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" Language and the power of history : "
Harvey, Penelope M.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1094826
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| Doc. No
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TLets361064
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| Main Entry
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Harvey, Penelope M.
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| Title & Author
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Language and the power of history :\ Harvey, Penelope M.
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| College
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London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
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| Date
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1987
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| student score
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1987
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This thesis explores the language use of bilinguals in the SouthernPeruvian Andes.Sociolinguistic studies to date have suggested that thelinguistic choices of bilingual speakers are maxbnising strategieswhich can be understood in terms of the social context in which theinteraction is taking place. This thesis argues that the languagechoice of bilinguals cannot be understood in this way. Context is nota "given" entity to which speakers react and which analysts in theirturn can identify and describe. Rather, it is a process of which thelinguistic interaction is itself an integral part.People, in Ocongate, hold a dual notion of po~, the power ofthe animate landscape and autochthonous beings with which Quechualanguage is associated and the power of the State with which Spanishis associated. Detailed investigation of the oral tradition, and ofsocial practice, reveals that people's vision of an acceptable andnoral universe demands that these two forms of po~r are constructedas essentially co-existent without being able to be fused into onesyncretic whole or existing independently of each other. Linguisticpractice plays a part in constructing the social world in whichspeakers interact and also holds rreaning through reference to thisworld.By ~ning the situations in which people use Spanish andQuechua, the thesis docurrents the parallel histories and identitieswhich bilingualism secures for the people of Ocongate. Thesepossibilities are not only bnplicit in bilingualism, they arerecognised by the actors themselves. These themes are illustratedthrough studies of linguistic practice in the areas of: oral history,education and migration, the discourse of race, local politics, ritualand drunkenness.
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| Subject
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Sociolinguistics; Bilingualism
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| Added Entry
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London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
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