S E C T I O N S

Re-writing linguistic history – (post)colonial reality on the fringes of linguistic theories

Section Chair/ Abstracts, suggestions to:

Eric A. Anchimbe (University of Bayreuth, Germany) [BIO]

Email: anchimbe_eric@yahoo.com

ReferentInnen / Speakers   >>

ABSTRACT:

For the past several decades, linguistic studies of (post)colonial societies have been built on theories, platforms, templates and frameworks constructed in, and for, the west. As Franz Boas rightly said at the turn of the last century, “the internal structure of languages and societies must be allowed to emerge on their own, without the distorting imposition of European templates upon them” (see: Handbook of American Indian Languages). The distorting impact of foreign models, as the case may be, prohibited researchers from investigating peculiar characteristics of these societies as outcomes of their sociohistorical completeness. For instance, Africa’s multilingualism has often been described on a par with European multilingualism. This is theoretically misleading because whereas European multilingualism involves several written languages, the African context involves only one (or two) written languages existing alongside oral languages founded on oral cultures and transmitted orally. It is about time more natural and region-based findings were made that handle postcolonial areas not as being on the fringes of the west but as constituting centres of their own.

This section of the KCTOS conference (December 6-9, 2007) addresses the following (and more) linguistic issues in postcolonial areas that have been studied with foreign-based theories:

1. Postcolonial linguistics (how colonialism rolled the dice in approaches to, and conceptions of, languages in these contexts)
2. Postcolonial pragmatics (face, politeness, turn-taking, name-calling, etc.)
3. Notions of bilingualism and multilingualism (oral vs. written languages and cultures)
4. Construction of (multiple) linguistic identities (allegiance to languages)
5. Endangerment (?) and survival of indigenous languages in the face of international (official) languages like English and French
6. Language contact and (socio)linguistic outcomes

Papers with strong insights into the above topics and related ones are invited. Priority will be given to papers that propose new (and promising) analytical frameworks to particular linguistic processes in postcolonial areas. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are welcome.

 

ReferentInnen / Speakers / Orateurs

• The place of the English language in the construction of a Cameroon Anglophone identity
  Eric A. Anchimbe (University of Bayreuth, Germany)
  ABSTRACT

• Fantasies and Realities of the Dis/use of African Languages
  Adeyemi Adegoju (Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria)
  ABSTRACT

• Implementation of language policy in Nigeria: English as a sticking point
  Harrison Adéníyì (Department of African Languages, Lagos State University, Nigeria)
  ABSTRACT

• Globalization, dying languages and the futility of saving them
  Anthony Onyemachi Agwuele (Institut für Philosophie, Universität Leipzig)
  ABSTRACT

• Place names in post-colonial Africa: A case study of Ibibiod languages
  Inimbom James Akpan (Department of Linguistics, University of Calabar, Nigeria) | Ekaete Evangel Akpan (Department of Linguistics, and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria)
  ABSTRACT

• Literacy, self identity and class eradication, and implication for socio-global futures: The Nigerian experience
  Rachael O. Bello (Department of English, Lagos State University, Nigeria)
  ABSTRACT

• Multilingualism as a Sociolinguistic Phenomenon: an African Perspective
  Eyamba G. Bokamba (Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  ABSTRACT

• From input through developing to ‘developed’ systems: An interconnected process in multilinguals’ development in language learning
  Erick E. Ekembe (University of Yaounde I, Cameroon)
  ABSTRACT

• Oracy in Nigerian English-based Pidgin as a product of colonial encounter
  Bassey Ekpenyong (General Studies Unit, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria)
  ABSTRACT

• Critical postcolonial linguistics and the discursive construction of the (post)colonial self
  Antje Hornscheidt (Scandinavian linguistics and gender studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany)
  ABSTRACT

• Language and Political Economy: A perspective from Kenya
  Frederick Iraki (United States International University Nairobi, Kenya)
  ABSTRACT

• Contesting the sacred in Tamil: Missionary translations and divided identities in colonial South India
  Hephzibah Israel (School of Oriental and African Studies – SOAS, London)
  ABSTRACT

• What Happened to the Honorifics?
  Reconstructing the (Post-)Colonial Collapse of the Traditional Chinese Honorific System
  Dániel Z. Kádár (Head of Department of Chinese Language and Culture, B. B. U., Hungary)
  ABSTRACT

• Medium-of-instruction-induced code-switching: Evidence from Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan
  David C.S. Li (City University of Hong Kong)
  ABSTRACT

• Capeverdean Creole in Lisbon – young generation’s perspective
  Christina Märzhäuser (University of Munich / Coimbra)
  ABSTRACT

• Colonial languages versus mother tongues: Focus on Cameroon’s educational system
  Stephen A. Mforteh (University of Yaoundé I)
  ABSTRACT

• Re-writing linguistic history: Nairobi from the vantage point of visual language
  Lydia Muthuma (University of Nairobi, Kenya)
  ABSTRACT

• What mental images reveal about religious lexemes in Yoruba and English in Nigerian churches
  Folorunso Odidi (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria / University of Bayreuth)
  ABSTRACT

• The Foreign Culture Lexicography and Its Implications for the History of African Lexicography
  Chinedu Uchechukwu (University of Munich)
  ABSTRACT

• On language contact and language use in Kenya
  Alice Wachira (Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Germany)
  ABSTRACT