Critical Perspectives on Linguistic Fixity and Fluidity

This volume offers a critical perspective on current views on linguistic fixity and fluidity in sociolinguistics and highlights empirical accounts alternative to prevailing trends in the field. Featuring accounts from a broad range of regional contexts, the collection takes stock of such terms as "polylingualism", "metrolingualism" and "translanguaging" to question perceptions around multilingual and monolingual language use. The book critiques the status of fluid language use as a more "natural" language practice and in turn, its greater potential for corresponding social transformation, demonstrating the value of linguistic fixity and the continuous debate between fixity and fluidity in multilingual speakers' lives. In providing these accounts, the book seeks not to advocate for linguistic fixity or fluidity, but to argue that sociolinguists pay close attention to the way both types of linguistic practice open up or close down avenues for social transformation. This collection is a key reading for graduate students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and linguistic anthropology.

Jürgen Jaspers is Associate Professor of Dutch Linguistics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. Lian Malai Madsen is Associate Professor of the Psychology of Language at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Chapter 1: Fixity and Fluidity in Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice Jürgen Jaspers and Lian Malai Madsen Part I: Negotiating Fixity Chapter 2: Recognizing Languages, Practising Languaging Janus Spindler Møller Chapter 3: Languagised Repertoires: How Fictional Languages have Real Effects Katharina Ruuska Chapter 4: Lingoing and Everyday Metrolingual Metalanguage Alastair Pennycook and Emi Otsuji Part II: Pursuing Real Languages Chapter 5: Carving out breathing spaces for Galician. New speakers' investment in monolingual practices Bernadette O'Rourke Chapter 6: Transformative Multilingualism? Class, Race and Linguistic Repertoires in Hong Kong Kara Fleming Chapter 7: The Symbolic Organization of Languages in a High Prestige School Thomas Rørbeck Nørreby and Lian Malai Madsen Part III: The Meaning Potential of Fluid Language Chapter 8: Inarticulate Voices: Translanguaging in an Ecology of Conflict Panayiota Charalambous, Constadina Charalambous, and Michalinos Zembylas Chapter 9: Speaker Perspectives, Linguistic Hybridity, and Language Learning Ursula Ritzau and Lian Malai Madsen Part IV: Dilemmas and Dialectics Chapter 10: The Deliberative Teacher: Wavering between Linguistic Uniformity and Diversity Jürgen Jaspers Chapter 11: Register Processes in Contemporary South African Schools: Dialectics of Fixity and Fluidity James Collins and Lara-Stephanie Krause Chapter 12: Discussion: The Elephant in Every Room. Rob Moore