‘Du er verdens beste pappa’: affect in parent–child multilingual interactions

ABSTRACT

This article examines the affective dimension of the linguistic repertoire of multilingual families. Specifically, resulting from a three-year ethnographic project in Norway, this study sets out to better understand the role of affect in parent–child interactions as members of two Brazilian-Norwegian families draw on their multilingual linguistic repertoires in the ongoing construction of their familial ties. A discursive analytical approach was employed to examine audio-recordings made by one of the parents of each family (i.e. around 15 h of recordings in total). The analysis demonstrates how certain linguistic features (i.e. terms of endearment and the ‘you are … ’-format), combined with the use of the participants’ multilingual repertoire, accomplish three interrelated social actions; they: (i) convey parental value-laden aspirations of child-rearing, (ii) position children according to expected social roles, and (iii) forge parent–child ties. These findings are supplemented with interview data, which serve to illustrate the role of home-external contexts in encouraging the parents to use Portuguese with their children in the home. Focusing on the affective dimension of parent–child interactions as they draw on their multilingual repertoires to construct familial bonds contributes to an underexplored area in family multilingualism studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• family language policy
• family multilingualism
• linguistic repertoire

Introduction

As part of the ongoing expansion of the epistemological scope of research on family multilingualism, recent studies have engaged with what Clough and Halley (2007) have described as the ‘affective turn’ (e.g. Kopeliovich 2013; Pavlenko 2004; Sevinç 2016; Tannenbaum 2012; and Tannenbaum and Yitzhaki 2016). Drawing on empirical data to elucidate broader processes of language shift and maintenance, less attention has been given to debates and recent conceptualisations of language that challenge well-received understandings of what language is (e.g. Busch 2017; García and Wei 2014). Conversely, another body of works concerned with parent–child multilingual interactions has employed a ‘translanguaging lens’ to unpack the ways in which family members draw on linguistic features belonging to their translingual repertories to go about their everyday lives and forge familial bonds (e.g. Lomeu Gomes 2020; Danjo 2021; Hiratsuka and Pennycook 2019; Van Mensel 2018). Due to their focus on the construction of family ties, questions of affect and emotions inevitably emerge (Morgan 2011). Yet, these questions tend to occupy less central positions in the analysis and, thus, deserve further attention. In order to investigate the affective dimension of interactions of translingual families in the construction of familial bonds as they accomplish mundane tasks in their everyday lives, in this article I build on these two bodies of works. Theoretically anchored in the notions of linguistic repertoire (Busch 2017), affect (Clough 2007), and emotions (Ahmed 2004), the present study sets out to investigate the role of certain linguistic features employed by participants in the construction of familial bonds in parent–child translingual interactions of two Brazilian-Norwegian families living in Norway. Apart from examining the social actions interactionally accomplished by the use of certain linguistic features, I draw attention to the role of age in the use of these features, and to the ways in which gendered parental roles are discursively enacted and negotiated.

In the following section, I outline the theoretical framework that informs my analysis. Then, I review language socialisation studies that have covered issues pertaining to the interconnections between language and affect. Afterwards, I contextualise the study, introduce the participants, and present the methods used for data generation. I move on, then, to present the analysis of the data. This is followed by a discussion, where I point to how this study contributes to current understandings of the role of the affective dimension in translingual language practices in the home. In the last section, I present concluding thoughts.

Affect, emotions, and the linguistic repertoire

For the purposes of this article, I take affect to mean ‘bodily capacities to affect and be affected or the augmentation or diminution of a body’s capacity to act, to engage, and to connect’ (Clough 2007, 2). Moreover, drawing on Ahmed’s (2004) understanding of emotions, I am interested in what emotions do in the ways family members relate to the world in their everyday interactions in the home. Ahmed (2004, 10) claims that ‘it is through emotions, or how we respond to objects and others, that surfaces or boundaries are made: the ‘I’ and the ‘we’ are shaped by, and even take the shape of, contact with others’. Exploring the linguistic structuring of affect, Ochs and Schieffelin (1989, 14) have identified two basic affective functions of linguistic features: they modulate affective intensity and they specify particular affective orientations. In order to examine, the role of particular affective orientations expressed by certain linguistic features in the construction of familial bonds, I draw on an understanding that linguistic features are used in order to ‘key affect to others’ (Ochs and Schieffelin 1989, 9).

Further, Busch’s (2012, 2017) notion of linguistic repertoire also lends itself well to investigations of the affective dimension of language practices in the home (cf. Obojska and Purkarthofer 2018). Busch’s (2012, 529) approach allows us to consider ‘traces of its inscription in the body, traces which — triggered by current perceptions — can be invoked in the form of pleasurable or angst-ridden memories’. Moreover, the subject is conceived of ‘as constituted in and through language and discourse already established before’ (Busch 2012, 510) wherein the repetition of discourses plays a crucial role in the (re)production of social formations, including the family (Ahmed 2004; Gordon 2009). Notably, Busch (2017, 346) conceives of linguistic repertoire ‘as formed and deployed in intersubjective processes located on the border between the self and the other’.

An underlying assumption of this study is that, being socialised through the use of language and to use language (Schieffelin and Ochs 1986), ‘children are taught deliberately what their culture defines as appropriate responses to certain situations’ (Jaggar 1989, 150). Articulating Busch’s (2012, 2017) notion of the linguistic repertoire with Ahmed’s (2004) interest in what emotions do allows me to examine the participants’ use of linguistic features as they negotiate their familial subject positions in mundane translingual interactions. Further, it provides theoretical grounding for investigating what is considered culturally appropriate responses in specific situations in parent–child interactions.

