Language ideologies and topoi in web discussions on Russia’s minority languages
DOI:10.30842/alp23065737191102137
Khilkhanova Erzhen V. Language ideologies
and topoi in web discussions on Russia’s minority languages.
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2023. 19(1):
102–137.
The article argues for the need to study the language ideologies aired on the Web and social media as these represent an important but still under-investigated source for discovering the actual, live public opinions and language attitudes among the linguistically diverse Russian populations. The article relies on the Critical Discourse Analysis methodology with an emphasis on the argumentation schemes and content-related topoi behind the views opposing minority language maintenance. The reasons for narrowing down on this type of argumentation schemes are limitations on the article size and the greater relevance of ‘negative’ language ideologies and related topoi for explaining the continuing extinction of minority languages in Russia. The research revealed several of such language ideologies including those of language hierarchy, the normalcy of the (Russian) monolingualism, the “naturalness” of minority languages’ extinction due to their “uselessness”, “backwardness”, and “lack of prospects”, or association of support for these languages with nationalistic attitudes. Many Russian Internet-users believe that language is strongly tied to ethnicity and territory, that multilingualism is harmful for children’s development, and that the responsibility for language maintenance lies solely with the family. Discussants resort to a variety of topoi referring to legal, pseudo-scientific, pseudo-economic, quantitative, territorial arguments, and/or refer to a danger of separatism as a threat for national security. The list of the most popular and frequent topoi derived from statements in social media includes, among others, such topoi as “maintaining a minority language is a waste of money”, “learning many languages is a burden for children”, “it is only the ethnic group X that needs the ethnic language X”, etc. One of the findings is the coherence of ideology and pragmatics when people, depending on their initial attitudes, can invoke any convenient ideological justification for their (language) decisions to ‘persuade’ themselves and others. The article notes that both the opponents and supporters of minority languages’ maintenance may resort to the same ideology and topoi, with the former more often using the ‘standard’ arguments. Everyday consciousness gravitates toward simple solutions and explanations, toward more practical and obvious reasoning. The article concludes that the intensity and heat of language-related discussions, the prevalence of ‘Darwinian’ views and non-supportive language ideologies and arguments largely explain the current state of many minority languages in Russia.
Keywords
References
A. V. Alekseev. Uskolzayushchiy
«topos»: k voprosu o soderzhanii ponyatiya i predelakh ego
primenimosti [The elusive “topos”: on the issue of the concept’s
content and the limits of its applicability]. Metod. 2019. No. 9.
P. 98–113. Available at: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=42610098
(accessed on 12.01.2023).
L. Althusser. Ideologiya i
ideologicheskie apparaty gosudarstva (zametki dlya issledovaniya)
[Ideology and ideological apparatuses of the state (notes for
research)]. Transl. from French by S. Ryndin. 1970. Available at:
https://magazines.gorky.media/nz/2011/3/ideologiya-i-ideologicheskie-apparatygosudarstva.html
(accessed on 02.03.2022).
Aristotle. Ritorika [Rhetoric].
Transl. by N. Platonova. A. A. TakhoGodi (ed.). Antichnye ritoriki
[Antique rhetorics]. Moscow: Moscow University Publishing House,
1978. P. 15–167.
V. V. Baranova, K. S. Fedorova.
Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic
Diversity in Russian Megalopolises. Open Linguistics. 2020. Vol. 6.
No. 1. P. 672–689. DOI: 10.1515/opli-2020-0038.
V. V. Baranova, K. S. Fedorova.
Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic
Diversity in Russian Megalopolises. Open Linguistics. 2020. Vol. 6.
No. 1. P. 672–689. DOI: 10.1515/opli-2020-0038.
C. Bártfai. Udmurt Language in
Virtual Space. Mnogoyazychie v obrazovatelnom prostranstve
[Multilingualism in the educational space]. 2016. Iss. 8. P.
31–36.
A. Blackledge, А. Pavlenko.
Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. International
Journal of Bilingualism. 2001. Vol. 5. No. 3. P. 243–257. DOI:
10.1177/13670069010050030101.
C. Dyers, J. Abongdia. An exploration
of the relationship between language attitudes and ideologies in a
study of Francophone learners of English in Cameroon. Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 2010. Vol. 31. Iss. 2.
