Exploring the linguistic dynamics among Sicilian migrants in Australia will be the focus of a lecture presented by Dr Antonia Rubino from the University of Sydney on Tuesday, October 7.
Dr Rubino will discuss her recently published book — Trilingual Talk in Sicilian-Australian Migrant Families — which deals primarily with language choice and language alternation between dialect, Italian and English, within the talk of first and second generation Sicilian-Australians.
Her study of Sicilian migrants, one of the largest regional groups to emigrate from Italy, is placed in the context of the family migrant experience and the shifting attitudes towards immigrant languages in Australia.
Focusing on case studies between two families she will show how language choices and code switching (changing languages) between languages are used strategically by family members to construct particular meanings.
She will argue that the different linguistic dynamics observed in the two families can be explained by considering specific factors in their different migration histories.
Dr Rubino has research interests in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and linguistics. She has conducted extensive research in the Italo-Australian community, focussing on the changes occurring in the Italian language and dialects in the transition from the first to subsequent generations.
She is editor of Using and Learning e comunicazione in contesti anglofoni e italiani, and co-author of Emigrazione e comportamento lingustico: un’indagine sul trilinguismo dei sciliani e dei veneti in Australia.
WHAT: Trilingual Talk in Sicilian-Australian Families, Playing Out Identities ThroughLanguage Alternation
WHEN: Tuesday, October 7 4pm-5pm
WHERE: N76 (Campus Heart) Rm 1.04