Alexandra M?nch, Doris Stolberg

?Zwei languages zusammenputten?1: Bilingual ways of expressing bicultural identities

Introduction

?zwei languages zusammenputten?1: bilingual ways of expressing bicultural identities. Erfahren Sie, wie deutsch-englische bilinguale Einwanderer in den USA bikulturelle Identitäten ausdrücken. Die Analyse von Sprachmustern zeigt die Rolle sprachlicher Ressourcen bei der Konstruktion soziokultureller Identität.

Abstract

The availability of linguistic resources plays a crucial role when sociocultural identities are constructed in interpersonal interaction. When looking at ways of how language is used to fulfil this purpose, the behaviour of bilinguals is particularly revealing because the structure of the bilingual linguistic repertoire is often more transparent than that of a ?monolingual? repertoire. In our research project on contact phenomena between German and English, we investigate bilingual speech patterns of first generation German immigrants to the USA2. In our presentation we focus on the analysis of a tape-recorded free interaction which took place among five bilingual speakers aged 59-82, and we are concentrating on two of the speakers, both of them women. These speakers, we will call them Laura and Toni3, immigrated to the USA as young adults with hardly any prior knowledge of English.

Review

This submission presents a fascinating and timely investigation into the intricate relationship between linguistic resources and the construction of sociocultural identities, particularly within bilingual communities. The title, "?Zwei languages zusammenputten?1: Bilingual ways of expressing bicultural identities," is immediately engaging, artfully employing code-switching itself to preview the paper's core theme. By focusing on first-generation German immigrants to the USA, the research promises rich insights into how individuals navigate and express their bicultural identities through their unique linguistic repertoires. The abstract clearly articulates the project's relevance, positing that bilingual speech patterns offer a particularly transparent lens into the mechanisms of identity construction, a point that is both theoretically sound and methodologically compelling. The methodological approach, centered on tape-recorded free interaction among five bilingual speakers aged 59-82, with a specific focus on two women named Laura and Toni, is particularly noteworthy. The choice of first-generation immigrants who arrived as young adults with minimal English knowledge offers a distinct and valuable demographic for sociolinguistic inquiry. This cohort's language acquisition journey and subsequent identity formation are likely to yield unique patterns of language contact phenomena and identity negotiation. Analyzing naturalistic conversation provides an authentic window into how these speakers spontaneously "put together" their two languages to articulate their lived experiences, cultural affiliations, and personal narratives, thereby shedding light on the dynamic interplay between language and identity in everyday interaction. While the abstract lays a strong foundation, the full paper would benefit from elaborating on a few key areas to enhance its contribution. Specifically, it would be valuable to detail the theoretical frameworks guiding the analysis of "bicultural identities" and the specific analytical tools employed to interpret "bilingual ways of expressing" them (e.g., conversation analysis, specific sociolinguistic models of code-switching or identity construction). Furthermore, clarifying how Laura and Toni were selected from the larger group, and whether their experiences are intended to be representative or illustrative of particular phenomena, would help situate the findings. Expanding on the initial observation about the "transparency" of bilingual repertoires versus "monolingual" ones could also offer an intriguing theoretical discussion point, perhaps by exploring the inherent complexity of all linguistic repertoires while acknowledging the unique visibility of contact phenomena in bilingual speech.

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