Thinking, Practicing and Living Plurilingualism

Kapitola

Abstrakt

A plurilingual approach to semi-structured interviews in the Luxembourgish context: Luxem-
bourg has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French, and German. Each of these fulfills distinct functions and is currently undergoing a renegotiation of its role, while other languages, due to a high proportion of foreign residents in the country, are gaining importance. As a result, linguistic profiles are becoming increasingly diverse in a context already characterized by plurilingualism. As quantitative studies show, these changes follow generational patterns. However, few qualitative studies exist on plurilingual practices, and no study currently ad-
dresses a specific age group. In this context, 56 semi-structured interviews were conducted as part of an ongoing doctoral research project on the language preferences of adults aged 18 to 35 residing in Luxembourg City and with an emphasis on their plurilingual practices. This chapter focuses on methodological considerations regarding the interview protocol tested to collect data, which involved the use of recordings in six languages (French, Luxembourgish, English, Portuguese, German, and Italian). After outlining the existing literature and some aspects of the theoretical framework, the chapter describes the exploratory methodology and presents an overview of the resulting corpus. The final section discusses several translanguag-
ing practices observed during the interviews.


Reference

Anisfeld, M., Bogo, N., & Lambert, W. E. (1962). Evaluational reactions to accented English speech. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 65(4), 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045060

Austin, J. L., & Urmson, J. O.. How to do things with words: The William James lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955 (2. Aufl.). Harvard University Press.

Berg, C., Milsteiner, M., & Weis, C. (2013). Superdiversität in Luxemburg? In Vielfalt der Sprachen—Varianz der Perspektiven. Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der Luxemburger Mehrsprachigkeit (S. 9–36). Transcript.

Berg, G. (1993). Mir wëlle bleiwe, wat mir sin. Soziolinguistische und sprachtypologische Betrachtungen zur luxemburgischen Mehrsprachigkeit. In Mir wëlle bleiwe, wat mir sin. Max Niemeyer. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111377674

Bruch, R. (1953). Grundlegung einer Geschichte des Luxemburgischen. P. Linden.

Bruch, R. (mit Goossens, J.). (1963). Luxemburgischer Sprachatlas (L. E. Schmitt, Hrsg.). N.G. Elwert.

Busch, B. (2012a). Das sprachliche Repertoire, oder, Niemand ist einsprachig. Drava.

Busch, B. (2012b). The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited. Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 503–523. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams056

Busch, B. (2021). Mehrsprachigkeit (3., vollständig aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage). facultas. https://doi.org/10.36198/9783838556529

Butler, J. (2009). Giving an Account of Oneself. Fordham University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823237685

Conrad, F. (2017). Variation durch Sprachkontakt: Lautliche Dubletten im Luxemburgischen (Bd. 14). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11397

Dröge, K. (2024). noScribe (Version 0.6.2) [Software]. https://github.com/kaixxx/noScribe

Fehlen, F. (2009). BaleineBis: Une enquête sur un marché linguistique multilingue en profonde mutation = Luxemburgs Sprachenmarkt im Wandel. SESOPI Centre intercommunautaire.

Fehlen, F., Gilles, P., Chauvel, L., Pigeron-Piroth, I., Ferro, Y., & Bihan, E. L. (2023). RP 1er résultats 2021 N°08 « Une diversité linguistique en forte hausse » [online]. https://statistiques.public.lu/fr/publications/series/rp-2021/2023/rp21-08-23.html

Fehlen, F., & Heinz, A. (2016). Die Luxemburger Mehrsprachigkeit. Ergebnisse einer Volkszählung. Transcript. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:101:1-201607312467 ; https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433140

Fehlen, F., Piroth, I., Schmit, C., & Legrand, M. (with Estgen, P., & Persenaire, E.). (1998). Le Sondage « BALEINE ». Une étude sociologique sur les trajectoires migratoires, les langues et la vie associative au Luxembourg.

Giles, H. (1973). Accent Mobility: A Model and Some Data. Anthropological Linguistics, 15(2), 87–105.

Giles, H., Bourhis, R. Y., & Taylor, D. M. (1977). Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relation. In H. Giles (Hrsg.), Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations (S. 307−348). Academic Press. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1573668925325254400

Giles, H., Edwards, A. L., & Walther, J. B. (2023). Communication accommodation theory: Past accomplishments, current trends, and future prospects. Language Sciences, 99, 101571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101571 ; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101571

Gilles, P., Hillah, L., & Hosseini-Kivanani, N. (2025). LuxASR: Automatic Speech Recognition for Luxembourgish [Python]. Université du Luxembourg. https://luxasr.uni.lu/

Godenzzi, J. C. (2021). Montréal, le monde et les langues: Réflexions sur le tropisme linguistique. In M. Meune, J. C. Godenzzi, & D. Morin (Hrsg.), Montréal ‘ville-monde’. La multiformité linguistique vue par des locutrices et locuteurs (S. 5−12).

Helfferich, C. (2014). Leitfaden- und Experteninterviews. In N. Baur & J. Blasius (Hrsg.), Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung (2. Aufl., S. 559–574). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18939-0_39

Hoffmann, F. (1979). Sprachen in Luxemburg. Sprachwissenschaftliche und literarhistorische Beschreibung einer Triglossie-Situation. Institut Grand-Ducal, Section de Linguistique, de Folklore et de Toponymie.

Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse. (2018). Ofschlossrapport. Zesummen d’Lëtzebuerger Sprooch fërderen (1. Aufl.).

Pavlenko, A. (2007). Autobiographic Narratives as Data in Applied Linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 163–188. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm008

Poplack, S. (1980). Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics, 18(7/8), 581−618. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1980.18.7-8.581

Przyborski, A., & Wohlrab-Sahr, M. (2014). Qualitative Sozialforschung. Ein Arbeitsbuch (4., erweiterte). Oldenburg. https://doi.org/10.1524/9783486719550

Purschke, C. (2014). REACT – Einstellungen als evaluative Routinen in sozialen Praxen. In C. Cuonz & R. Studler (Hrsg.), Sprechen über Sprache. Perspektiven und neue Methoden der Spracheinstellungsforschung (S. 123−142). Schauffenburg. https://orbilu.uni.lu/handle/10993/20235

Sanguin, A.-L. (1994). Les diasporas et leurs trajectoires dans les grandes métropoles canadiennes, l’exemple de Montréal. Norois, 161(1), 111–129. https://doi.org/10.3406/noroi.1994.6544

STATEC. (2024). Luxemburg in Zahlen. 2024. Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. https://luxembourg.public.lu/dam-assets/publications/le-luxembourg-en-chiffres/luxemburg-zahlen.pdf

Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701599465

Ville de Luxembourg. (2024). Etat de la population. https://www.vdl.lu/sites/default/files/media/ni/document/Etat%20de%20la%20population%202024.pdf

Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039