Language, Borders and Identity

Identifying and examining political, socio-psychological and symbolic borders, Language, Borders and Identity encompasses a broad, geographically diverse spectrum of border contexts, taking a multi-disciplinary approach by combining sociolinguistics research with human geography, anthropology and social psychology. The book illustrates a representative range of methodological approaches used by researchers in the field and examines regional and local borders alongside the political borders that divide monoglossic and heteroglossic territories.

Using international case studies and examples throughout, this book also looks to symbolic borders, which are often encoded in the semiotic manipulation of the linguistic landscape. It further assesses the linguistic implications of the presence of borders in applied contexts, including language planning and policy (e.g. in multilingual education or for the protection of minority languages) and border control.

By casting its net wide, Language, Borders and Identity develops and refines models of how language is used to construct borders, and to indicate on which side of border speakers situate themselves. This book brings into focus the dual reactive and proactive functions that language serves in this respect, exploring the tensions between essentialist and constructionist approaches to identity, and offers a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics and the sociology of language.

Dominic Watt is Lecturer at the University of York.

Carmen Llamas is Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of York.