Books by Bernardino Tavares
This study deals with the verbal markers of tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in Cape Verdean Creole (... more This study deals with the verbal markers of tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC), focussing on the influence of context and time adverbials in determining the markers' meaning. It is based on a corpus recorded in Fazenda, a small fishing community in the Tarrafal district of Santiago Island (cf. Appendix).
Papers by Bernardino Tavares
Language, Culture and Society
This paper discusses the interactions of the so-called lusophone migrants in ‘third space’ (Bhabh... more This paper discusses the interactions of the so-called lusophone migrants in ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) i.e., outside the Portuguese geographical colonial matrix. Part of a larger project interested in studying whether new solidarities or old hierarchies replay when all lusophones meet and struggle in a new context, the paper examines traces of what Mignolo (2005) has termed of ‘coloniality of being’ i.e., everyday remnants of colonial modes and hierarchies. It draws from postcolonial theory and sociolinguistic ethnography to examine how coloniality perdures in intersubjective relations among lusophones, by exploring the narrative of two Cape Verdean retirees who (re)migrated to Luxembourg in 1971 and 1981. The paper uses narrative analysis to examine how they report coloniality in lusophone interactions being challenged or perpetuated at workplaces and social encounters, via stereotyping jokes, naming, and language use. It fosters a critical understanding of lusophone subjects’ i...
Cet article historise la migration dite lusophone au Luxembourg et favorise une compréhension cri... more Cet article historise la migration dite lusophone au Luxembourg et favorise une compréhension critique de ce schéma migratoire qui est imbriqué avec le colonialisme. Il cherche également à discuter des interactions quotidiennes des migrants lusophones au carrefour des défis telles que la citoyenneté, la langue et la race.
Mapping Black Europe: Monuments, Markers, Memories, Feb 27, 2023
Black communities have been making major contributions to Europe's social and cultural life a... more Black communities have been making major contributions to Europe's social and cultural life and landscapes for centuries. However, their achievements largely remain unrecognized by the dominant societies, as their perspectives are excluded from traditional modes of marking public memory. For the first time in European history, leading Black scholars and activists examine this issue - with first-hand knowledge of the eight European capitals in which they live. Highlighting existing monuments, memorials, and urban markers they discuss collective narratives, outline community action, and introduce people and places relevant to Black European history, which continues to be obscured today.
European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2020
This paper seeks to show how language, combined with other social variables, exacerbates migrants... more This paper seeks to show how language, combined with other social variables, exacerbates migrants’ and their descendants’ struggles at school and beyond in Luxembourg. To a certain extent, the official trilingualism of Luxembourg – French, German and Luxembourgish – corresponds to an ‘elite multilingualism’ (Garrido 2017; Barakos and Selleck 2018) which defines who can access certain resources, e. g. education, work etc., and who can be left playing catch-up. The latter are those migrants who I here conceive asmultilinguals on the margins. The elitist system is a form of domination and power over those whose language repertoire is less valued. Migrants’ disadvantage is further impacted by other indicators of their identity that can go beyond their educational qualifications and language repertoireper se, such as their country of origin, ethnicity, race, gender, citizenship etc. Language intersects with other forms of disadvantage or privileges. From an ethnographic sociolinguistic p...
Multilingualism, (Im)mobilities and Spaces of Belonging, 2019
This thesis deals with the verbal markers of tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in Cape Verdean Creole ... more This thesis deals with the verbal markers of tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC), focussing on the influence of context and time adverbials in determining the markers' meaning. It is based on a corpus recorded in Fazenda, a small fishing community in the Tarrafal district of Santiago Island (cf. Appendix). CVC verbal markers have often been described in the literature but the present work shows that context, adverbials of time and intonation must also be considered to determine the verbal marker's semantics. Chapter One outlines the role of Santiago Island in the genesis of CVC and presents the structure and methodology of this thesis. Chapter Two offers a review of the literature on TMA markers in CVC. These previous studies are discussed in chronological order and some new insights are offered. Chapter Three presents an analysis of the meaning of CVC verbs when they are unmarked, showing that stativity is crucially relevant and that many verbs can be stative in one context and non-stative in others. Thus, CVC verbs fall into three groups according to whether their unmarked form indicates present, past or both. Chapter Four presents the range of the functions of the marker ta with particular focus on its role in indicating habitual aspect. Chapter Five examines the following CVC progressive markers: (i) the markers sta ta and sta na focussing on the importance of the particles ta and na; (ii) the inland markers sata and ata; and (iii) the occurrence of ta in certain contexts with perception verbs indicating progressivity. Chapter Six offers a semantic and syntactic analysis of-ba (a suffixed anterior marker), dja (which can also be an adverb) and the least described verbal marker, al. Chapter Seven presents an exhaustive inventory of combination patterns involving all the markers referred to above, showing that there are strict rules concerning the markers' position within verb phrase. Finally, Chapter Eight presents the main accomplishments of this thesis and suggests further research needed to help us better understand the CVC verb system, one of the most complex aspects of the language.
