Article published In: Thematising Multilingualism in the Media
Edited by Helen Kelly-Holmes and Tommaso M. Milani
[Journal of Language and Politics 10:4] 2011
► pp. 491–510
Media representations of multilingual Luxembourg
Constructing language as a resource, problem, right and duty
Published online: 5 December 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.10.4.02hor
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.10.4.02hor
Following Ruiz’s discussion of orientations in language planning, distinguishing between language as right, resource and problem, this paper unpacks the ways in which related discourses are circulated in the Luxembourgish print media. Particular attention is paid to how these discourses are interwoven with debates on education and citizenship and how they draw on deeply entrenched language ideological beliefs about language and society, e.g. that “valuable” forms of individual multilingualism are a desirable goal, whereas linguistic heterogeneity constitutes a problem. Moreover, the analysis shows that the texts thematizing multilingualism are bound up with a discourse of rights and duties, and that right and duty, as well as problem and resource, need to be conceptualized as two intersecting continua informing language ideological debates.
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