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УДК8Г246.2 ВОРОНЦОВА Ю.А.
кандидат педагогических наук, доцент, кафедра иностранных языков, Брянский государственный технический университет. E-mail: [email protected]
UDC Sl'246.2 VORONTSOVA J.A.
Candidate in Pedagogy, associate professor Department of foreign languages, Bryansk State Technical University E-mail: [email protected]
БИЛИНГВИЗМ КАК СОЦИАЛЬНОЕ И ЯЗЫКОВОЕ ЯВЛЕНИЕ BILINGUALISM AS A SOCIAL AND LINGUISTIC PHENOMENON
В статье говорится о двуязычии и многоязычии; рассматриваются аспекты и варианты билингвизма; рассматриваются три основных типа индивидуального билингвизма: субординативный билингвизме, коорди-нативный (чистый) билингвизм, смешанный билингвизм; описывается пассивный (рецептивный) билингвизм как особый случай двуязычия; рассматривается речевое поведение двуязычных индивидов; представлены споры по поводу воздействия раннего билингвизма.
Ключевые слова: билингвизм, агент, коммуникативная система, лексическая единица, взаимодействие, индивидуальный билингвизм, смешанный билингвизм.
The article speaks about bilingualism and multilingualism; considers the aspects and variants of bilingualism; examines three main types of individual bilingualism: subordinate bilingualism, coordinative (pure) bilingualism, mixed bilingualism; describes passive (receptive) bilingualism as a special case of bilingualism; considers the speech behavior of bilingual individuals; dwells upon the disputes about the impact of early bilingualism.
Keywords: bilingualism, agent, communicative system, lexical unit, interaction, individual bilingualism, mixed bilingualism.
1. Introduction
The article will deal with bilingualism that is bilingual, i.e. the use of two (or more) languages by an individual or within a given community. If the knowledge of two languages is peculiar to the individual members of the society that is individual bilingualism, if a large number of people speak this language, it is a massive bilingualism. The main purpose for the author to write on this topic may lies in the hope (a) to raise people's awareness of bilingualism or multilingualism as a sociopolitical-symbolic interlinks of social practice, rather than merely a code variety disparate from the others; (b) to emphasize the fact that people from various speaking communities are taking their specific roles as speaking social agents which may shed light on the repertoires of their language use, linguistic practices, and even the social formation.
Mass bilingualism may cover the population of one of the country regions (geographic region or economic area), and may cover the whole nation (nationality). In the first case we speak of regional bilingualism, and in the second case it is national bilingualism. If bilingualism is common to all socio-cultural groups of people without exception, such bilingualism is called a complete or continuous; but if it is typical only for certain social strata (traders, transport workers, seafarers, academics, etc.), it is called partial or group bilingualism.
Bilingualism doesn't necessarily suppose the interaction between existing languages. If a bilingual (speaker of two
languages) translates from one language to another fluently, i.e. if in his mind the same concept corresponds accordingly to two words, that is "mixed bilingualism" ("mixed language with two terms") [8], if that doesn't happen and the languages function as two autonomous symbolic systems, in his case there is so-called pure bilingualism (it happens very rarely, only as an exception).
2. Aspects of Bilingualism
Bilingualism is a multilateral phenomenon and can be studied in different aspects. Most prominently there are three aspects of studying bilingualism: 1) linguistic (sociolinguistic), 2) psychological, 3) pedagogic [2]. Methodological basis of studying bilingualism in all these above-mentioned aspects should be teaching about nations, national language politics in the conditions of a multiethnic and multi-lingual state.
In the socio-linguistic aspect it is important to consider the issue of functional load of the second language on the area of its use (in comparison with the first language), the degree of fluent speaking (there are several stages -initial, transitional, senior), a specific set of used social-functional components of the second language, i.e. its forms of existence (literary language. Koine, dialect, etc.), the distribution of communicative functions between the first and second languages, including all the forms of their existence), the groups covered by the bilingualism, the breadth of use of the second language and its perception
© Воронцова Ю.А. © Vorontsova J. A.
(for example, on the adoption of the Russian language as the second language), the assessment of bilingualism as a socio-linguistic phenomenon.
In the science bilingualism is recognized as a positive phenomenon. In our reality the highest goal of developing bilingualism means to promote to close rapprochement of peoples, mutual enrichment of their cultures, all peoples' mastery of the liighest cultural achievements, science and technology. The mastery of the Russian language promotes to it as it is one of the most developed languages of the international and interethnic communication.
Just as the combination of language existence forms within the "language status" gives various options of diglossia, coexistence of functionally different languages gives different variants of bilingualism, forming different language situations.