P. 119–134. DOI: 10.1080/01434630903470837.
N. Fairclough, R. Wodak. Critical
discourse analysis. T. van Dijk (ed.). Discourse as Social
Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction.
Vol. 2. London: Sage, 1997. P. 258–284.
E. I. Filippova. Sudba yazykov v
globalizuyushchemsya mire [The fate of languages in a globalizing
world]. E. I. Filippova (ed.). Yazyki menshinstv: Yuridicheskiy
status i povsednevnye praktiki [The fate of languages in a
globalizing world. Minority languages: Legal status and everyday
practices]. Moscow: Rosinformagroteh, 2013. P. 5–16.
S. Gal, K. Woolard. Constructing
Languages and Publics: Authority and Representation. Pragmatics.
1995. Vol. 5. Iss. 2. P. 129–138.
L. M. Gritsenko, T. A. Demidova.
Kommunikativnaya strategiya diskreditatsii v internet-kommunikatsii
(na primere trollinga) [The discrediting speech strategy in
Internet communication (On the example of the use of trolling)].
Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya. 2018.
No. 55. P. 29–42. DOI: 10.17223/19986645/55/3.
V. V. Il‘yushkin. Stereotipizatsiya
kak vazhnyy faktor v vospriyatii i poznanii lyudmi drug druga
[Stereotypization as an important factor in the perception and
cognition]. European Science. 2014. No. 1 (1). P. 31–36.
J. Irvine. Revisiting Theory and
Method in Language Ideology Research. Journal of Linguistic
Anthropology. 2022. Vol. 32. No. 2. P. 1–15. DOI:
10.1111/jola.12335.
O. I. Kalinin, A. D. Suzen’.
Ideologema natsionalnoy mechty v massmedialnom diskurse KNR i SShA
[The ideologeme of the national dream in the mass media discourse
of the PRC and the USA]. Sociolinguistics. 2020. No. 1. P.
133–146.
V. Kharitonov, D. Stepina.
Monolingvalnyy gabitus v mnogoyazychnom obshchestve: kak i chto
govoryat o yazykakh v Rossii [Monolingual habitus in a multilingual
society: how and what people say about languages in Russia].
Antropologiya. Folkloristika. Sotsiolingvistika. Konferentsiya
molodykh uchenykh. Sbornik tezisov [Anthropology. Folkloristics.
Sociolinguistics. Conference of young scientists. Book of
abstracts]. St. Petersburg: S. n., 2020. P. 92–94.
E. V. Khilkhanova. Internet i
minoritarnye yazyki Rossii: simvolicheskoe prisutstvie ili
instrument revitalizatsii? (na primere buryatskogo yazyka) [The
Internet and minority languages of Russia: a symbolic presence or a
tool for revitalization? (The Buryat case)]. Mongolovedenie. 2019.
Vol. 11. No. 4. P. 967–988. DOI:
10.22162/2500-1523-2019-4-967-988.
E. V. Khilkhanova. Yazykovaya
ustanovka i yazykovaya ideologiya v zapadnoy i rossiyskoy nauke: o
razgranichenii poniatiy [Language attitudes and language ideologies
in Western and Russian scholarship: the differentiation of
concepts]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 19. Lingvistika
i mezhkulturnaya kommunikatsiya. 2022. No. 3. P. 148–162.
E. Khilkhanova, D. Khilkhanov. The
changing dynamics of language and ethnic identity link by Russian
minorities: The Buryat case study. Journal of Eurasian research.
2003. Vol. 2. No. 1. P. 26–39.
A. E. Kibrik, M. A. Daniel.
Predislovie [Introduction]. A. E. Kibrik (ed.). Malye yazyki i
traditsii: sushchestvovaniye na grani [Small languages and
traditions: existence on the edge]. Iss. 1: Lingvisticheskie
problemy sokhraneniya malykh yazykov [Linguistic problems of
preservation of small languages]. Moscow: Novoe izdatelstvo, 2005.
P. 5–18.
M. Kienpointner. Alltagslogik.
Struktur und Funktion von Argumentationsmustern. Stuttgart-Bad
Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1992.
