Recent Perspectives in Migration Linguistics. The Case of Multilingual Repertoires in South-South Migration Dynamics

Miguel Gutiérrez Maté

Abstract:

This talk aims to highlight the significance of South-South migration processes — particularly the evolution of multilingual repertoires in the corresponding migrant ecologies— for the field of migration linguistics, a relatively new discipline that will first be defined.

A key concept in the talk is adaptation to the environment, modeled within Mufwene’s (2001) evolutionary framework. First, repertoires adapt to the new ecology (in this case, the host country), which involves the reconfiguration of the social and identity functions of the languages within the repertoire in relation to the diasporic context and the ideologies surrounding their use. Second, the concrete utterances of multilingual speakers —the structural features they select— are shaped by adaptation to contextually determined communicative needs. In this regard, a unitary approach will be adopted, following translanguaging studies, according to which speakers jointly manage the languages of their repertoire.

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Meeting ID: 580 775 4066

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