Dissertation Research: Texas Czech: An Ethnolinguistic Study

这个项目的目的是对第三代、第四代和第五代德州捷克人的捷克语使用情况进行实地调查，以探讨其对民族认同的意义。这项研究将有助于我们理解在重新定义德州捷克人的意义的过程中，语言变化和语言丧失的位置。它旨在重新评估历史上摩拉维亚移民后裔对捷克的看法，并深入了解他们关于语言传播中断和捷克语使用者定义变化的原因。这样的民族语言学研究尤其及时，因为目前——也许是最后一代——成年的德州捷克语使用者经历了有目的的公共语言复兴的最协调的尝试，使研究人员能够检查它对他们自我和他人感知的身份，以及他们的语言技能和态度的影响。为了检索社区成员自己的观点，参与者观察将结合话语中心和社会语言学方法，使用自然发生和引出的演讲录音和民族志笔记。该项目将为研究移民语言在美国少数民族社区中的地位提供一个新的语言人类学视角。

The purpose of this project is to conduct fieldwork on Czech language use among third, fourth, and fifth generation Texas Czechs in order to explore its significance for ethnic identity. This research will contribute to our understanding of the place of language change and language loss in the process of redefining what it means to be a Texas Czech. It aims to reassess historically motivated perceptions of Czechness among the descendants of Moravian immigrants, and provide insight into their reasoning about discontinued language transmission and shifting definitions of Czech speakers. Such ethnolinguistic study is especially timely because the current--and perhaps last- -adult generations of Texas Czech speakers experienced the most concerted attempts at purposeful public language revival, allowing the researcher to examine its impact on their self- and other-perceived identity, as well as their language skills and attitudes. In order to retrieve community members' own views, participant observation will combine discourse-centered and sociolinguistic methods, using audiotaping of naturally occurring and elicited speech, and ethnographic notes. This project will contribute a new linguistic-anthropological perspective to the study of the place of immigrant languages in American ethnic communities.