Language/Literature paper by Forintos, Éva and András, Ferenc
Cultural and Personal Identity in a Mixed Linguistic and Cultural Environment (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
By mixing codes intentionally in their printed media, bilinguals can construct and reconstruct a separate third space identity which relies upon the dissimilar cultural environment. Jonsson (2014) introduced the term third space identity to describe bilinguals’ identity, which can be considered a combination of their identity associated with their native language and culture on the one hand, and with the dominant language and culture on the other, moreover this identity cannot be regarded as a stable but rather a fluid phenomenon. In our paper, we argue that the concept of “third space” can be valid for the mixed code discourse, which is a language variety (cf. Mahootian, 2005) with a dissimilar communicative role which contributors to the publications use intentionally and consciously to mark their identity and to highlight their relationship with their heritage within the mainstream language and culture. The illustrations supporting this paper are derived from the homepages and newsletters of the Hungarian communities living in the United States of America.
References:
Jonsson, Carla. “Making Silenced Voices Heard: Code-switching in Multilingual Literary Texts in Sweden.” Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing. Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Eds. Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian and Carla Jonsson. New York: Routledge. 2014, pp. 212-232.
Mahootian, Shahrzad. 2005. “Linguistic change and social meaning: Codeswithing in the media.” International Journal of Bilingualism. Vol 9. No. 3&4. (pp. 361-375)
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva Forintos (PhD) is associate professor at the English and American Studies Institute of the University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary lecturing on linguistics and applied linguistics. Her research interests include bilingualism and contact linguistics. Her publications are mainly related to the contact linguistic study of the language of Hungarian minority communities in English speaking countries as well as the domain language use of these communities.
András, Ferenc (PhD habil.) is associate professor at the University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary. His main research areas are the philosophy of language and communication. His book – entitled in English The Philosophy of Spatial Communications (Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2010) – examines the problem of meaning-skepticisms. As a managing editor of a regional television channel, he is also involved in producing documentaries on philosophy, scientific research and education.