The article analyzes the case of Polish-Italian bilingualism based on two individuals — a pair of bilingual siblings, children of Polish immigrants living in Italy since the 1990s — in the communicative context of expressing emotions. The author presents the issue based on her own qualitative research, focusing on emotional-communicative situations such as: quarrels, discussions, swearing, prayer, dreaming, and speaking to oneself. The study shows that the choice of language does not always depend on linguistic proficiency, but also on the emotional function that a given language fulfills in the bilingual person's mind. Both individuals represent a type of compositional bilingualism, in which the two languages are closely interconnected at the level of meaning. This is particularly evident in their dreams, where the languages blend naturally. The author emphasizes that each language is assigned a specific “emotional expressive power” by its user — a quality that varies between languages and depends on a wide range of factors. The analysis of the collected corpus of texts from the bilingual participants presents their speech as an example of interactional discourse.
Bilingwizm w sytuacji komunikacyjnej wyrażania emocji. Studium przypadków dwujęzyczności polsko-włoskiej
Kowalcze, Karolina
2009-01-01
Abstract
The article analyzes the case of Polish-Italian bilingualism based on two individuals — a pair of bilingual siblings, children of Polish immigrants living in Italy since the 1990s — in the communicative context of expressing emotions. The author presents the issue based on her own qualitative research, focusing on emotional-communicative situations such as: quarrels, discussions, swearing, prayer, dreaming, and speaking to oneself. The study shows that the choice of language does not always depend on linguistic proficiency, but also on the emotional function that a given language fulfills in the bilingual person's mind. Both individuals represent a type of compositional bilingualism, in which the two languages are closely interconnected at the level of meaning. This is particularly evident in their dreams, where the languages blend naturally. The author emphasizes that each language is assigned a specific “emotional expressive power” by its user — a quality that varies between languages and depends on a wide range of factors. The analysis of the collected corpus of texts from the bilingual participants presents their speech as an example of interactional discourse.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
