were based on their own experiences, but were also rationalized through metalinguistic discourses, in order to legitimize or exclude linguistic varieties associated with particular social groups. In this way, certain linguistic features of the Xava accent were used by some participants in order to display a number of social representations of this linguistic variety and its users.The language ideologies examined in this article represent Xava as a Spanish-influenced variety of Catalan. The social representations of Xava seem to mirror those of the Spanish language in Catalonia. However, there is no evidence that Xava is used in order to display symbolic values of ethnicity. This is an area that would require further research.

Language Policy and Identity: the case of Catalonia

ABSTRACT Language is a crucial feature of national and personal identity. Where Nationality is contested or controlled a particular language may be promoted or prohibited and the language of instruction is often informed by a ‘national’ political agenda. In Spain Franco attempted the suppression of Catalan identity prohibiting the public use of Catalan, schooling was conducted in Castilian. After Franco, in 1975 the new constitution promoted autonomy and self government for Catalonia. The regional government developed an educational policy, teaching Catalan to all children and using Catalan as the vehicular language in schools. The present population of Catalonia is approximately six million, over four million speak Catalan as their first language but there is significant population whose first language is Castilian. The article moves from a discussion of identity and nationalism, to an account of the dynamics of language in Catalonia and the development of Catalan education policy and its implications fo...