Choreographies Of Multilingualism: Writing And Language Ideology In Singapore (Oxford Studies Sociolinguistics Series)

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Overview

A conventional formula to begin any discussion on the sociolinguistics of Singapore is to relate its basic demographics in terms of the ethnic distribution of its populace. It is of course fully justifiable to foreground the city's unique ethnic constitution as a backdrop to discussing its language politics. Yet to begin this way also risks enfolding the discussion immediately into a top-down, macrostructural framework of cultural management, hence sidelining the anecdotal, the quotidian, and the peripheral, which by definition always lie outside the purview of such frameworks. At the risk of appearing idiosyncratic, let us break with tradition by beginning with two episodes that capture symptomatic moments pointing to the key issue addressed in this book: the layered and intersecting ways in which multilingualism is imagined and performed in Singapore--