Entanglements

Between Decolonial and Southernizing Linguistics

Sinfree Makoni, Unyierie Idem, Edwin Appah Dartey, Bassey E. Antia, Sinfree Bullock Makoni

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781836681090
• eBook ISBN:
  9781836681113
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book explores the ways in which language is understood in diverse contexts, and how linguistic theories – and the idea of language as an object – fail to represent a reality that is inherently multi- and trans-. The chapters tease out the way that an understanding of language as a social practice, and the central role of the speaker(s) and their repertoire, allows for a more nuanced interpretation of language in contexts ranging from English as an international 'neutral' language in research and teaching, to the importance of life trajectories and multilingualism in the development of theoretical perspectives. The book offers a glimpse of a decolonial linguistics that recognizes the importance of entanglement – between languages, between the North and South and between the personal and the theoretical.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Political and Linguistic Entanglements
• 1. Sinfree Makoni and Henry Widdowson: In Conversation
• 2. Southernizing Linguistics
• 3. Ofelia García, Ricardo Otheguy and Sinfree Makoni: In Conversation
• 4. Susan Gal and Judith Irvine: ‘Signs of Difference’: A Conversation
• 5. Living with Lingua Francas: English in Indonesia and Indonesian
• 6. Southernizing the Study of English as a Lingua Franca: In Conversation
• 7. African Youth Language Research: Stylects and Decolonial Practice
• 8. Ontologies of English: In Applied Linguistics, TESOL and Beyond
• 9. Epilogue
• 10. Palabras Finales
• Index