Selves in two languages : bilinguals' verbal enactments of identity in French and Portuguese / Michele Koven.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Koven, Michèle.

Series:

Studies in bilingualism ; v. 34.

Studies in bilingualism, 0928-1533 ; v. 34

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bilingualism--Psychological aspects.

Bilingualism.

Identity (Psychology).

French language--Social aspects.

French language.

Portuguese language--Social aspects.

Portuguese language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (341 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Bilinguals often report that they feel like a different person in their two languages. In the words of one bilingual in Koven's book, "When I speak Portuguese, automatically, I'm in a different world…it's a different color." Although testimonials like this abound in everyday conversation among bilinguals, there has been scant systematic investigation of this intriguing phenomenon. Focusing on French-Portuguese bilinguals, the adult children of Portuguese migrants in France, this book provides an empirically grounded, theoretical account of how the same speakers enact, experience, and are perceived by others to have different identities in their two languages. This book explores bilinguals' experiences and expressions of identity in multicultural, multilingual contexts. It is distinctive in its integration of multiple levels of analysis to address the relationships between language and identity. Koven links detailed attention to discourse form, to participants' multiple interpretations how such forms become signs of identity, and to the broader macrosociolinguistic contexts that structure participants' access to those signs. The study of how bilinguals perform and experience different identities in their two languages sheds light on the more general role of linguistic and cultural forms in local experiences and expressions of identity.

Contents:

Selves in Two Languages

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Transcription conventions

I. THEORETICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC CONTEXT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. DISCOURSE-SEMIOTIC APPROACHES TO BILINGUAL SELFHOOD

3. ETHNOGRAPHIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEXTS OF LUSODESCENDANTSIN FRANCE AND PORTUGAL

II. BILINGUALS' IDENTITY PERFORMANCE

4. BILINGUALS' REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE IMPACT OF TWO LANGUAGES ON CONTEXT AND SELF

5. ENACTING BILINGUAL SELVES IN NARRATIVE: NARRATIVE ELICITATION AND ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK

6. ENACTING BILINGUAL SELVES IN NARRATIVE: RESULTS OF NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF VOICING

7. LISTENERS' PERCEPTIONS OF BILINGUALS IN EACH LANGUAGE

III. INDIVIDUAL SPEAKER PROFILES

8. TERESA

9. ISABEL

10. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

APPENDIX A: DESCRIPTION OF ENTRY INTO FIELD AND FIELD SITES

APPENDIX B: PARTICIPANTS' BACKGROUNDS

APPENDIX C: CODED TRANSCRIPTS OF TERESA'S STORY PAIR

APPENDIX D: TERESA'S OVERALL PROFILE

APPENDIX E: CODED TRANSCRIPTS OF ISABEL'S STORY PAIR

APPENDIX F: ISABEL'S OVERALL PROFILE

INDEX

The series Studies in Bilingualism (SiBil).

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-282) and index.

ISBN:

9786612152542

9781282152540

1282152548

9789027291899

9027291896

OCLC:

647673120