Abstract

Languages are heterogeneous systems including several registers, such as formal, standard and popular. In this paper we consider the denominations of the winds belonging to these three registers in Catalan, Spanish and French. Assuming the principles of Cognitive Linguistics, the denominations will be analysed from two complementary perspectives, namely semantic (onomasiologic and semasiologic) and morphologic. The conclusions of the analysis can be applied to translation and to lexicography, specifically to the study of some misleading equivalences proposed in bilingual dictionaries.

Abstract

This study is a general presentation of the phenomenon of linguistic variation, from the point of view both of its empirical reality and of its semiotic, linguistic and socio-pragmatic analysis. We distinguish initially between the interest in research into the invariant form, which has characterized strict linguistics, and the orientation of sociolingüístics towards the study of variation; between the concentration on the referential value of language as an arbitrary symbol and the concentration on the connotative value of language as an index of social relations; between the limitation on the consideration of category alternation (allophony) and research into structured variation (sociolingüístic variables); and between variation of a statistical character (such as the ones just mentioned) and variation based on discrete oppositions. The linguistic realities defined by the study of variation—styles, levels of language, natural varieties, registers—must be described not only in terms internal to the linguistic system but also in their relation to the social and sociocultural context; this terminological diversity reflects on occasions different linguistic modalities, and on others distinct methodological approaches, among which we stress the importance of the ethnography.

Abstract

The author presents schools as an overestimated socialization environment, which nowadays has to compete with the media. There is special emphasis on the relatively limited influence of the educational system in the linguistic area, both concerning substitution and normalization processes. After describing the process by which Catalan was introduced in schools in the Balearic Islands, the author analyzes the efects of such introduction upon linguistic competence, the usage of Catalan and the linguistic ideology of Majorcan youths, It is proved that schools has caused an improvement in the degree of linguistic competence of a portion of Majorcan youths but, on the other hand, it does not seem there has a great change in the linguistic ideology or in usage beyond the school environment.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how the Catalan spoken in the south Valencian region is reacting to the effects of the linguistic normalization process that was initiated more than ten years ago. Basically, this process concentrated on two areas: on the one hand, education, where Catalan is present either as a compulsory subject, or as the language in which the whole teaching takes place; on the other hand, the spreading of several mass media which more or less use the language. We shall try to describe a few linguistic phenomena, phonetic as well as morphologic and lexical, through a survey carried out among various age groups and, in the case of small children, considering their school situation concerning Catalan and their family language. In this way, we shall grasp the predictable generational differences, the origin of which we shall try to find out, especially in order to relate the fact to the new sociolinguistic situation.

Abstract

The authors analyze the question of whether there is a mimetic correlation between the conservation of Catalan and the maintenance of a cultural and national identity. They study the self-inclusion, if any, of youths between six and fifteen years of age in national groups -Catalan or Spanish- according to the language spoken at home and at school, together with the images and feelings they construe in relation to other European national groups.

Abstract

The article deals with the different kinds of speakers that emerge when language transmission failure arises between consecutive generations. The case is exemplified through the speech community of the city of Alacant, where we can distinguish four kinds of speakers, from the ones who know very well the local variety of Catalan to the ones who only understand this variety and whose first language is Spanish. In between we have the main concern of our study, the precarious speakers, distributed in two categories according to their skill in the use of Catalan, which has become their second language.

Abstract

Carme Miquel reflect upons the role of schools and observes the contradiction between most of the values and attitudes prevailing in present society and those that schools try to transmit. In this context, the author analyzes also the linguistic issue: it is at school where advances in linguistic normalization are most noticeable. She studies the function of Valencian schools (i.e. schools in Catalan) and the role played by the citizens’ movement represented by Escola Valenciana. Federació d'Associacions per la Llengua within the social and educational environment and regarding linguistic normalization.

Abstract

The subject matter of sociolinguistics are the rules or patterns of the functioning of language. But rules and transgressions are complementary facts, and sociolinguists must study both conventional and intentional language use (that is, traditional and meaningful social actions). When sociolinguistics deals exclusively with norms, but ne t with transgressions, sociolinguists reify a socially constructed reality. By applying the concept of reification, we consider that sociolinguists confuse rules, laws and regularities; therefore, more interpretation is needed to complement explanation, and it seems that sociolinguistics needs more «research programmes» studying the importance of individuals and individual meaningful action in sociolinguistic structures.

Abstract

After classifying the sociology of language in three paradigms and showing the shortcomings of the terra «linguistic attitude», a comparison is made between linguistic substitution processes and butterfly catastrophes. The similarities found are useful because 1) they provide us with a global explanatory model based on a neutral terminology, 2) they show us the number of variables that intervene in the process; 3) they allow us to describe both individual and group behaviour with a higher degree of penetration, and at the same time, in a way easier to understand; 4) finally, they provide us with a model that could not be conceived of so far without resorting to catastrophe theory, which opens up more consistent prospects than those analyzed in the introduction. In short, by applying catastrophe theory to the sociology of language we would litre to come closer to being able to consider what Michel Foucault termed the scientificity borderline, that is, the moment when discourse reflection is made, not according to empirical rules, but to a basic formal system.

Abstract

In this article, which first appeared in 1983, some thoughts are given to the status of Catalan since the Spanish political transition into democracy. The purpose is to show how present «important» opinionmakers base themselves on an escapist fantasy which replaces real history, which in tur prevents us to study the real past and thus conceive and propose a real future for the language. An analysis is made of the significance of the Renaixença and how this movement considered Catalan as lost. In fact, the ultimate aspirations of regionalists were nowhere near the minimum requirements of a modern European linguistic community. Therefore, the present return to the idyllic recovery practised by the Renaixença is considered even more brutally simplistic and fantastic than what the Renaixença meant. This different analysis of the present situations involves a change in mentality, a different way of thinking. Such mentality must enable us to clarify, not only the wiles coming from outside, but first and foremost, the internal obstacles presented by Catalan society itself.