Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:05:57.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multiple ideologies and competing discourses: Language shift in Tlaxcala, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2007

JACQUELINE MESSING
JACQUELINE MESSING
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., SOC 107, Tampa, FL 33620, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues for an account of language shift that focuses on ideological conflicts and competing discourses of language, identity, and progress in Tlaxcala, Mexico. The study is based on ethnographic research on patterns of language use, ideology, and boundary differentiation in several Mexicano (Nahuatl)-speaking communities in the Malintzi region of Central Mexico. Metadiscursive practices consisting of three discourses that have local, regional, and national expressions are analyzed: the pro-development metadiscourse of salir adelante, ‘forging ahead’ and improving one's socioeconomic position; the discourse of menosprecio, denigration of indigenous identity; and the pro-indígena or pro-indigenous discourse that promotes a positive attitude toward indigenous identity. Analysis of these discourses offers an understanding of the semiotic resources speakers employ as they orient toward and against particular identities that are both “traditional” and “modern,” as they respond to changing social and economic circumstances. It is concluded that a focus on individuals and communities, through ethnography and discourse analysis, is of critical importance to understanding how and why speakers shift their ideologies and their languages.

Keywords

language shiftlinguistic ideologyidentitydiscourse analysismetadiscursive processesMexicano/NahuatlTlaxcalaMexico
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 555 - 577
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo (1967). Regiones de refugio. Mexico City: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano.
Bakhtin, Mikhail (1981). The dialogic imagination. C. Emerson and M. Holquist, eds. & trans. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Barth, Frederik (1969). Introduction In Frederik Barth (ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference, 9–38. Bergen & Oslo: Scandinavian University Books.
Bauman, Richard, & Briggs, Charles (2000). Language philosophy as language ideology: John Locke and Johann Gottfried Herder. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities, 139–204. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Bauman, Richard, & Briggs, Charles (2003). Voices of modernity: Language ideologies and the politics of inequality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Bhabha, Homi (1994). The location of culture. New York & London: Routledge.
Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo (1994 [1987]). México profundo: Una civilización negada. Mexico City: Grijalba.
Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo (1996). México profundo: Reclaiming a civilization. P. A. Dennis, trans. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Brice Heath, Shirley (1972). Telling tongues: Language policy in Mexico – colony to nation. New York: Teachers College Press.
Bucholtz, Mary, & Hall, Kira (eds.) (1996). Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self. New York: Routledge.
Collier, George Allen (1994). Basta!: Land and the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas. Oakland, CA: Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Dorian, Nancy (1977). The problem of the semi-speaker in language death. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 12:23–32.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy (1989). Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Fairclough, Norman (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fishman, Joshua (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Fishman, Joshua (2001). Can threatened languages be saved?: Reversing language shift, revisited, a 21st century perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Flores Farfán, José Antonio (1999). Cuatreros somos y Toindioma hablamos. México: CIESAS.
Flores Farfán, José Antonio (2003). Nahuatl purism: Between language innovation, maintenance and shift. In Joseph Brincat et al. (eds.), Purism in the age of globalization, 281–313. Bochum: N. Brockmeyer.
Foucault, Michel (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and The discourse on language. New York: Pantheon.
Foucault, Michel (1978). The incitement to discourse. In The History of Sexuality, 17–35. New York: Pantheon.
Friedlander, Judith (1975). Being Indian in Hueyepan: A study of forced identity in contemporary Mexico. New York: St. Martin's.
Gal, Susan (1979). Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press.
Gal, Susan (1998). Multiplicity and contestation among linguistic ideologies. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, & P. Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 317–31. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gaonkar, Dilip P. (2001). On alternative modernities. In D. P. Gaonkar (ed.), Alternative modernities, 1–23. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
García Canclini, Néstor (1994). De lo local a lo global: Perspectivas desde la antropología. Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.
García Canclini, Néstor (2002). Culturas populares en el capitalismo. Mexico City: Grijalba.
Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press & Basil Blackwell.
González, Norma (1992). Child language socialization in Tucson U.S. Mexican households. Dissertation, University of Arizona.
González, Norma (2001). I am my language: Discourses of women and children in the borderlands. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Gramsci, Antonio (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. New York: International Publishers.
Hannerz, Ulf (1995). Cultural complexity: Studies in the social organization of meaning. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hill, Jane H. (1991). In neca gobierno de puebla: Mexicano penetrations of the Mexican state. In Greg Urban & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Indians, nation-states and culture, 72–94. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Hill, Jane H. (1993). Structure and practice in language shift. In Kenneth Hyltenstam (ed.), Progression and regression in language: Sociocultural, neuropsychological, and linguistic perspectives, 68–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hill, Jane H. (1995). The voices of Don Gabriel: Responsibility and self in a modern Mexicano narrative. In D. Tedlock & B. Mannheim (eds.), The dialogic emergence of culture, 96–147. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Hill, Jane H. (1998). “Today there is no respect”: Nostalgia, ‘respect,’ and oppositional discourse in Mexicano (Nahuatl) language ideology. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, & P. Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 68–86. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hill, Jane H. (2004). Discussant Commentary, Invited Session on Language, Racism and Discourse, organized by Jacqueline Messing, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Ms.