P. V. Kroskrity. Regimenting
Languages: Language Ideological Perspectives. P. V. Kroskrity
(ed.). Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities.
Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2000. P. 1–34.
I. P. Kuzheleva-Sagan (academic ed.).
“Cifrovye diaspory” migrantov iz Tsentralnoy Azii: virtualnaya
setevaya organizatsiya, diskurs “voobrazhaemogo soobshchestva” i
konkurentsiya identichnostey [Digital diaspora of migrants from
Central Asia: a virtual network organization, the discourse of
“imagined community” and competition of identity]. Tomsk:
Publishing House of Tomsk State University, 2016.
V. Yu. Mikhalchenko. Dinamika
yazykovoy situatsii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii [Dynamics of the
language situation in the Russian Federation]. M. Wingender, A. N.
Bitkeeva, E. V. Khilkhanova (eds.). Perspektivy i vyzovy yazykovoy
politiki i yazykovoy situatsii v Krymu. Mezhdunarodnyy kruglyy stol
(Moskva, 05–06 noyabrya 2019 g.): Doklady i soobshcheniya
[Prospects and challenges of language policy and language situation
in the Crimea. International round table (Moscow, 05–06 November
2019): Reports and presentations]; Institute of Linguistics of the
RAS; the Giessen Centre for Eastern European Studies (GiZo) of the
Justus Liebig University Giessen. Moscow: S. n., 2019. P.
8–24.
B. Matouschek, R. Wodak, F.
Januschek. Notwendige Maßnahmen gegen Fremde? Genese und Formen von
rassistischen Diskursen der Differenz. Vienna: Passagen Verlag,
1995.
T. L. McCarty (ed.). Ethnography and
language policy. New York: Routledge, 2011.
B. Orekhov. Yazyki Rossii v
prostranstve interneta: sayty, Vikipediya, sotsialnaya set
[Languages of Russia on the Internet: websites, Wikipedia, social
network]. Yazyki malochislennykh narodov Rossii: ustnoe vs.
pismennoe. Tezisy dokladov mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii
[Languages of small peoples of Russia: oral vs. written. Abstracts
of the international scientific conference]. St. Peterburg, 4–6
December 2017. P. 52–53.
B. Orekhov, K. Reshetnikov.
Gosudarstvennye yazyki Rossii v Vikipedii. K voprosu o setevoy
aktivnosti minoritarnykh yazykovyh soobshсhestv [Official languages
of Russia in Wikipedia. On the issue of network activity of
minority language communities]. Е. G. Lapina-Kratasyuk, О. V.
Moroz, Е. G. Nim (eds.). Nastroyka yazyka: upravlenie
kommunikatsiyami na postsovetskom prostranstve [Language tuning:
Communication management in the Post-Soviet space]. Moscow: Novoe
literaturnoe obozrenie, 2016. P. 261–279.
B. Orekhov, I. Krylova, I. Popov, E.
Stepanova, L. Zaydelman. Russian minority languages on the web:
descriptive statistics. V. P. Selegey (ed.- in-chief).
Kompyuternaya lingvistika i intellektualnye tehnologii [Computer
linguistics and intellectual technologies]. Iss. 15 (22). Moscow:
Publishing House of the Russian State University for the
Humanities, 2016. P. 452–461.
B. Orekhov, K. Reshetnikov.
Gosudarstvennye yazyki Rossii v Vikipedii. K voprosu o setevoy
aktivnosti minoritarnykh yazykovyh soobshсhestv [Official languages
of Russia in Wikipedia. On the issue of network activity of
minority language communities]. Е. G. Lapina-Kratasyuk, О. V.
Moroz, Е. G. Nim (eds.). Nastroyka yazyka: upravlenie
kommunikatsiyami na postsovetskom prostranstve [Language tuning:
Communication management in the Post-Soviet space]. Moscow: Novoe
literaturnoe obozrenie, 2016. P. 261–279.
С. Pischlöger. Udmurtness in Web 2.0:
Urban Udmurts Resisting Language Shift. Finnisch-Ugrische
Mitteilungen. 2010. Band 38. P. 143–161.
