‘Our cat has the power’: the polysemy of a third language in maintaining the power/solidarity equilibrium in family interactions

• Autores: Cassie Smith-Christmas
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 42, Nº. 8, 2021 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Exploring the multilingual family repertoire: Ethnographic approaches.), págs. 716-731
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines how power and solidarity in family relations are negotiated along linguistic lines, and in particular, the role of a third language in this negotiation process. It takes as its case study a transnational family in Ireland who practise a strongly pro-Polish FLP and where the parents are seen as authorities in Polish and their daughters are seen as authorities in English, the dominant societal language. The paper takes a microinteractional approach to analysing excerpts where family members engage in language-learning activities using Irish, the national autochthonous minority language. The paper demonstrates how in many ways, Irish operates as a neutral, third space for family members to negotiate power/solidarity alignments, and thus contributes to the family’s maintenance of the power/solidarity equilibrium. The paper also demonstrates the polysemy inherent in how these negotiations play out at an interactional level, especially vis-à-vis the family’s pro-Polish FLP, as well as the polysemy of Irish-as-a-language within the scope of the family’s interactions as a whole.