Field work in Copenhagen, Day 2

Tirsdag d. 29. april [English version, below]

Dagen startede med et oplæg fra Jens Norman Jørgensen om "Polylingual repertoires", dvs. den sproglige adfærd eller "languaging" der kan iagttages hos sprogbrugere der har adgang til mere end ét sprog. Jens' pointe var her at dette ikke kun inkluderer den type sprogbrugere der traditionelt kaldes bilinguale, men at det gælder for alle sprogbrugere at de har en mere eller mindre omfattende adgang til en række forskellige sprog eller sproglige varieteter, som de i mange tilfælde veksler imellem eller blander i deres sproglige praksis. En anden vigtig pointe var at disse "sprog" eller "varieteter" skal betragtes som ideologiske konstruktioner til hvilke forskellige sproglige træk (linguistic items and regularities) tilskrives af sprogbrugerne. Oplægget var i hvert fald for nogle af deltagerne provokerende og satte gang i en længere diskussion om hvordan sprog er organiseret strukturelt og mentalt, og på hvilke sproglige niveauer blanding af sprog kan forekomme.


Herefter tog Frans Gregersen over med et oplæg om det københavnske sprogsamfund. Han nøjedes dog ikke med en gennemgang af Københavns udvikling, men lagde ud med et vue over byen som generelt fænomen. Frans' pointe var her at byen ikke kan defineres som fænomen uden for historien idet dens funktioner ændrer sig voldsomt fra de tidligste byer i oldtiden til den postmoderne by, men at tidligere funktioner bevares som spor idet bygninger og strukturer (fx fæstningsanlæg og gadeplaner) består længe efter de har tabt deres oprindelige funktioner. Frans gennemgik herefter Københavns udvikling, først og fremmest dens voldsomme ekspansion som følge af urbaniseringen i slutningen af 1800'tallet og de sproglige konsekvenser af dette.
De to feltarbejdslokaliteter, Vesterbro og Ørestaden, udspringer her i to meget forskellige perioder af byens historie. Vesterbro opstod som et arbejderkvarter i slutningen af 1800'tallet, men er i de senere årtier blevet byfornyet ved at baghuse er revet ned og erstattet med åbne gårde med haveanlæg. Der er i de senere år sket en gentrificering af bydelen, som samtidig er etnisk stratificeret. Ørestad er derimod en helt ny bydel og repræsenterer "den postmoderne by".

Old København outside Københavns bymuseum

Frans sluttede sit oplæg med et oplæg til diskussion om hvilke konsekvenser den historiske udvikling må have for for feltarbejdsmetoder som det sociolingvistiske interview og deltagerobservationen.

Om eftermiddagen arbejdede de seks feltarbejdsgrupper hver for sig om at planlægge de kommende dages feltarbejde.

Torben Juel Jensen



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The day began with a presentation by Jens Norman Jørgensen on "Polylingual repertoire", ie. linguistic behavior, or "languaging" that can be observed when language users have access to more than one single language. Jens' point here was that this not only includes the type of language users who traditionally are labelled bilingual. It rather applies to all language users that we have a more or less complete access to a variety of languages or language varieties, and we often alternate between these or mix them in our linguistic practice. Another important point was that these "languages" or "varieties" should be regarded as ideological constructions to which various linguistic features – linguistic items and regularities – are attributed by the language users. The lecture was, at least for some participants in the work-shop, rather provocative and it sparked a lengthy discussion about how language is organized structurally and mentally, and on what linguistic levels of language mixing can occur.

Subsequently, Frans Gregersen took over to present a paper on the Copenhagen language communities. He did not only give a review of Copenhagen's development, but began with a view over the city as a general phenomenon. Frans' point was that the city cannot be defined as a phenomenon separated from history, because its functionality has changed dramatically from the earliest cities of antiquity to the postmodern city, and the former features preserved as traces in buildings and structures (such as fortifications and street plans) consists long after they have lost their original functions. Frans then told us about the development of Copenhagen, primarily in its massive expansion due to the urbanization in the late 1800s, and the linguistic consequences of this. The two fieldwork sites, Vesterbro and Ørestaden, were developed in two very different periods of its history. Vesterbro emerged as a working class neighborhood in the late 1800s, but in recent decades it has undergone an urban renewal when the back buildings were demolished and replaced with open courtyards with gardens. In recent years there has been a gentrification of the neighborhood that is also ethnically stratified. Ørestad is however a new district and represents "a postmodern city". Frans ended his presentation with a basis for discussion about what consequences the historical development may have on the fieldwork methods as for instance the sociolinguistic interview and the participator observation.

In the afternoon the six field groups worked individually to plan the next day's fieldwork.