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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 19:2 (2020) ► pp.311–330

Discursive constructions on Spanish languages

Towards overcoming the conflict framework

ORCID logo | University of A Coruña

The analysis of the different ideological constructions around the languages of Spain shows two main metaphors that support the linguistic conflict experienced in the last three or four decades: the container metaphor (languages conceived as entities that are completely independent of each other) and the ecological metaphor (each language occupies a specific niche for historical reasons). The study of complexity provides a new metaphor as a new solution for this conflict, i.e. the eco-biosociological metaphor, which is based on the assumption that what is human cannot be explained exclusively by biological factors, but instead by communicative action in cooperation with others above all. To illustrate the first two metaphors, in this paper we consider the linguistic position of two new parties: En Marea and En Comú-Podem.

Keywords: ideological constructions, constructivism, critical discourse analysis, linguistic ideologies, bilingualism, Catalan, Galician, Spanish, post-15M discourses
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Constructivism
  • 3.Languages from constructivism
    • 3.1The container metaphor
    • 3.2The ecological metaphor
    • 3.3The eco-biosociological metaphor
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 December 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.18056.mor
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