1st Edition

Linguistic Culture and Language Policy

By Harold Schiffman Copyright 1996
    364 Pages
    by Routledge

    364 Pages
    by Routledge

    By looking closely at the multilingual democracies of India, France and the USA, Harold F. Schiffman examines how language policy is primarily a social construct based on belief systems, attitudes and myths.
    Linguistic Culture and Language Policy exposes language policy as culture-specific, helping us to understand why language policies evolve the way they do; why they work, or not; and how people's lives are affected by them. These issues will be of specific interest to linguists specialising in multilingual/multicultural societies, bilingual educationalists, curriculum planners and teachers.

    Chapter 1 Introduction: language policy and linguistic culture; Chapter 2 Typologies of multilingualism and typologies of language policy; Chapter 3 Religion, myth and linguistic culture; Chapter 4 Language policy and linguistic culture in France; Chapter 5 French in the marginal areas: Alsace and the other regions; Chapter 6 Indian linguistic culture and the genesis of language policy in the subcontinent; Chapter 7 Language policy and linguistic culture in Tamilnadu; Chapter 8 Language policy in the United States; Chapter 9 Language policy in California; Chapter 10 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography Index;

    Biography

    Harold F.Schiffman is Professor of South Asian Regional Studies and Luce Professor of Language Learning at the University of Pennsylvania.