Expanding the Notion of the Linguistic Repertoire: On the Concept of Spracherleben-The Lived Experience of Language

The aim of this article is to explore the connections between the concepts of the linguistic repertoire, of language ideologies, and of lived experience of language. In foregrounding the concept of Spracherleben, the lived experience of language, this article contributes to the ongoing debate on how to rethink the notion of the linguistic repertoire considering that current phenomena such as increased mobility, migration, or participation in transnational networks of communication make it difficult to take, as Gumperz (1964) did in his original concept, relatively stable speech communities as point of departure. The notion of the lived experience of language which I am elaborating here emphasizes the intersubjective dimension of language as a gesture toward the other and casts light on the often-neglected bodily and emotional dimensions of perception and speech. Attaching particular importance to the perspective of the experiencing subject, the concept is based on phenomenological approaches, as developed in the 1940s by the French philosopher Merleau-Ponty.