Methods for Estimating the Language Conflict Potential

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of language conflict and the capacity to estimate the conflict potential of the language situation in multilingual communities. The prerequisites and causes for the emergence of language conflicts in language communities, as well as the incentives and triggers that provoke their occurrence are investigated. The research highlights applicability of current approaches to a conflict study developed in the frameworks of social sciences for language conflict potential identification. The methodology for measuring the conflict potential of the language community is described as conducting surveys with respondents, further assessment of existing threats to the linguistic situation stability, and evaluation of speakers’ satisfaction. The efficiency of adopted procedures application is proved, their predictive potential is revealed. The method for assessing tensions in a language community is considered in the context of a threat to the identity of a language group, and the results of the practical application of this technique are based on a field study conducted in the Republic of Dagestan. The effectiveness of conflict potential studying method as a combination of realistic and symbolic threats and inter-group anxiety is confirmed on the material of respondents’ questionnaire surveys and interviews with experts conducted in the Republic of Tatarstan. The assessment of tension in the language community, based on scaling technique that provides possibility for identifying four stages in the development of a language conflict, was carried out on the data obtained with the survey of residents of the Republic of Kalmykia.

Keywords

• language conflict
• conflict potential
• language community
• speaker
• social tension
• language policy