The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

38. What Does it Mean to be Bilingual?

The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

Agnes Bolonyai [+-]
North Carolina State University
Agnes Bolonyai is Associate Professor of Linguistics at North Carolina State University. Her current research interests include issues of language, identity, mobility, and migration, in particular code-switching and other language contact phenomena, bi-/multilingual discourse, and identity practices and linguistic landscapes in sociolinguistic contexts of globalization and transnational migration. Her empirical work has mostly focused on Hungarian-English bilingualism. She is also interested in right-wing populist political discourse. Her work has appeared in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, the International Journal of Bilingualism, The Cambridge Handbook of Code-Switching, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language in Society, and Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict.

Description

About two-thirds of the world’s population uses two or more languages in their everyday lives: they are bi- or multi-linguals. Being bilingual offers a unique way for the creative and purposeful use of one’s language resources to ‘do’ things in social life, to express one’s linguistic and cultural identities, and to make sense of social reality. This chapter discusses what it means to be bilingual from a linguistic, socio-cultural, developmental and cognitive perspective. It aims to misspell some common misconceptions about bilinguals and their often-stigmatized language practices such as code-switching, while addressing the challenges and advantages of becoming, being and staying bilingual over the lifespan.

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Citation

Bolonyai, Agnes. 38. What Does it Mean to be Bilingual?. The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 183-186 Jul 2019. ISBN 9781781798553. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=38158. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.38158. Jul 2019

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