ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the production of space and language policy in Ras Al Khaimah, a city in the United Arab Emirates. The paper builds on recent work in socio- and applied linguistics that has made use of sociospatial concepts from human geography. It argues that researchers should not only investigate space as a factor structuring language practices, but should also explore how space is produced and how this production generates de facto language policy (Shohamy, E. G. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge). The paper draws on Lefebvre’s [1991. The production of space (D. Nicholson-Smith, trans.). Basil Blackwell Ltd. (Original work published 1974)] spatial triad (spatial practice, representations of space, and representational spaces) and utilizes ethnographic data to unpack the material, conceptual and symbolic production and maintenance of two Ras Al Khaimah cafés: a small café situated in a working-class South Asian part of the city and an upmarket café embedded in a semi-gated community for Western residents. It investigates how divergent de facto language policies emerge in each space from mechanisms of spatial production and explores how those mechanisms (and therefore the emergent language policies) are entangled with racism and socioeconomic inequality.

摘要

本文调查了阿拉伯联合酋长国拉斯海马的空间和语言政策的产生。这篇论文建立在社会和应用语言学最近的工作之上，这些工作利用了人文地理学的社会空间概念。它认为研究人员不仅应该将空间作为构建语言实践的一个因素进行研究，还应该探索空间是如何产生的以及这种产生如何产生事实上的语言政策（Shohamy, EG (2006). Language policy: Hidden议程和新方法。劳特利奇）。该论文借鉴了 Lefebvre 的 [1991。空间的生产（D. Nicholson-Smith，译）。Basil Blackwell Ltd.（原作于 1974 年出版）]空间三元组（空间实践，空间表征和表征空间），并利用人种学数据解开两个哈伊马角咖啡馆的材料、概念和象征性生产和维护：一家位于城市南亚工人阶级地区的小咖啡馆和一家嵌入的高档咖啡馆在西方居民的半封闭社区。它调查了不同的事实上的语言政策如何从空间生产机制中出现在每个空间中，并探讨这些机制（以及由此产生的语言政策）如何与种族主义和社会经济不平等纠缠在一起。