THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING A
MULTILINGUAL REPERTOIRE
Silvia Dal Negro (Free University Bolzano, Italy)
Why multilingual?
•
because students are multilingual?
•
because several languages are spoken?
because all share the same multilingual
repertoire?
•
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
What is a linguistic repertoire?
the sum of the languages used by a speech
community
• the hierarchy of these languages
• the distribution of domains
•
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
What is a speech community?

a community of people sharing:
a social organization
 territoriality
 a set of languages
 language use patterns
 language attitudes
 regular and frequent interac

[Berruto, Ferguson, Kloss, Gumperz, Labov]
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
Kinds of speech communities
diglossic
bilingual
triglossic (a)
triglossic (b)
dilalic
diacrolettic
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bidialectal
Some recent issues
• non territorial and diversified communities, typically migrants (Chini
2009);
• communities of practice instead of territorially-bound speech
communities (Jenkins 2007);
• standard repertoires emerge empirically out of meaningful
correlations between codes and domains of use (Dell’Aquila 2005);
• patterns of language use constitute speech communities (Vietti 2007);
• qualitative, ideological parameters contribute to the definition of a
repertoire (Dal Negro / Iannaccaro 2003).
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
Parameters to define a linguistic repertoire






in-group/out-group
“ethnic”
local
“legitimate”
language/ dialect
glottonymes
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SCHOOL
NEIGHBOURHOOD
SOCIAL
NETWORK
1
SOCIAL
NETWORK
2
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
The school as a speech community
• it has a definite social organization
• it has a very clear territorial definition
• there are regular and frequent interactions
among its members
o is there a shared set of languages ?
o are there shared language use patterns ?
o are there shared language attitudes ?
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
LINEE – WP8a

Project:


In search of multi-competence: Exploring language use and language
values among multilingual immigrant students in England, Italy and
Austria.
Partners:




Freie Universität Bozen: Gessica De Angelis, Enrica Cortinovis, Silvia Dal Negro
University of Southampton: Ros Mitchell, Amanda Hilmarsson-Dunn, Elena
Ioannidou
Universität Wien: Marie-Luise Volgger
Research domains/methodologies:




Subjects involved: students and teachers in a vocational school in Bolzano
Multilingualism: both local and migrant (working class)
Objects of study: language use, attitudes and awareness
Kind of data: questionnaire survey (160 students)
Multilingualism as a shared experience
differences
between
three
European
contexts
Italy is the only
country in which
multilingualism is
not necessarily
linked to (or
caused by)
migration
England
Austria
Italy
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Several potential communities
Country
of birth
Mother
tongue
16 students gave a dialect as
their mothertongue referring
to it with a specific name
(Calabrese, Lombardo, etc.).
vs. very low ratings of dialect
in other (also traditional)
contexts
 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
IN A MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT
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A shared set of languages
Latin
Pothuari
Russian
Tamil
Spanish
Dutch
Hindi
Albanian
Bulgarian
Macedonian
Italian
Südtirolerisch
Punjab
Finnish
Danish
Portuguese
English
French
Arabic
Urdu
Polish
Italian Dialects
Chinese
German
Rumenian
Bangla
Turkish
Kurdish
Persian
Serbian
Sinthi
Ladin
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German Dialetcs
Sinhala
Shared language use patterns
grandparents
father
teachers during breaks
Italian
Germ/SüT
Other l.
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school staff
100%
100%
35%
--
--
--
Shared attitudes
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Trying to sum up
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee
Lots of thanks to …

the WP8 team

the Bolzano team

all of you for listening!
Silvia Dal Negro - Linee