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Piller, Ingrid. “Identity constructions in multilingual advertising.” Language in Society. Vol. 30, No.2. 2001. Cambridge University Press. JSTOR. Print. pp. 153-186.
In his academic article, Piller examines the tension between socioeconomic and national identity, and the role of multilingualism within that conflict by collecting data from different types of German advertisements. Piller gathers together a wide range of statistics that commonly conclude that most television advertisements do not utilize the German language alone (Piller 153). Nevertheless, he distinguishes between two types of multilingualism: multilingualism involving English and multilingualism not involving English. Piller argues that English and German are the only combination with in the nation that create a natural means of language mixing:
“Although German advertising may construct both identities of the national Self and of the nations Other as multilingual, bilingualism in English and German is set up as the “natural” option for successful middle-class Germans, while other languages are presented as languages of the cultural and national Other” (Piller 155). According to the author, English is the most influential second language in Germany because the use of English in the international market and on the global stage marks success, intelligence, and trustworthiness (Piller 154). In turn, with a more globalizing world, authors found Germans identifying economically rather than nationally (Piller 154). |
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