International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3): 364-379., 2014
This art icle m ay be used for research, t eaching, and privat e st udy purposes. Any subst ant i... more This art icle m ay be used for research, t eaching, and privat e st udy purposes. Any subst ant ial or syst em at ic reproduct ion, redist ribut ion, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, syst em at ic supply, or dist ribut ion in any form t o anyone is expressly forbidden.
International Journal of Multilingualism, Jun 20, 2014
Language conceptualised as multilinguality is constitutive of being human and may be a potential ... more Language conceptualised as multilinguality is constitutive of being human and may be a potential site for negotiating conflict and exploring paths of harmony in education. In various domains of activity, most people would rather see ‘a language’ as a homogeneous, pure and standard pairing of a lexicon and syntax. There is substantial evidence to show that human linguistic behaviour is marked by fluidity rather than rigid compartmentalisation. More and more scholars working on the interface between language, education and social justice have started looking at the fluid nature of language. In recent years, several proposals have also been made for pedagogies rooted in multilinguality. This paper attempts to contribute to the discourse of conceptualising ‘language’ and ‘multilingualism’ in alternative ways; it also examines how this alternative conceptualisation can become a resource in education.
Noam Chomsky is one of the most widely published and influential thinkers on language and mind. T... more Noam Chomsky is one of the most widely published and influential thinkers on language and mind. This book consists of an edited transcript of a lecture, delivered at the University of Delhi in January 1996, where Chomsky reflects on the history of the "generative enterprise" to relate it to some strikingly novel advances in grammatical theory.
... The remaining articles address ASL topics such as pinky extension, conversational repairs, ey... more ... The remaining articles address ASL topics such as pinky extension, conversational repairs, eye gaze and pronominal reference, and spatial mapping in ASL storytelling. ... Martin Pütz (Ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. vii + 243. $51.95 paper. ...
International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3): 364-379., 2014
This art icle m ay be used for research, t eaching, and privat e st udy purposes. Any subst ant i... more This art icle m ay be used for research, t eaching, and privat e st udy purposes. Any subst ant ial or syst em at ic reproduct ion, redist ribut ion, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, syst em at ic supply, or dist ribut ion in any form t o anyone is expressly forbidden.
International Journal of Multilingualism, Jun 20, 2014
Language conceptualised as multilinguality is constitutive of being human and may be a potential ... more Language conceptualised as multilinguality is constitutive of being human and may be a potential site for negotiating conflict and exploring paths of harmony in education. In various domains of activity, most people would rather see ‘a language’ as a homogeneous, pure and standard pairing of a lexicon and syntax. There is substantial evidence to show that human linguistic behaviour is marked by fluidity rather than rigid compartmentalisation. More and more scholars working on the interface between language, education and social justice have started looking at the fluid nature of language. In recent years, several proposals have also been made for pedagogies rooted in multilinguality. This paper attempts to contribute to the discourse of conceptualising ‘language’ and ‘multilingualism’ in alternative ways; it also examines how this alternative conceptualisation can become a resource in education.
Noam Chomsky is one of the most widely published and influential thinkers on language and mind. T... more Noam Chomsky is one of the most widely published and influential thinkers on language and mind. This book consists of an edited transcript of a lecture, delivered at the University of Delhi in January 1996, where Chomsky reflects on the history of the "generative enterprise" to relate it to some strikingly novel advances in grammatical theory.
... The remaining articles address ASL topics such as pinky extension, conversational repairs, ey... more ... The remaining articles address ASL topics such as pinky extension, conversational repairs, eye gaze and pronominal reference, and spatial mapping in ASL storytelling. ... Martin Pütz (Ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. vii + 243. $51.95 paper. ...
This is written in Hindi. It discusses the various articles concerning Language in the Constituti... more This is written in Hindi. It discusses the various articles concerning Language in the Constitution of India.
Scholars interested in multilinguality, 'a language', native speaker and pedagogical issues may f... more Scholars interested in multilinguality, 'a language', native speaker and pedagogical issues may find this interesting.
A collective labour of several scholars from Europe and India, the book seeks to explore the ling... more A collective labour of several scholars from Europe and India, the book seeks to explore the linguistic and literary hybridity of the modern world. One of the problems with globalisation — from the earliest times to its most recent avatar — is the obsessive pressure toward a linear homogeneity of structures and narratives. At the same time, cultures in conflict often invoke their essential heterogeneity in a carnivalesque pageant offering resistance and seeking identities through difference. In our own times with its post-industrial traces, Europe is processing itself from the homogeneity of several post-enlightenment nation-states to a larger heterogeneous political and cultural entity called European Union; and India, characterised by a historically established heterogeneity, is permanently struggling against homogenising tendencies that seek to unsettle its constitutionally established secular diversity. This struggle is easily borne out by the cultural contours of language in everyday use as well as in its literary contexts. Perhaps it is a truism to state that there is an unseen link between colonialism and monolingualism. Multiculturalism and multilingualism in the eyes of imperial powers is nothing but unchaste and impure. The book under review is the collective labour of several scholars from Europe and India seeking to explore linguistic and literary hybridity in the present. Culture is a palimpsest of many narratives and as India has shown over centuries, a multiplicity of languages is more an asset than a liability. Nevertheless, the concept of impurity as well as the idea of contamination could be seen to exist beside the productive and provocative idea of hybridity as asserting différance (Derrida) and/or as leading toward the idea of a third space (Homi K. Bhabha). Migration and multiculturalism are not a recent phenomenon and both Europe and India continue to experience transnational incursions and cultural conflicts, thereby giving rise to a rich texture of hybridity that celebrates difference and diversity. The issues discussed under several heads in the book are certainly relevant. There are 14 essays neatly segregated into six sections — hybrid concepts of language and culture, literary hybridity on a horizontal scale, selected case studies, Hindi-English hybridity, clash of high/low cultures, and hybrid cultural identities. This is quite typical of the theoretically-astute German eye involved in the composition of this erudite volume — the contributors are for the most scholars working in the field of Indo-Germanic literary and linguistic studies. As Bhabha has pointed out elsewhere, the process of cultural hybridity gives rise to something different, something in-between, in a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation. The volume amply bears this out in terms of a sustained collaborative scholarship. Claudia Benthien's chapter on Hyperintentional Hybridity as Aesthetic Principle in Contemporary German-Speaking Prose touches on the heart of the matter. While applying the Bakhtinian concept of
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