The purpose of this project is to conduct a detailed analysis on language census issues in Switzerland since the 19th century and to better understand the role this tool plays in the Swiss political landscape. This project will also support the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) in developing future census tools. This will ensure that actual sociolinguistic facts are taken into account when designing thematic questionnaires on languages.
Evolution of Semantic Systems EoSS
A joint research initiative of the Evolutionary Processes in Language and Culture Group and the project Categories across Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Project management
Team
A joint research initiative of the Evolutionary Processes in Language and Culture Group and the project Categories across Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Project management
Team
The city Biel/Bienne is experiencing an economic boom. Alongside the traditional watch industry, Biel/Bienne has set its sights on diversification and is now exploring the service and communication sector. This recent development is particularly interesting due to its link to the city’s bilingual character which in turn, is regarded as a major factor in the economic upswing. In the service and communication sector, bilingualism – or even multilingualism – has effectively become the actual...
Project management
PhD project supervisors: Prof. Alexandre Duchêne, Prof. em. Georges Darms, University of Fribourg
The focus of the PhD project is placed on linguistic and cultural discourses which come to light in the course of merging communes in the Canton of Graubünden. The reform of political structures is currently a major topic on the political agenda, and the issues of language and culture are particularly sensitive at the language borders in Graubünden.
Italianità in the Internet: from cardboard suitcases to the web
A social history of the Italian language in German and French-speaking Switzerland
Project management
Sandro Cattacin, UniGE
Team
Irene Pellegrini, Toni Ricciardi
Scientific partner: Bruno Moretti, UniBE
This project aims to present a socio-historical reconstruction of the processes, characteristics and modalities that the Italian language (in its varieties) has undergone in the context of its linguistic contact and integration with German and French-speaking Switzerland.
Project management
Team
This literature review aims to present an overview of scientific research on the social, political and linguistic issues of language census by analysing international works conducted in various sociopolitical and sociolinguistic contexts. The purpose is to highlight the complexity of documenting languages as required for each census when quantifying information on respondents’ language practices.