C. Pischlöger. Udmurt on Social
Network Sites: A Comparison with the Welsh Case. R. Toivanen, J.
Saarikivi (eds.). Linguistic Genocide Or Superdiversity? (New and
Old Language Diversities. Vol. 14). Bristol, Buffalo; Toronto:
Multilingual Matters, 2016. P. 108–132. DOI:
10.21832/9781783096060-006.
M. Reisigl, R. Wodak. Discourse and
discrimination. Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. London:
Routledge, 2001.
A. Rozhkova. Distribution of content
in multi-channel business media on the example of “Business ONLINE”
and “Business FM St. Petersburg”. Information Age. 2018. No. 1–2.
P. 253–255.
A. V. Rubtsov, T. B. Ljubimova, A. A.
Syrodeeva. Prakticheskaya ideologiya. K analitike ideologicheskikh
protsessov v politicheskoy i sotsiokulturnoy realnosti [Practical
ideology. To the analysis of ideological processes in political and
socio-cultural reality]. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy of the
Russian Academy of Sciences, 2016.
J. Sallabank, Y. Marquis. ‘We Don’t
Say It Like That’: Language Ownership and (De)Legitimising the New
Speaker. C. Smith-Christmas, M. Hornsby, M. Moriarty, N. Ó.
Murchadha (eds.). New Speakers of Minority Languages: Linguistic
Ideologies and Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2018. P.
67–90.
H. Schiffman. Language policy and
linguistic culture. T. Ricento (ed.). An introduction to language
policy: Theory and method. Malden: Blackwell, 2006. P.
111–125.
A. D. Stepanov. Kontsept toposa.
Problema granits [The concept of topos: the problem of borders].
Mir russkogo slova. 2018. No. 2. P. 41–46.
V. A. Tishkov. Yazykovaya situatsiya
i yazykovaya politika v Rossii (reviziya kategoriy i praktik)
[Language situation and language policy in Russia (Revising
categories and practices)]. Polis. Politicheskiye issledovaniya.
2019. No. 3. P. 127–144. DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2019.03.08.
S. Titscher, M. Meyer, R. Wodak, E.
Vetter. Metody analiza teksta i diskursa [Methods of text and
discourse analysis]. Transl. from English. Kharkiv: Gumanitarnyy
Tsentr, 2009.
D. N. Uznadze. Yeksperimentalnyye
osnovy teorii ustanovki [Experimental foundations of the theory of
an attitude]. Tbilisi: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences
of Georgia, 1961.
N. B. Vakhtin. Yazyki narodov Severa
v XX veke. Ocherki yazykovogo sdviga [Languages of the peoples of
the North in the twentieth century. Essays on the language shift].
St. Petersburg: Dmitriy Bulanin, 2001.
T. van Dijk. Diskurs i vlast:
Reprezentatsiya dominirovaniya v yazyke i kommunikatsii [Discourse
and power: Representation of dominance in language and
communication]. Transl. from English. Moscow: Knizhnyy dom
«Librokom», 2013.
R. Vessey. Corpus Approaches to
Language Ideology. Applied Linguistics. 2017. Vol. 38. Iss. 3. P.
277–296. DOI: 10.1093/applin/amv023.
V. N. Voloshinov (M. M. Bakhtin).
Marksizm i filosofiya yazyka: Osnovnye problemy sotsiologicheskogo
metoda v nauke o yazyke [Marxism and the philosophy of language:
The main problems of the sociological method in the science of
language]. Comments by V. Makhlin. Moscow: Labirint, 1993.
M. Wingender. Diskursive Konstruktion
von Sprachenvielfalt und Sprachenkonflikten in Russland —
Sprachenpolitik im Kontext von nationaler Sicherheit. S. Kempgen,
M. Wingender, L. Udolph (eds.). Deutsche Beiträge zum 16.
Internationalen Slavistenkongress. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 2018. P.
353–364.
R. Wodak. The Discourse of Politics
in Action. Politics as Usual. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,
2011.
R. Wodak, R. De Cillia, M. Reisigl,
K. Liebhart. Transl. by A. Hirsch, R. Mitten, Jo. W. Unger. The
Discursive Construction of National Identity. (2nd ed.). Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
