Wang-CurdtChristiansen2021

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Wang-CurdtChristiansen2021
BibType ARTICLE
Key Wang-CurdtChristiansen2021
Author(s) Weihong Wang, Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Title Lost in translation: parents as medium translators in intergenerational language transmission
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Urban families, Language transmission, Language brokering, China, Language policy, Fangyan
Publisher
Year 2021
Language English
City
Month
Journal Current Issues in Language Planning
Volume 22
Number 4
Pages 362–382
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/14664208.2020.1763022
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This study reports on the role of parents in intergenerational language transmission in a Chinese city. Thirteen families’ everyday communication practices have been collected, including dinner table talks, homework tutoring, and children's playtime interactions. Through comparative conversation analysis, the study reveals a phenomenon of ‘medium translation,’ a de facto language practice ‘brokering’ the communication between grandparents and children in three-generation households who use Fangyans (also known as Chinese dialects) and Putonghua (literally translated ‘common speech for all Chinese people’) in their daily communication. The findings indicate that parents’ role as ‘medium translators’ in intergenerational transmission is one critical factor contributing to the loss of Fangyan when it is passed down from grandparents to children, despite the facts that grandparents play an important role in childrearing and children are exposed to Fangyan from birth. Language shift was, ‘translated into being’ as parents mediated children's language shift from Fangyan to Putonghua. The study has important implications for the maintenance of linguistic varieties such as Fangyan in China and other similar contexts.

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