Linguistic Conflict and Language Laws - Understanding the Quebec Question

In a multilingual society, the role of each language is parallel to the importance of the community that speaks it; change in power relations between groups is linked to modifications in the status of their language. The Quebec language laws provide a case in point of the relation between social change and language planning. This comprehensive analysis of the Quebec language issue exposes the material and symbolic causes of these legislative measures and assesses their effects. This detailed appraisal also provides answers to more general questions of the nature of language laws and the conditions for their legitimacy.

List of contents

Notes On Contributors Introduction Language Policy and Planning Issues in Multicultural Societies; C.Williams The History of Quebec in the Perspective of the French Language; J-P.Warren Federal Language Policy in Canada and the Quebec Challenge; C.M. MacMillan A Language Policy for a Language in Exile; M.Chevrier Anglophones and Allophones in Quebec; P.Larrivée A Final Note on Culture, Quebec Native Languages and the Quebec Question; P. Larrivée

About the author

MARC CHEVRIER Editor of the journal and encyclopaedia L'Agora C.MICHAEL MACMILLAN Professor of Political Studies, Mount Saint University, Halifax JEAN-PHILIPPE WARREN Assistant Professor of Sociology at Concordia University in Montreal COLIN H.WILLIAMS Research Professor in the Department of Welsh, Cardiff University.

Summary

In a multilingual society, the role of each language is parallel to the importance of the community that speaks it; change in power relations between groups is linked to modifications in the status of their language. The Quebec language laws provide a case in point of the relation between social change and language planning. This comprehensive analysis of the Quebec language issue exposes the material and symbolic causes of these legislative measures and assesses their effects. This detailed appraisal also provides answers to more general questions of the nature of language laws and the conditions for their legitimacy.

Product details

• Assisted by: P Larrivée (Editor), P. Larrivée (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer Palgrave Macmillan
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2002
• EAN: 9780333968994
• ISBN: 978-0-333-96899-4
• No. of pages: 204
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 16 mm x 216 mm
• Weight: 360 g
• Illustrations: XI, 204 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Naher Osten, Amerikanische Geschichte, B, entdecken, Society, Nature, Language, Planning, Policy, Middle East, Social Change, Multilingualism, History of the Americas, Language policy, Palgrave History Collection, America—History, Middle Eastern Literature, Understanding