3. Variants of Bilingualism
Among the bilingualism options there single out:
1) bilingualism arising from the use of two local languages (most of them are regional dialects), usually it is bilateral, such as the Tajik-Uzbek and Uzbek-Tajik bilingualism, etc.;
2) bilingualism arising from the use of local native language and the language of regional communication, for example in urban Africa (in Kenya, along with local and ethnic languages Swahili is widely accepted as a regional means of interethnic communication); 3) bilingualism arising from the use of the local language and the language of macro intermediate (interethnic language); here there are fundamentally different situations: a) in antagonistic societies (socially heterogeneous), where the language-macro intermediate, often imported, is imposed on the local population and may lead to the displacement of the native local languages, b) non-adversarial societies (socially homogeneous), where the language-macro intermediate, for example the Russian language, and minority languages in the country are legally equal and there takes place harmonic national-Russian bilingualism; 4) bilingualism, with the use of a regional language and the macro intermediate language, such as the language of the indigenous population of the Union republics (Azerbaijanian in Azerbaijan Uzbek in Uzbekistan, etc.) and the Russian language as the language of all peoples of our country; 5) bilingualism, including the knowledge of the national language and professional language (the language of ritual - the type of Sanskrit, the language of science - like Latin classical Arabic, etc. the pidgin language, conditional language, such as Mordvinian handicraftsmen from the settlement. Celexa near the city of Penza in addition to their native language used the Argo (the Banatski language), received by them from the Russian artisans, migrant workers from the settlement Chemodanovka the Penza region).
Since bilingualism and multilingualism are not realized in a full reliance on linguistic knowledge, it actually indexes who we are, and which social group or agent we represent. Such language choices or combination are linked to wider social ideologies and power relations
Besides, one more point should be noted is that bilingualism like other human behaviors is never neutral but
is loaded with disparate symbolic values, hence permitting the domination of one linguistic code over the other. More importantly, it is inevitably influenced or impaired by the state-promoted monolingualism in its efforts to claim a single particular variety as a pure, dominant, superior language functioning adequately in social activities. Therefore, it's necessary to notice the phenomenon that the linguistic codes are combined or struggled with one another as a consequence of the regulatory activities of the state in their endeavor to exclude those varieties that are threatening the power of the promoted one.
4. Disputes about the Impact of Early Bilingualism
Disputes about the impact of early bilingualism on the development of the child, were sharp enough at the beginning of the XX"1 century Their tension was proportional to the severity of social and cultural conflict within communities, where, for historical reasons, subject to availability of multi-lingual population any language was given the role of a cultural dominant (Belgium, partly Switzerland, Canada, the USA). At the same time in the scientific literature there were constantly presented two opposing positions: the view that any additional knowledge, including the knowledge of a second language can be only helpful, and the view that early bilingualism brings harm. Let us try to understand why the assumption that early bilingualism can have a negative impact on child's development arose?
One of the first (in 1915) opinions about the dangers of early bilingualism was expressed by the representative of the school of associative psychology S. Epstein. In a nutshell his position can be summarized as follows. Thinking is an association between concepts and words. If the same concept in one language corresponds to a word A and in another language to a word B, the composed association "word-concept" prevents to set another association - BC. When all the same there are formed two associations AB and AC (i.e. the meaning) C in two different languages is represented by different words, then they conflict with each other [9].
Reflections of this kind corresponded to those rather primitive ideas about the relationship between the language and the thought. S. Epstein's contemporary, the researcher of children's speech W. Stern adhered to the opposite point of view for about the same reasons. He wrote that differences between languages represented a powerful stimulus for comparison and differentiation, to understand the meaning of concepts within prescribed limits, to understand the subtlest nuances of meaning [6].
In the 20-ies of XXth century there were carried out intensive studies, the purpose of which was to identify in the experiment the differences between single and bilingual individuals and to decide on the early bilingualism vector of effects. In this study, the effects of early bilingualism on such characteristics of the individual were examined there, as a) the ability to learn languages; b) the level of mental development in general; c) personal characteristics. The results of these studies are quite controversial because of multifactor effects accompanying the phenomenon of early bilingualism [1].
So, the opinion about the positive impact of early bilingualism on the abilities to language study is based on the natural assumption that for the bilingual individual it is easier to learn a third language because he lias more experience of learning languages than monolingual individuals at all. If we don't take into consideration socio-psychological factors, then such a hypothesis is quite convincing by itself. Generally, it is probably more substantial not the fact tliat the child was forced to learn two languages from a very early age, but the conditions in which this bilingualism emerged and realized. The work "Language Development in Bilingual Children" (written by Charlyne Gautliier), claims that bilingual child can benefit from the ability of codeswitcliing - "semantic knowledge in both of a bilingual's languages boosts productivity across the lexical and syntactic systems" [3], and the works "Bilingualism in Young Children: Separating Fact from Fiction" written by Lauren Lowry and "Raising bilingual children" written by Antonella Sorace & Bob Ladd that bilingual individuals have been shown to be more creative, to be better at planning, to have greater access to people and resources [4, 5].
