This study examines the use of English in Switzerland from a multilingual perspective based on a corpus of 400 interviews collected in the German speaking Canton of Zurich. It presents a framework for explaining the linguistic interaction that arises as a result of the use of a «globalizing» language in a multilingual context. It has given the relationships that obtain between the various Swiss national languages a hierarchical character. The proposed Swiss framework indicates - viewed through a macro-sociolinguistic lens - that the present linguistic situation in Switzerland seems to reflect a growing symbiotic relationship between English and the Swiss vernaculars.

Autorentext

Agnieszka Stepkowska received her PhD from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, in 2004. She is a lecturer at the School of English, the University of Social Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests focus on translation studies, multilingualism and the sociology of language. She has published a book on English loanwords in Polish naval vocabulary and numerous papers on various topics.

Inhalt

Contents: English in Rivalry - The Nature of a Dominant Language - Standard and Varieties - No-man's-Language - Linguistic Pragmatism - Multilingual Perspective of Language Contact - Macro-sociolinguistic Aspects of Contact Linguistics - Mechanisms of Language Change - The Ecology of Languages - The Quality of Swiss-style Diversity - English in Switzerland - Switzerland: a Paradigmatic View - Language Policy and Protection - Schooling - Research: the Canton of Zurich - Towards a Linguistic Paradigm.