Hill, Jane H., & Hill, Kenneth (1986). Speaking Mexicano: Dynamics of syncretic language in Central Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Hinton, Leanne, & Ahlers, Jocelyn (1999). The issue of “authenticity” in California language restoration. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30(1):56–67.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith, & Gal, Susan (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Joseph, Gilbert M., & Nugent, Daniel (1994). Popular culture and state formation in revolutionary Mexico. In Gilbert M. Joseph & Daniel Nugent (eds.), Everyday forms of state formation: Revolution and the negotiation of rule in modern Mexico, 3–23. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kroskrity, Paul V. (1993). An evolving ethnicity among the Arizona Tewa: Toward a repertoire of identity. In Language, history, and identity: Ethnolinguistic studies of the Arizona Tewa, 177–212. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Kroskrity, Paul V. (2000). Regimenting Languages: Language Ideological Perspectives. Introduction. In Paul V. Kroskrity ed., Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research.
Kulick, Don (1992). Language shift and cultural reproduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Latour, Bruno (1993). We have never been modern. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Linde, Charlotte (1981). The organization of discourse. In T. Shopen & J. M. Williams (eds.), Style and variables in English, 84–114. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
Lomnitz, Claudio (2001). Modes of citizenship in Mexico. In Dilip P. Gaonkar (ed.), Alternative modernities, 299–326. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Mannheim, Bruce, & Tedlock, Dennis (1995). Introduction. In D. Tedlock & B. Mannheim (eds.), The dialogic emergence of culture, 1–32. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Messing, Jacqueline (2003a). Ideological multiplicity in discourse: Language shift and bilingual schooling in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Dissertation, University of Arizona.
Messing, Jacqueline (2003b). Fractal recursivity in ideologies of language, identity and modernity. Texas Linguistic Forum 45:95–105.Google Scholar
Messing, Jacqueline (2005). Learning and using Mexicano in Tlaxcala: Exploring the individual nature of ideological stance-taking in language shift situations. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Session organized by Leanne Hinton and Jacqueline Messing. Washington D.C.
Messing, Jacqueline, & Rockwell, Elsie (2006). Local language promoters and new discursive spaces: Mexicano in and out of schools in Tlaxcala. In Margarita Hidalgo (ed.), Mexican indigenous languages at the dawn of the twenty-first century, 249–80. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mufwene, Salikoko (2001). The ecology of language evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Mufwene, Salikoko (2004). Language birth and death. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:201–22.Google Scholar
Nava Nava, Refugio (2003). Variación en el Náhuatl de Tlaxcala: Los cuatro niveles de habla. Master's thesis. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), Mexico City. Mexico, D.F.: CIESAS.
Nutini, Hugo (1968). San Bernardino Contla: Marriage and family structure in a Tlaxcalan municipio. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Nutini, Hugo, & Isaac, Barry L. (1974). Los pueblos de habla Nahuatl de la region de Tlaxcala y Puebla. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional Indigenista y Secretaría de Educación Pública.
Philips, Susan U. (1998a). Ideology in the language of judges: How judges practice law, politics, and courtroom control. New York: Oxford University Press.
Philips, Susan U. (1998b). Language ideologies in institutions of power: A commentary. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, & P. Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 211–25. New York: Oxford University Press.
Philips, Susan U. (2000). Constructing a Tongan nation-state through language ideology in the courtroom. In her Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 229–57. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
Philips, Susan U. (2003). Language and social inequality. In A. Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Philips, Susan U. (2004). The organization of ideological diversity in discourse: Modern and neotraditional visions of the Tongan state. American Ethnologist 31:231–50.Google Scholar
Rockwell, Elsie (1996). Hacer escuela: Transformaciones de la cultura escolar, Tlaxcala 1910–1940. Dissertation, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados Del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINESTAV).
Rosaldo, Renato (1989). Culture and truth: The remaking of social analysis. Boston: Beacon.
Schieffelin, Bambi, & Ochs, Elinor (1986). Language socialization across cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schieffelin, Bambi; Woolard, Kathryn; & Kroskrity, Paul (eds.) (1998). Language ideologies: Practice and theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sherzer, Joel (1987). A discourse-centered approach to language and culture. American Anthropologist 89:295–309.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1979). Language structure and linguistic ideology. In Paul R. Cline William Hanks & Carol Hofbauer (eds.), The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels, 193–247. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Silverstein, Michael (1998). Contemporary linguistic transformations of local linguistic communities. Annual Review of Anthropology 27:401–26.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael, & Urban, Greg (eds.) (1996). Natural histories of discourse. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thomason, Sarah Grey, & Kaufman, Terrence (1988). Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Urban, Greg (1991). A discourse-centered approach to culture: Native South American myths and rituals. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Urban, Greg, & Sherzer, Joel (1991). Introduction. In Greg Urban & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Indians, nation-states and culture, 1–18. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Van Dijk, Teun (1994). Elite discourse and racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Varese, Stefano (1983). Indígenas y educación en México. Oaxaca: Centro de Estudios Educativos.
Vaughan, Mary Kay (1997). Cultural politics in revolution: Teachers, peasants, and schools in Mexico, 1930–1940. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Williams, Raymond (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woolard, Kathryn A. (1989). Language convergence and language death as social processes. In Nancy Dorian (ed.), Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and death, 355–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef