Article published in:
Language Variation - European Perspectives V: Selected papers from the Seventh International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 7), Trondheim, June 2013Edited by Eivind Torgersen, Stian Hårstad, Brit Mæhlum and Unn Røyneland
[Studies in Language Variation 17] 2015
► pp. 87–98
Voicing the ‘other’
Code-switching in discourses of Gaelic language ideologies
Since the late 1970s, and particularly the early 1990s, work carried out on language ideologies within the fields of linguistic anthropology and the sociology of language has contributed considerably to an understanding of the interplay between speakers’ language use on the one hand, and their views and beliefs about language and its use on the other. At the same time, ongoing research into the phenomenon of code-switching within interactional sociolinguistics has demonstrated the multiple motivations that multilingual speakers may have in alternating between the various codes available to them. This paper provides a preliminary synthesis of the two approaches in the context of Scottish Gaelic-English bilinguals’ interactions, drawing on two corpora of recorded bilingual speech to look at how language choice can relate to expressions of language ideologies and the interactional contexts in which these expressions take place. We focus specifically on how speakers orient to language ideologies related to language policy and argue that code-switching offers the interactant a way to “voice the other” when expressing negative views of language policy and practice. We then consider the interactional motivations for drawing on this “other” voice in the discourse.
Keywords: code-switching, language ideologies, language policy, Scottish Gaelic, stance
Published online: 09 April 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.17.07dun
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.17.07dun
Cited by
Cited by other publications
Dunmore, Stuart S.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
References
References
Ag, Astrid, and J. Normann Jørgensen
Alvarez-Cáccamo, Celso
Bakhtin, Mikhail. M.
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson
Cavanaugh, Jillian
2013 “Language ideologies and language attitudes: A linguistic anthropological perspective.” In Language Variation – European Perspectives IV. Selected papers from the 6th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), Freiburg June 2011 ed. by P. Auer, J.C. Reina, and G. Kaufmann, 45–55. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Clyne, Michael
Dorian, Nancy C.
Du Bois, John W.
Dunmore, Stuart S.
2014 “Bilingual Life After School? Language Use, Ideologies and Attitudes Among Gaelic-medium Educated Adults.” Unpublished PhD thesis: University of Edinburgh.
Gal, Susan
García, Ofélia, and Li Wei
Gunther, Susanne
Jørgensen, J. Normann
Kroskrity, Paul
National Records of Scotland (NROS)
2013 “
Statistical Bulletin – Release 2A
”. Available online: http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/StatsBulletin2A.pdf [accessed 26.9.2013].
Oliver, James
Schiefflin, Bambi, Kathryn Woolard and Paul Kroskirty
Silverstein, Michael
Smith-Christmas, Cassie
2012 “I’ve lost it here de a bh’ agam: Language Shift, Maintenance, and Code-Switching in a Bilingual Family.” Unpublished PhD thesis: University of Glasgow.
2013 “Stance and code-switching: Gaelic-English bilinguals on the Isles of Skye and Harris, Scotland.” In Language Variation – European Perspectives IV. Selected papers from the 6th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), Freiburg June 2011 ed. by P. Auer, J.C. Reina, and G. Kaufmann, 229–245. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Stockdale, Aileen, Bryan MacGregor and Gillian Munro
Tannen, Deborah