| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 240 pages ): illustrations |
| Contents |
A verticalization theory of language shift / Joshua R. Brown and Joseph Salmons -- Politics and cooperatives: verticalization in rural Finnish-American communities of the Upper Midwest / Mirva Johnson -- The great change in Midwestern agriculture: verticalization in Wisconsin German and Wisconsin West Frisian heritage communities / Joshua Bousquette -- The great change and the shift from Norwegian to English in Ulen, Minnesota / David Natvig -- Language shift and religious change in Central Pennsylvania / Joshua R. Brown -- Internal verticalization and community maintenance: the story of North Carolina Cherokee / Benjamin E. Frey -- The verticalization model of language shift from a population-structure perspective: a commentary / Salikoko S. Mufwene -- The verticalization model of language shift from a historical sociolinguistic perspective : a commentary / Anita Auer -- Reflecting on the commentaries / Joshua Bousquette and others |
| Summary |
"This book introduces a new and still emerging theoretical framework for understanding language shift, and presents several case studies of minority language communities using this approach. To date, approaches to language shift have typically relied on explaining the process through descriptive sociolinguistic models, i.e., how the community first becomes bilingual in both the majority and minority languages and then eventually shifts entirely to the majority language. The approach used in this edited volume attributes shift to a change from local control of tightly interconnected “horizontal” institutions within a community to more external or “vertical” control of those increasingly autonomous institutions outside the community. In short, this theory proposes that language shift is driven by specific changes in community structure. Unlike previous approaches to language shift, the one proposed here is generalizable. The bulk of the book contains chapters on language communities aimed at testing and refining the theoretical implications. The chapters cover different languages, contexts, and periods. Importantly, the two final chapters – from leading specialists in the broader field and working largely outside the US – provide critical commentary on the theoretical approach and again offer refinement toward a theory of language shift"--Publisher's description |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-237) and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed on July 10, 2023) |
| Subject |
Linguistic minorities -- Social aspects -- United States
|
|
United States
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| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Brown, Joshua R., editor.
|
| ISBN |
9780192633583 |
|
0192633589 |
|
9780191896644 |
|
0191896640 |
|
