Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Legitimating inaction : differing identity constructions of the Scots language.
AU - Unger, Johann W.
PY - 2010/2
Y1 - 2010/2
N2 - The Scots language plays a key role in the political and cultural landscape of contemporary Scotland. From a discourse-historical perspective, this article explores how language ideologies about the Scots language are realized linguistically in a so-called ‘languages strategy’ drafted by the Scottish Executive, and in focus groups consisting of Scottish people. This article shows that although the decline of Scots is said to be a ‘tragedy’, focus group participants seem to reject the notion of Scots as a viable, contemporary language that can be used across a wide range of registers. The policy document also seems to construct Scots in very positive terms, but is shown to be unhelpful or potentially even damaging in the process of changing public attitudes to Scots.
AB - The Scots language plays a key role in the political and cultural landscape of contemporary Scotland. From a discourse-historical perspective, this article explores how language ideologies about the Scots language are realized linguistically in a so-called ‘languages strategy’ drafted by the Scottish Executive, and in focus groups consisting of Scottish people. This article shows that although the decline of Scots is said to be a ‘tragedy’, focus group participants seem to reject the notion of Scots as a viable, contemporary language that can be used across a wide range of registers. The policy document also seems to construct Scots in very positive terms, but is shown to be unhelpful or potentially even damaging in the process of changing public attitudes to Scots.
KW - Bourdieu
KW - discourse-historical approach
KW - discursive construction
KW - language policy
KW - Scots language
KW - Scottish national identity
U2 - 10.1177/1367549409352968
DO - 10.1177/1367549409352968
M3 - Journal article
VL - 13
SP - 99
EP - 117
JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies
JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies
SN - 1367-5494
IS - 1
ER -