Construct · 1 fields · 2 citations

heteroglossia: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a standalone construct Nearest construct by meaninghybridizationcompare the meanings
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heteroglossia1 CONSTRUCTHeteroglossiaBAKHTIN · MANY VOICES

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Literary theory and sociolinguistics

The coexistence of distinct voices and social languages within one language or text

Mikhail Bakhtin coined heteroglossia, translating the Russian raznorechie (literally something like different-speech-ness), in his essay Discourse in the Novel, written in 1934 and 1935 and published in English in The Dialogic Imagination (trans. Emerson & Holquist, 1981). The term names the coexistence, inside a single language and especially inside a single work such as a novel, of many distinct varieties, voices, and social languages: the speech of different classes, generations, regions, professions, and moments, each carrying its own values and view of the world. For Bakhtin the novel is the genre that stages this stratification, setting these competing voices in dialogue rather than dissolving them into one unified authorial voice. Sociolinguists later carried the term beyond literature: Benjamin Bailey (2007) uses heteroglossia to describe how everyday bilingual and multilingual talk juxtaposes codes that point to different social identities and histories. What makes heteroglossia a landmark is that it names not simple variation but the tension and interplay among socially marked voices within one utterance or text, giving literary theory and the study of language in society a shared way to describe that layering.[1][2]

Unit
A property of a language or text: the presence and interplay of multiple socially marked voices and varieties within it
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified through close reading and discourse analysis that trace the distinct social voices, registers, and codes present in a text or a stretch of talk

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Nearby constructs

coexistence3 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsdiscourse6 fields · 10 citationsjingle · one name, six constructsessay1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a standalone construct

References

  1. Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). Discourse in the novel (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination: Four essays (pp. 259–422). University of Texas Press. (Original work written 1934–1935)
  2. Bailey, B. (2007). Heteroglossia and boundaries. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 257–274). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596047_12

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