In this talk, I consider how language practices in Swedish-English bilingual families can be seen as being embedded within a rhizomatic family language policy system. I consider how the family language policy system is formed through a multiplicity of temporary assemblages of thought and action. Drawing on Och’s (1979) work on context and combining it with Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) assemblage theory, I discuss how assemblages in these families emerge from the local social and spatial framework, the behavioural environment, and the extrasituational environment. In order to explore these dimensions, I will discuss how I have attempted to bring together questionnaires, video recordings of family interaction, interviews with family members, and stimulated recall procedures in order to build a holistic picture of how language functions in these families.

In addition, I will discuss how I have attempted to synthesise diverse theoretical frameworks into a single project, and the analytic benefits, as well the difficulties associated with doing this. The frameworks drawn upon include variationist sociolinguistics, conversation analysis (specifically epistemics in interaction), linguistic ethnography, and phenomenology (Busch’s conceptualisation of the Body Image). The work comes from my doctoral dissertation project at Karlstad University, which was recently published.

Tim Roberts

About the Higher seminar in Research on Bilingualism