[Air-l] English as a journal language

[Beverly Trayner]

Barry, you ask

> BTW, while I find the linguistic discussion interesting, is it  
> really an
> AoIR issue?

I think that if you frame language as just a "linguistic discussion"  
then you *might* wonder what it has to do with Internet Research.

But if, as in your story about English as a journal language, the  
issue of language is a social one; if it's about how people make  
sense of the Internet and social relationships through the Internet;  
if language shapes and is shaped by our Weltanschauung (world view)  
and if language helps create categories in our minds and influence  
our construction of reality - then how could it not be an AoIR issue?

What's that old quote from Sapir?
  “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar as to be considered  
as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which  
different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same  
world with different labels attached.”

Many of us are living and operating in (at least) two languages. My  
identity as (qualitative) researcher is totally tied up in navigating  
between languages. My data is in Portuguese, my narrative(s) mostly  
in English and also in Portuguese, to people from the "international"  
and the Portuguese context. The multiple layers of complexity in  
inter-languaging and negotiating meaning between worldviews, contexts  
and narratives are compounded to the nth degree in internet research.

At least, that's how it is is for me.

Cheers
Beverly


Beverly Trayner
Web page: http://btrayner.info
Blog: http://btrayner.blogspot.com