Re-writing linguistic history: (Post)colonial reality on the fringes of linguistic theories

to take place at the Research Institute for Austrian and International Literature and Cultural Studies (INST) international conference on Knowledge, Cultures and the Transformation of Societies (KCTOS)
Vienna, Austria, Dec. 6th-9th 2007

www.inst.at/kctos/index_english.htm
www.inst.at/kctos/sektionen_a-f/anchimbe.htm

Workshop organiser: Eric Anchimbe

For the past several decades, linguistic studies of (post)colonial societies have been built on theories, platforms, templates and frameworks constructed in, and for, the west. As Franz Boas rightly said at the turn of the last century, �??the internal structure of languages and societies must be allowed to emerge on their own, without the distorting imposition of European templates upon them�?? (see Handbook of American Indian Languages). The distorting impact of foreign models, as the case may be, prohibited researchers from investigating peculiar characteristics of these societies as outcomes of their sociohistorical completeness. For instance, Africa�??s multilingualism has often been described on a par with European multilingualism. This is theoretically misleading because whereas European multilingualism involves several written languages, the African context involves only one (or two) written languages existing alongside oral languages founded on oral cultures and transmitted orally. It is about time more natural and region-based findings were made that handle postcolonial areas not as being on the fringes of the west but as constituting centres of their own.
This workshop of the KCTOS conference addresses the following (and more) linguistic issues in postcolonial areas that have been studied with foreign-based theories:
1. Postcolonial linguistics (how colonialism rolled the dice in approaches to, and conceptions of, languages in these contexts)
2. Postcolonial pragmatics (face, politeness, turn-taking, name-calling, etc.)
3. Notions of bilingualism and multilingualism (oral vs. written languages and cultures)
4. Construction of (multiple) linguistic identities (allegiance to languages)
5. Endangerment(?) and survival of indigenous languages in the face of international (official) languages like English and French.
6. Language contact and (socio)linguistic outcomes
Papers with strong insights into the above topics and related ones are invited. Priority will be given to papers that propose new (and promising) analytical frameworks to particular linguistic processes in postcolonial areas. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are welcome.

NB: Papers will be published in TRANS 17 (http://www.inst.at/trans/index.htm). An edited volume of selected papers is also envisaged.

Send abstracts to Eric A. Anchimbe at anchimbe_eric@yahoo.com by August 20th, 2007