Session 3: Language, Identity and Integration
Session 3: Language, Identity and Integration
Chair: Rob Burton
Idiomatic Expressions in Multicultural Integration: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective
Ariadna Strugielska
Department of English, Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland
Idioms constitute one of the most elusive areas in intercultural exchanges. Apparently, fixed expressions have a relativist nature and are culture bound. However, if we have a closer look at the conceptual world behind idiomatic phrases, a universal world of concepts arises. Universality lies behind the conceptual metaphors shaping the idiom. The most universal concepts are grounded on the human body and these include primarily the expression of emotions. Thus, the relativist hypothesis does not exclude universal concepts. These have a common link in all cultures and if appropriately highlighted they can become a useful tool for intercultural integration. In this paper, we look into the common pool of conceptual knowledge across cultures taking as an example the idiomatic expressions concerning emotions in three different cultures: English, Polish and Spanish. To this end, conceptual metaphors related to the sphere of emotions have been analysed and their source domains have been delineated. Since classifications rooted in subordinate-level concepts appear infelicitous for universal links to be detected, we look into their image-schematic basis. A substantial number of idioms and fixed expressions have been collected from speakers of the three languages involved. Attention has been paid to the core conceptual metaphor motivating the idiom and the trans-cultural correspondence underlying the linguistic form. The results seem to indicate that there is a significant correspondence between the universal concept and the different cultural realisations, which can be used as a tool for promoting intercultural integration. The findings of this study can have a useful application in education. If we make children aware of the common conceptual background across different cultures, we can facilitate the task of integrating individuals coming from various countries into the same society, sharing a universal conceptual structure in linguistic areas which mainly express the speakers view of himself and the others.
Communicating in Multilingual Societies: Expanding the Role of the Interpreter in Public Service Interpreting
Carmen Valero-Garcés
University of Alcalá, Madrid Spain
After more than a decade of quick continuous increase in the flow of people from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia to European Union (EU) countries, the need to develop initiatives to overcome all kinds of barriers (linguistic, socio-cultural, political, economic, and so on) is still a sort of emergency in some countries. The use of a third party or intermediary in public services has been- and still is – a solution to overcome the linguistic barrier. The variety of settings in which these encounters take place (hospitals, schools, government offices, police stations, customs checkpoints, etc.) raises questions about the role played by this intermediary, the importance of culture, the recognition of his/her job as a profession, and the consideration of the different attitudes by society and its institutions. It is my intention to analyze the profile of these intermediaries in Spain as they perceive themselves using some surveys conducted in 1998, 2002, 2006 respectively. The comparison of the results will show whether the characteristics of the encounters and the role of the public-service interpreter has changed over the last few years when compared to the traditional role assigned to them and what are the new tendencies.
Ethnic Duty and Other Obligations? Negotiation of Identities of Finnish Language Teachers in Russia
Sari Pöyhönen
Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Along with social and political transition, Russia is going through a period of self-examination. Reflections on cultural and ethnic identities are not restricted only to Russian identity but many national minorities, for example, Karelians and Ingrian Finns have begun actively and publicly to rethink their relationship to the majority population. The emphasis on ethnicity and language has become apparent in, for example, aspirations to improve the status of national languages and schools in Russia. In my Ph.D. dissertation (Pöyhönen 2003), I found that the Finnish language for Ingrian Finnish teachers was primarily a minority language although they taught Finnish as a foreign language to Russian-speaking students. Thus, these teachers regarded it as their ethnic duty to advance Finnish culture and maintain Finnish language skills in Russia. But is it more than an ethnic duty and has the linguistic and ethnic identity changed among the teachers of Finnish during and after the transition period?
In this paper, I will focus on how the teachers of Finnish in Russia conceptualise Finnish language and its meaning into their identity and what kind of theoretical discussion these views may invite to the connection between language and identity. The analysis is based on an ethnographic research on Finnish language teachers’ professional identity conducted in 1996–1998 in two schools in North-West Russia, and later completed in a follow-up study in 2005-2006.
I will discuss the notions of language and identity in the framework of the dialogical philosophy of language (e.g. Bakhtin 1981; Voloshinov 1973), specifically the potential contribution of dialogism to the contemporary discussion on language and identity. I will also follow the lines of Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge (2004) who argue that linguistic and ethnic identities are more often negotiated in multilingual situations where dualistic views and the boundaries of languages begin to blur – both in beliefs as well as practices.
Entries (RSS)