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Article In: SFL Appliability, Visibility and Accessibility
Edited by Claudia E. Stoian, Jorge Arús-Hita and Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
[Language, Context and Text 7:2] 2025
► pp. 300–327

Language choice as social action

A pragmatic-functional account of multilingualism in Transylvania, Banat and Switzerland

 | University Babes-BolyaiCluj-Napoca, Romania
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
In multilingual societies, language choice is a pragmatic act rather than a neutral reflection of competence. This article examines how speakers in historically multilingual regions (Transylvania and Banat) and administratively multilingual Switzerland use language choice to perform social actions such as negotiating identity, authority, solidarity, and access. Drawing on long-term qualitative observation, the study contrasts two regimes: locally co-constructed congruency, which tolerates asymmetric production with mutual understanding, and policy-driven territoriality, which ties linguistic legitimacy to institutional norms. Using a systemic functional perspective, the article argues that language choice operates primarily at the discourse-pragmatic level and reveals how English increasingly mediates interaction through everyday preference rather than explicit imposition.
Article outline
  • Argument
  • 1.Pragmatic norms of language choice in multilingual contact zones. Congruency or territoriality
  • 2.Pragmatic functions of code choice in childhood and youth interaction
  • 3.Linguistic democracy. Multilingualism, prestige, and face: The politics of being heard
    • 3.1The pragmatic choice of normality or abnormality
    • 3.2School sociolects political, social choices or spontaneous creation?
    • 3.3Causes, consequences and compensations in the language choice and the part of the language system
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (52)
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