This thesis investigates Cape Verdean migration trajectories into Luxembourg from a multisited so... more This thesis investigates Cape Verdean migration trajectories into Luxembourg from a multisited sociolinguistic point of view. Approaching migration as both emigration and immigration, the thesis examines sociolinguistic aspects of both aspiring and accomplished Cape Verdean migrants to Luxembourg. Based on a narrative and the material ethnography, the thesis seeks to understand migration and its inequalities from the colonial past to the current episode of globalisation. As a starting point, the thesis historicises Cape Verdean migration to Luxembourg as initially entangled in colonisation and labour policies. It has shown that, Cape Verdean movements to Luxembourg derived indirectly from Portuguese colonisation and unexpectedly meddled in Luxembourg foreign labour policies during the 1960s and 70s. This thesis explores this entanglement and unexpectedness of migration from the perspective of individual migrants.
Transnational Social Review, 2017
In this "globalized" world, mobility is an impetus for the proliferation of non-governmental inst... more In this "globalized" world, mobility is an impetus for the proliferation of non-governmental institutions (NGOs). Urry (2007, 6) points out that issues of movement, of too little movement for some or too much for others of the wrong sort or at the wrong time, are it seems central to many people's lives and to the operations of many small and large public, private and non-governmental organizations. Social inequalities within and across our societies foster the creation of these institutions that are often transnational in their scope. They are social spaces that are attached or disattached to governments in varied ways, levels and occasions. Drawing on a critical sociolinguistic ethnography, this report focuses on a study of the complex ways of how language and other expertise needs associated to Cape Verdeans are commodiied in the oicially trilingual Luxembourg. Cape Verde, a small West African archipelago nation-state (10 islands), in the Atlantic Ocean (cf. Pardue, 2012), gained independence from Portugal in 1975. It is estimated that diasporic Cape Verdeans (mostly in the USA and Europe) outnumber those residing in the archipelago (about 500,000 people); this also led it to be described as a 'transnational archipelago' (Batalha & Carling, 2008). Cape Verdean migration to Luxembourg started in 1960s, via Portugal when labor contracts between Portugal and Luxembourg were signed. As Cape Verdeans held Portuguese citizenship at that time, they started to re-emigrate to Luxembourg (Laplanche & Vanderkam, 1991). Today, although reliable numbers are missing, there is a signiicant Cape Verdean presence in Luxembourg as the largest non-European "community" (Statec, 2016). Here, I argue that the connection of language issues of Cape Verdean migrants and the "Lusofonia" politics, as a niche market, i.e. 'what makes a set of consumers distinctive' (Heller & Duchêne, 2012, 9), are a transnational efect, a problem for the migrants and a chance for capitalizing on this "problem" of the migrants. This process is often entangled and produced both at the individual level by migrants themselves (e.g. through entrepreneurship), and by (transnational) NGOs through the Lusofonia (cf. Arenas, 2005) of Cape Verdeans, i.e. by considering Portuguese and/or Creole as their irst language. Although Portuguese is not an oicial language in Luxembourg, one can "make a living" almost exclusively using and speaking this language. This is due to the high proportion of Portuguese speaking migrants (i.e. Lusophone migrants) which by nationality forms over 17% of the residents (see Statec, 2016), and their transnational practices. Their presence is
This paper explores the entanglement of language with issues such as discrimination and the repro... more This paper explores the entanglement of language with issues such as discrimination and the reproduction of social hierarchies. It unpacks this interplay to show how the use and abuse of language serve as the main mechanism of inclusion, exclusion and limitation of migrants in the labour market, contributing to certain migrant groups and their descendants remaining in the bottom stratum of society. It investigates how language use can both empower and disqualify migrants, creating ethnic pools of work. This paper draws on interviews with a successful middle-aged Cape Verdean man, Pedrinhu, to illustrate this language impact. He came to Luxembourg at a young age and his sports skills helped him to be fast-tracked to acquire Luxembourgish citizenship. He talks about his migration trajectories, his sociolinguistic life and his job interactions with Cape Verdean workers at a private employment enterprise where he now holds a high position. He seeks "to empower" Cape Verdean migrants, challenging some of the institutionalised linguistic demands of the state employment agency he collaborates with; at the same time, he is aware of the reproduction of inequality and the ethnic stratification of his enterprise. The paper concludes by highlighting the ambivalences of multilingualism and empowerment interventions in accessing resources, such as work, in the condensed migration contexts of Luxembourg.
This chapter explores language in global South-North migration from the perspective of aspiring m... more This chapter explores language in global South-North migration from the perspective of aspiring migrants in Lusophone West Africa within the context of increasingly restrictive European immigration regimes and their consequence of involuntary immobility in the South. While sociolinguistic scholarship has successfully engaged with globalization, mobility, and movement of people, it has insufficiently engaged with that which and those who don’t travel well. We argue that a sociolinguistics of globalization needs to develop multi-sited methods and tools for investigating and understanding these absent presences – the invisibly excluded – and propose that repertoires and trajectories are useful tools in such undertaking. The paper attempts a theoretical review of these concepts and illustrates their analytical potential with three cases from ongoing fieldwork in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau as part of a larger ethnographic project at the University of Luxembourg that explores the language lives, learning histories, (unfinished) travels, further mobile aspirations and changing social status of young West Africans on the move. The paper concludes by arguing that South-North mobilities are shaped by as well as shaping multilingual repertoires, and are entangled in complex desires and strategies of mobility.
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Books by Bernardino Tavares
Papers by Bernardino Tavares