American researcher S. Arsenian in the late 30-ies of XX- century examined more than 2000 Italian and Jewish children bom in the U.S. immigrant families. He found the influence of early bilingualism neither on the indicators of children's mental development, nor on their ability to adapt to school. But despite occurring difficulties or linguistic problems in bilingual children while learning the opportunity to speak more than one language for a child should find rewarding, rather than an obstacle.
It is believed that the baby or children have the innate ability to learn more than one language, and the two types of bilingual language acquisition (simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism) differ in many aspects. The former (acquiring two languages at the same time before the age of 3 years) will less likely to cause a language delay or disorder, even so. language errors are similar to the monolingual peers. While the later (drawing on the knowledge and experience of the L1 while acquiring the L2) may find it difficult and time-consuming to learn the other language, and disorder is truly presented and canbe observed in LI. Also, according to L.A. Stanifortli. bilingual children whose LI is minority language are at risk of first language loss which may bring about bad influences, including loss of cultural identity, poor self-image, corrupting community relationship, and poor performance in school. Even though bilingual development sometimes results in slightly slower language development than for some monolingual children, parents and experts should not be overly concerned about the negative effects of bilingualism.
Whereas early bilingualism occurs where there is contact of two or several cultures, the fonnation of the personality living in these conditions, primarily affects the complexity of the social environment in general. Bilingualism is therefore significantly not as such but as a component of cultural complexity and simultaneously its most obvious reflection. Bilingualism is observed, whereas differentiating other factors from the totality of what constitutes a social
environment is a much more complex task. Therefore, from time to time social psychologists and philosophers raise the question that early bilingualism was accompanied by conflict within the personality, because it reflected cultural conflicts.
There are three main types of individual bilingualism. When there is subordinate bilingualism, speakers perceive a second language through the prism of the mother: the notion of lexical units corresponds to the native language, and the latter - with the units of the second language. Due to the natural differences of semantic structures of the two languages while generating and perceiving the text in the second language errors are inevitable, an example is anecdotal translation of the Russian dialogue: -Который час? -Два часа. -Так много? -Кому как. -Which watch? -Two watch. -Such much? —Whom how.
When there is coordinative (pure) bilingualism two languages are perfectly autonomous, each has its own set of concepts, grammatical categories so two languages are also independent. When there is mixed bilingualism ideally it means single mechanism of speech analysis and synthesis and coexisting languages differ only at the level of the surface structures. L.V. Scherba gave a name to such a communicative system as of one language with two terms [8]. Of course, in the actual complete isomorphism (parallelism in the sound organization and meaning of language sides) grammatical systems of the two languages are not observed, there is only their greater or lesser likeness. Lexical units canbe unified in the plane of content, differing only in the plane of expression.
5. Conclusions
However, the attitude of society to the verbal behavior of bilingual individuals is more important. Usually, after all one of the two languages has a tendency to dominate, it is known for example, that those actually bilingual residents of the South who have Ukrainian as a "family" language have a difficulty to get rid of the characteristic of all the "southern" dialects intonation. If the society is tolerant of accents, inclusion of the words from "the second native" language and similar characteristics of the bilinguals' verbal behavior, it does not cause conflict.
As a matter of fact, such concern may not be a big problem because a large percentage of the world's population is bilingual since there may be no realistic way to be monolingual judging by the work "Language Development in Bilingual Children" written by Charlyne Gautliier [3]. For example, a child may speak a language at home and another at school. Moreover, people of their local communities actually do not use or speak their language mechanically, they can see the fate of the code of their bilingual repertoires. They form the exclusion or devaluation of the code in accordance with their language use in getting a living, in establishing their and their children's biliterate identities and developing abilities, in creating means to express social values and political stances, as well as in accommodating themselves to the acceptability criteria of other sectors or communities judging by the work "Bilingualism: a social approach" written by Monica Heller [7].
Библиографический список
1. Алпатов B.M. Проблемы двуязычия и языков национальных меньшинств // Речевое общение в условиях языковой неоднородности: сб. науч. ст. / отв. ред. Л.П. Крысин. М.: Наука, 2000. 224 с.
2. Белите В.П. Социолингвистика. М.: Российск. гос. ун-т, 2001. 439 с.
3. Готъе Ч. Языковое развитие у детей-биллингвов. Изд-во университета Северного Иллинойса. 2010. 27 с.
4. Лаури Л. Двуязычие у детей младшего возраста: отделяя факты от вымысла, 2011. URL: www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/ Articles, aspx
5. СтрейсА. Воспитание детей-билингвов. Изд-во: языковое общество Америки. 2004. 30 р.
6. Фрумкина P.M. Психолингвистика. М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2003. 320 с.
7. ХеллерМ. Билингвизм: социальный подход. JL: Изд-во: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. 160 с,
8. Щерба Л.В. Языковая система и речевая деятельность. М.: Наука, 2004. 432 с.
9. Эпштейн С. Когнитивно-экспериментальная теория личности: интегративная теория личности и социальная психология. Нью-Йорк: Гилфорд Пресс, 1991. 140 с.
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