Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)

Center for the Study of Language and Society

What is a normal language? Normalization as a linguistic ideology in post-transition Spain

Dienstag, 28.02.2017, 18:15 Uhr

José del Valle, City University of New York

Das Forum Language and Society ist eine Reihe von Gastvorträgen zu Themen der Soziolinguistik. Doktorierende der GSH können sich die Teilnahme als Zuhörende mit 0,25 ECTS pro Vortrag anrechnen lassen.

Veranstaltende: Forum Language and Society
Redner, Rednerin: José del Valle, City University of New York
Datum: 28.02.2017
Uhrzeit: 18:15 - 19:45 Uhr
Ort: F-122
Unitobler
Lerchenweg 36
3012 Bern
Merkmale: Öffentlich
kostenlos

 

In this lecture, I will discuss the relevance of linguistic ideologies for the theoretical development of language policy studies and linguistic history. I will use Spain´s recent glottopolitical history as a case study through which to assess the value of constituting a separate ideological space in our analysis. I will begin by presenting a brief timeline that describes the evolution of Spain´s political system since 1975 (death of general Francisco Franco) and reviewing the legal framework established by the Spanish constitution of 1978 for the distribution of languages in official contexts. I will then focus on linguistic normalization and its multiple conceptual articulations in different metalinguistic discourses during the period under study. I will conclude by discussing the explanatory power of looking at normalization from a language-ideological perspective.

 

Prof. Dr. José del Valle, City University of New York

José del Valle is Professor of Linguistics and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his Ph.D. in 1994 from Georgetown University, USA, and taught at Miami University (Ohio) and Fordham University (Bronx) before he joined CUNY in 2002. He has held visiting positions at the University of Virginia and Princeton University, and taught short seminars at various universities in Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico and the UK. His publications include El trueque s/x en español antiguo. Aproximaciones teóricas (Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1996), which deals with issues of Spanish socio-historical linguistics and language change theory, The Battle Over Spanish Between 1800 and 2000: Language Ideologies and Hispanic Intellectuals (co-edited with Luis Gabriel-Stheeman; Routledge, 2002), which studies the post-colonial linguistic construction of national and pan-Hispanic identities in Spain and Latin America, La lengua ¿patria común? Ideas e ideologías del español (Vervuert / Iberamericana, 2007), which discusses, from a language-ideological perspective, the contemporary politics of Panhispanism, and A political history of Spanish: the making of a language which was published by Cambridge University Press in June 2013. In 2010 he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.