Publication
Title
Talking like a 'zerolingual' : ambiguous linguistic caricatures at an urban secondary school
Author
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to show how subordinate groups such as minority language users can enjoy and employ the linguistic possibilities afforded by the unequal structures they live in. On the basis of ethnographically collected data on linguistic practices at a secondary school in Antwerp, Belgium, I will indicate how a group of ethnic minority students engaged in making ambiguous linguistic caricatures by stylizing incompetent or broken Dutch what they called talking Illegal (Illegaal spreken, in Dutch). This appeared to be a contradictory practice: students talked Illegal as a way of faking incompetence and playfully but critically highlighting the contours of the unequal social frame surrounding them; at the same time such stylizations could also involve harsh stigmatization of classmates and help construct dominant positions on the classroom floor, and in this way they were reproducing and benefiting from the very structures they were critically highlighting on other occasions.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of pragmatics: an interdisciplinary quarterly of language studies. - Amsterdam
Publication
Amsterdam : 2011
ISSN
0378-2166
Volume/pages
43 :5 (2011) , p. 1264-1278
ISI
000288353700010
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 11.02.2011
Last edited 15.11.2022
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