Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн

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Are things a bit more straightforward when you look at the questions in self-report questionnaires given to bilinguals in an attempt to describe their bilingualism? The answer leans towards the affirmative but there is still a lot of variety. Some ask about language dominance, whereas others do not; some include questions about the biculturalism of bilinguals, but others do not; some ask about the bilingual’s accent, whereas other refrain from doing so, and so on. In sum, diversity is found in both how we define bilinguals and how we describe them. This may be due, in large part at least, to the fact that the study of bilingualism is still a rather young science as compared to that of monolingualism.

In the first part of this chapter, we will spend time on how bilinguals and bilingualism have been characterized and how this has changed over time. We will begin by looking at responses from three surveys done with lay people, both monolinguals and bilinguals. Then we will examine the definitions given by dictionaries for the words “bilingual” and “bilingualism.” The entries were written by lexicographers many of whom have linguistics training, so it will be interesting to see if there are any differences with what lay people say. Finally, we will look at the definitions given by language scientists over a span of about one hundred years and examine their evolution.