As sociolinguists have begun to recognize popular music as an informative locus for investigating language and globalization, Sender Dovchin's book on the transnational linguistic practices of young Mongolian musicians can be seen as a constructive addition to such scholarship. Taking a transglossic approach, the author addresses the questions of what kinds of linguistic and semiotic resources are utilized in the production of Mongolian popular music for what purposes and social meanings, and, more importantly, how these cultural productions shed light on the dynamic sociolinguistic realities experienced by young people in Mongolia.
In the introductory chapter, the author aligns her work with previous studies in viewing popular music as a significant media form that is both reflective and constitutive of ‘identities, aspirations, desires and lifestyles of contemporary young people’ (3). She also contextualizes her research by delineating the change in language ideology and in the local music scene amidst Mongolia's transition from a Soviet satellite state to a democratic capitalist nation.
Against this backdrop, chs. 2 and 3 present the theoretical framework that informs the investigation into transnational popular culture. In particular, the author approaches globalization in terms of flow of objects, defining it as ‘a world of scapes’ (27) that encapsulates structures, organizations, and social forms in motion and in fixation. She proposes the notion of linguascape to capture the semiotic possibilities that emerge out of the continuous unfolding of globalization, intersecting with its integral demographic, cultural, economic, technological, and ideological dynamics. Before turning to a characterization of the linguascapes of young Mongolian musicians, ch. 4 grounds the mixed methods of linguistic ethnography and netnography, and highlights the multimodal and intertextual dimensions underlying transnational cultural practices.
The analysis in chs. 5 through 7 is organized around the indexical meanings of linguistic signs used by Mongolian popular music artists. Ch. 5 focuses on the artists’ linguistic tendencies to exclusively use English or other languages, and to imitate certain accents and speech styles for stylization. While these derivative resources demonstrate no direct ethnolinguistic connection with the Mongolian population, they are strategically performed to index alignment with transnational music genres (e.g. British rock, heavy metal), and to express beliefs and identities associated with the genres. Ch. 6 discusses the symbolic meaning of embedding foreign lexical items or phrases within Mongolian lyrics. The author argues that this practice purposefully opens up discursive spaces to publicize voices that are incompatible with mainstream discourses, and, at times, invokes a sense of cosmopolitanism. Subsequently, ch. 7 teases out the relocalized linguistic forms embedded in authentic Mongolian music productions. These transnational resources, including English, Russian, and Japanese, are integrated into the local linguistic system, and thereby made to constitute the everyday experience of globalization and sociopolitical transformation for many young Mongolians.
The final chapter summarizes the major findings with a discussion of how understanding youth linguascapes can impact language education. Ultimately, the author highlights the multilayeredness of transnational linguistic practices in popular culture, and presents a compelling case for the recentralization of sociolinguistics research to the global periphery.
