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Who Is Responsible for Saving the Language? Performing Generation in the Face of Language Shift
Author(s) -
HenneOchoa Richard,
Bauman Richard
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/jola.12083
Subject(s) - contest , perspective (graphical) , face (sociological concept) , sociology , language shift , linguistics , contrast (vision) , psychology , computer science , political science , social science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , law
In the literature on language shift and revitalization, generations are defined a priori as existing social categories that are mapped onto sociolinguistic features. In contrast, we take a performance‐based perspective and develop a view of generations as discursively constructed frameworks that are aligned with sociolinguistic and moral features that attend language retention and associated factors. Using this perspective and empirical data from a high school speech contest held in a language‐shifting Lakota community where revitalization efforts are underway, we show how contestants and participants perceive and experience language loss and renewal.