Spatio-linguistic practices in a transnational context: Social differentiation and agency in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic

伊斯帕尼奥拉岛今天由海地和多米尼加共和国共同拥有。多米尼加民族身份的霸权叙事基于语言、肤色和宗教的差异，将海地构建为一个对立面。自19世纪世纪后期以来，捍卫国家语言就等于捍卫国家领土（反之亦然）的观念一直是元语言话语和语言政策的核心要素。它还渗透到目前关于移民的辩论中，这是多米尼加政治和社会激烈争议的根源。语言、空间和民族认同的建构之间复杂而冲突的相互作用在多米尼加的bateyes尤为尖锐。这些是世纪初为甘蔗种植园和制糖厂工人临时居住而建立的农村定居点，在多米尼加，这些工人主要是来自海地的移民。从那时起，bateyes已经成为一个实验室的跨国流动在农村设置。本研究以移民眼为微观世界，分析语言与移民语境中空间建构的相互作用。它侧重于空间语言实践（SLP），这是申请人提出的与语言相关的实践概念，允许人们通过语言创造和谈判空间，以及在（社会和地理）空间中定位自己。在一个跨学科的框架下，整合了社会语言学和人文地理学的方法，以下研究问题将被解决：1。在多米尼加bateyes的居民中可以识别出哪种SLP？2. bateyes的居民如何通过SLP产生社会分化？3.在SLP、空间的构造和居民的能动性积累之间可以追溯到什么样的关系？该项目旨在整合社会语言学和地理学方法，为研究与跨国主义有关的语言和空间开发新方法。SLP将通过在半结构化访谈中收集的传记叙述，使用时间线工具和社会和空间映射工具进行记录。此外，社会语言问卷将用于三角测量。采访将转录和解释范式下进行分析，特别关注空间和社会参考管理，语言和语言变量的索引使用，以及话语结构和（跨）国家空间的表示。本研究将bateyes作为微观农村环境中跨国主义的实验室，将以创新的方式激励关于移民，空间和语言的跨学科研究，同时为移民自己发声。

The island of Hispaniola is shared today by the nation states Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The hegemonic narrative of Dominican national identity constructs Haiti as an opposite on the basis of differences in language, skin color and religion. Since the late 19th century, the idea that defending the national language is tantamount to defending the national territory (and vice versa) has been a core element of metalinguistic discourses and linguistic policies. It also pervades current debates on migration, which are a source of fierce controversy in Dominican politics and society. The complex and conflictive interplay between language, space and the construction of national identity is particularly acute in the Dominican bateyes. Those are rural settlements created at the beginning of the 20th century for the temporary housing of cane plantation and sugar production plant workers, who, in the Dominican context, are mainly migrants from Haiti. Since then, the bateyes have become a laboratory for transnational mobilities in a rural setting. The present study takes the bateyes as microcosmos in order to analyze the interplay between language and the construction of space in migration contexts. It focuses on spatio-linguistic practices (SLP) a concept the applicants propose for practices related to language with allow people to produce and negotiate space, as well as to position themselves in (social and geographic) space through language. Under an interdisciplinary framework that integrates approaches from sociolinguistics and human geography, the following research questions will be addressed: 1. Which SLP can be identified among the inhabitants of the Dominican bateyes?2. How do the inhabitants of the bateyes produce social differentiation through SLP? 3. Which relations can be traced betweenSLP, constructions of spaces, and the inhabitants’ accumulation of agency? The project aims at integrating sociolinguistic and geographical approaches to develop novel methodologies for the study of language and space in relation to transnationalism. SLP will be documented through biographic narratives gathered in semi-structured interviews, using a time line tool and a social and spatial mapping tool. In addition, socio-linguistic questionnaires will be applied for triangulation. The interviews will be transcribed and analyzed under an interpretative paradigm, with a special focus on spatial and social reference management, indexical use of language and language variables, and discursive constructions and representations of the (trans)national space. Taking the bateyes as a laboratory of transnationalism in a rural setting on the micro-scale, this study will energize interdisciplinary research on migration, space and language in innovative ways, giving at the same timea voice to migrants themselves.