TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY BRASOV

FACULTY OF LGS AND LITERATURES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY Reading tasks (1-7)
Course assignments. 1. Summarise in one page the first four articles 2. Summarise in one page the last three articles

Course Paper (exam). Choose one central idea from one of the seven articles. Decide on how you could relate it to the Romanian context. Conduct a mini-study on this topic: Collect data Analyse the data Write your research report (max. 4 pages)

CDSAM 1st year

Student: Cristian-Mihail

BOCANICIU

Language is more than just a tool to communicate. It connects people with something greater than themselves. A common language breaks barriers between people. It allows people that share a language to identify with each other although they are different. A new language makes you notice things that you have always missed. It leads to an appreciation of things that you never knew existed. And, in doing so, a new person is formed; the old is not gone but is somehow different. Multilingualism often indexes different social identities and referring to people from those places as another or an outsider where linguists develop ways of referring to their names as being true, real, attached names. Ethnic names, discrete names, alternative names, nicknames, pseudonyms-(aliases), peer names, abusive or derogatory nicknames are just categories by which a person is labeled and perceived by the others. People or individuals will reject or change their ways of referring to them because they might benefit from this or for the fact that it comes easier for them to be accepted into the society when they acquire a 2nd language that will ensure them a place to work(employment). Mary Bucholtz tries to find a relation between sexuality, feminism, identity, desire; where worth to mention is that queer linguistics allows a free analysis upon sexual ideologies. Michael Silverstein uses the term indexicality to refer to linguistic structures that point to, or index aspects of communicative contexts such as social positioning where identity is built with the usage of lg. Anna De Fina sees that social categories are negotiated through language with interaction in real life communication situations, talk in interaction, observing the behavior of respondents. Ethnic affiliation is an association in which its members are of the same ethnic group, where features like nationality, language, food, clothes, or religion suit best ethnicity. The affiliation process permits the individual to choose the integration into a group making use of free will or convenience. As theorized by Barth 1969, ethnicity is used to define boundaries within and between groups and therefore any aspect of social reality from food to accent, can be used to symbolically index ethnic affiliation. Asserting names or identity labeling is achieved in close connection to a kind of activity that a group might undergo. Ex: (the poker players, the swamp loggers, the millionaires etc. In linguistics, code switching is switching between two or more languages, or language varieties in the context of a single conversation. Further with Erez Levon, perceptual evaluation of sexuality is a highly contingent process dependent on a variety of sociolinguistic factors. Also she uses stereotypical assumptions

characterizing gay men`s speech as having wide pitch ranges and long sibilant durations, investigating the perception of sexuality in real life situations or in connected speech. A method of quantification or measurement is indexicality. This tool refers to the time at which is word is uttered, being a method of creating pointers leading to a theory. In order to create better understanding of sexuality and its perception specialists are examining: and range pitch and sibilant duration. Speakers who talk using a hissing sound such as [s] or [z] or are characterized by sigmatism with gay subjects and straight oriented subjects. Ingrid Piller in the text Identity construction and multilingual advertising suggests that Mass-media plays a crucial role in constructing social hybrid identities in an era when English language achieves an International status being a vehicle of communication. As spotted by Dryer, advertising helps to make sense of things, it validates consumer commodities and a consumer life style by associating goods with personal and social meanings and those aspirations and needs which are not fulfilled in real life. Consuming commodities ass a hole suit our identities and are good pointers in identifying an individual. Advertising implies multilingualism which is defined as the use of more than one linguistic code; also it contributes to the configuration of national unified cultures organized around commodity consumption, distribution of power. Marketing strategies appear enhancing and comparing a product with similar products from other competing companies or products; these strategies are: style, selection, performance hospitality, low rate, refund, service, and brands etc. printed texts with capital letters, large fonts, strong colors, position and form, flyers. Sophistication is expressed by the class term of style, or on the basis of creating an image of satisfaction with clients. According to Berman it is the project of modernityto make oneself at home in the maelstrom. For him being modern means. To find ourselves in an environment that promises adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world and at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know and are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity of class and nationality, of religion and ideology; in this sense modernity is said to unite mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity; it pours us all into a

maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. Yasir Suleyman shows the dinamic nature and implications of linguistic identity construction; also through lg he understands a method of manipulation by political powers. In the Arabic regions, Suleyman depicts subtraction or a reduction from one lg to another namely French to Lebanese. Minority influence is a major component of identity politics, but in the same time it is a form of social influence whci takes place when a majority is being influenced to accept the beliefs or behavior of a minority - (The elite)
Dealing with bilingual speakers, language alternation represents a social activity, accomplishment in talk. According to Gafarange, identity is constructed on the basis of a triadic relation where an individual shifts the linguistic codes at his convenience using instances in connected speech such as: Example: I mean X by Y.

