Bi-/multilingual Communication, Identity and the Posited Intermingling of Language Systems in the Mind

Abstract

There seems to be a desire abroad in some areas of our field to abandon all talk of bounds between language-varieties in the mind. The response offered here to such a position is that language knowledge in the mind is all its aspects, in fact, highly differentiated, and that this differentiation broadly follows the lines recognized by the traditional conception which draws (always, of course, crossable) lines between languages. One powerful set of evidence in favour of this latter claim is that offered by phenomena observable in everyday bilingual and multilingual language use and interaction. Such evidence bespeaks a necessary capacity on the part of multilinguals to keep their languages apart when using them, and an adeptness – even at a very early age – at making decisions as to which language to speak to whom. The article explores such phenomena, which are heavy with consequences for the unboundedness view of languages. Another dimension of bilingual/multilingual experience which bespeaks boundedness is the way in which different languages connect to different identities or aspects of identity, which is also discussed in the article.

Keywords

• bilingual
• multilingual
• boundedness
• differentiation
• identity
• separate development