For Torras language alternation is built in four activities and namely: medium selection, medium repair, medium suspension and the bilingual medium. In practical social action, members organize the social world in categories, understood as collections of things.

II. Lingua franca in Romania. Code -switching between Romanian and English language.

We live in an age of cultural mixing. Easy travel has shrunk the world, communications networks have enmeshed it, and global business has united it. Millions are exposed on a daily basis to a culture radically different from the one in which they grew up, and they must come to terms to the value of that culture. Lately, during a television talk-show in Romania, presenter and commentator Robert Turcescu said about English words that these constructions are a trend. Romanian words are not frequently used in advertising and that the language keeps a constant pace in transforming itself into a tool of communication with universal appliances identifying words borrowed from the English system Mass-media. Full credit could be given to the observation that the most obvious aspect of bilingual speech is lexical borrowings, with items going from the more prestigious language to the less prestigious language. Those items that are frequently used in the 2nd language eventually

become borrowings and arguably achieve lexical status, mentally, and are tagged as legitimate L2 lexical terms for the speakers. This approach or analysis will be made from observing commercials, advertisement, and the way a product is promoted in the market place. The focus is on the way English is kept in slogans, adds, publicity towards a product. The commercials are made using international strategies of brands just like LG, NIKE, MacDonalds. Starting from the assumption that code-switching is not fully realized from Romanian context to English context and the population of Romania is not bilingual, the question raising here is: Why are these adds or commercials not fully realized into the mother tongue of the majority of speakers? The term code-switching to indicate the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or sub-systems (Gumperz 1982:59). Collective. Identity is an emergent construct shaped within practices that define a community. English language is defined as the use of an English-based resource as a shared means of intercultural communication between speakers with different primary linguacultural backgrounds. A term like Rom-Gleaza, or Romanian English is a result from code switching, Anglicisms are found in everyday language leaving the 2nd language the economic field. A reason for these is that it comes very impossible to not recognize forms that that are not produced by the Romanian code. English is used for labeling all sorts of products and services such as: Beauty Center, Tattoo saloon, Fast Food, Bodyguard security, Market place, Dental care, and the issue is that these forms are not translated into Romanian context. People do not say anymore ieftiniri, the term for this is sales, or discount; also chips are used, snacks, cool, fun. Language tends to create alterity towards the individuals who do not understand these forms, thus language defines identity and keeps members of a group very well linked but in the same time if code switching is not realized the tendency will be that society will avoid these members in adhering to a specific group. Examples: NIKE - Just do it..LG - Life is GOODNokia Sendvis instead of sandwish, ofsaid instead of off side, - Connecting People.

When it comes to do successful sales or marketing, a global strategy that proved richful in other regions of the globe is implemented because these solution will keep advertise costs low, which means less input in order to get high amounts of money with no additional costs. Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. Marketing might sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products, but sales is only one part of marketing. As the term Marketing may replace Advertising it is the overall strategy and function of promoting a product or service to the customer. Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."(Bovee, 1992, p. 7) Language competence deals with knowledge of the language and the ability to use that knowledge to interpret and produce meaningful texts appropriate to the situation in which they are used. Language competence is best developed in the context of activities or tasks where the language is used for real purposes, in other words, in practical applications, thus language competence is very important because it sets the limitations of the speakers to perform in a code different than their own. Public relations are the practice of managing the flow of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations may include an organization or

individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press, and employee communication.

References: 1. Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2011. Understanding English as a lingua franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2. Publicitatea i dezvoltarea societii romneti n Vechiul Regat Neferu OanaLoredana.

3. Mauranen, Anna; Ranta, Elina (eds.). 2009. English as a lingua franca: studies and findings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.

4. Grade 9 to 12, American Sign Language and Deaf Culture, Manitoba Curriculum Framework of Outcomes (2009)Manitoba Education Citizenship and Youth, Manitoba Language Competence /19.

5. A N NA D E F I NA Code-switching and the construction of ethnic identity in a community of practice. Georgetown University Italian Department ICC Building 307 J 37 and O Streets NW Washington D.C. 20057 definaa@georgetown.edu

Advertisment- limba engleza cuvinte englezesti in reclamele romanesti