Affect in family multilingualism research

The role of affect in family interactions has been central in studies examining how family bonds are discursively constructed. Language socialisation scholarship and discourse studies have, for example, drawn attention to the role of repetitive iteration in forging familial ties, the use of endearment terms to display affect and alignment, the positioning of interlocutors in normative gendered roles, and the discursive enactment and negotiation of one’s identity (Al Aghbari and Al Mahrooqi 2019; Gordon 2009; Kendall 2008 ; Ochs and Schieffelin 1989; Pauletto, Aronsson, and Galeano 2017).

In their analysis of parent–child monolingual interactions in Italian-speaking and Swedish-speaking households, Pauletto, Aronsson, and Galeano (2017) have demonstrated how endearment terms have been used by parents to display affective stance and alignment, and to overcome minor troubles, typically connected with children’s unwillingness to cooperate or comply. In turn, Al Aghbari and Al Mahrooqi (2019) have suggested that endearment terms may express linguistic creativity and display intimacy. Drawing mainly on self-reported data of undergraduate students about their language practices in Omani Arabic, the authors have demonstrated how the use of endearment terms contribute to the construction of familial bonds between siblings. They have also noted that terms of endearment—defined as ‘crucial verbal linguistic tools used to address family members and close friends to invoke intimacy and strengthen bonds’ (Al Aghbari and Al Mahrooqi 2019, 389)—may express and reproduce normative gendered roles (Al Aghbari and Al Mahrooqi 2019). Gordon (2009) has demonstrated how the use of terms of endearment (as well as other features) can be used to discursively create different frames in family interactions (e.g. couple-centred frames or child-centred, playful frames). Furthermore, Gordon (2009, 26) has highlighted the importance of ‘repeated patterns of language use—including uses of specialized words’ in the construction of familial relations. Importantly, a greater focus of this scholarship has been on parent–child interactions in monolingual households. A notable contribution that advances language socialisation scholarship towards multilingual interactions is Smith-Christmas (2018) examination of language practices of a family on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Working in a context where family members draw on English and Scottish Gaelic in their interactions at home, Smith-Christmas (2018) has suggested that an interactional style described as ‘high involvement’ is used by the grandmother (Nana) to encourage the use of Scottish Gaelic. Smith-Christmas (2018) has demonstrated that the use of English by Nana and the absence of sanctions when English is used by the children are characteristics of the positive affective nature of the interaction. Smith-Christmas (2018) suggests, thus, that affect may shape language practices in the home in ways that are more or less conducive to language maintenance.

In order to better understand the role of repeated patterns of language use in family interactions (cf. Gordon 2009), I draw on Wortham and Reyes' (2015) analytical frame for examining how discourse travels across multiple events. Deictics are a particularly useful linguistic category to better understand how subject positions are interactionally negotiated (Wortham and Reyes 2015). That is, a focus on deictics can help analysts to ‘infer crucial information […] that may be relevant to understanding the positioning of interlocutors’ (Wortham and Reyes 2015, 49). The focus on the person deictic you, particularly in the ‘you are’-format, can help to gain better understanding about how family members are positioned in interaction.

Drawing on the discussion above about the role of endearment terms and ‘you are’-format in monolingual interactions, the guiding question this study aims to answer is the following: What are the social actions accomplished by the use of terms of endearment and the ‘you are’-format in translingual parent–child interactions?

Context of the study

This study results from a three-year ethnographic project in which I investigated the language practices and ideologies of two Brazilian-Norwegian families in Norway. In my analysis of the pragmatic functions of parental discourse strategies in parent–child interactions (Lomeu Gomes 2020), emotional aspects of the parent–child relationship did emerge, but they occupied a less central position in the analysis (cf. Tannenbaum 2012). In the present study, I take a step towards redressing this limitation. In this section, I present the participants and the methods for generating data.

Participants

Two families participated in this study. One family is composed of Adriana (in her late 30s), a Brazilian mother, Håkon (in his 40s), a Norwegian father, and Emma (3;1), their daughter born in Norway. The members of the other family are Berenice (in her late 40s), born in Brazil, William (in his late 30s), born in Norway, and Claire (7;10), their daughter, born in Norway. Participants’ ages refer to when the audio recordings began. Certain details have been omitted to preserve participants’ identities.

Adriana, Håkon, and Emma

Adriana works as a school teacher. She moved to Norway in 2013 to do a Master’s degree and live with her partner, Håkon, a state-agency employee. Emma, their daughter, attends a daycare on weekdays. Every other weekend, Emma goes to a Saturday school where Portuguese is used. Besides being the language reported to be used by Adriana in interactions with Emma, other sources of input of Portuguese in the home include storybooks and children’s shows streamed online. Adriana reported that she also speaks Norwegian, English, French, and Luxembourgish. Håkon, whose knowledge of Portuguese is limited, reported to use Norwegian with Emma and with Adriana in most interactions.

Berenice, William, and Claire

Berenice moved to Norway in 2006. She met her Norwegian husband, William, at a university in Norway while they were enrolled in a Master’s programme. Berenice works for the Norwegian state and William works in the private sector. Claire, their daughter, attends a public school in Norway. Berenice reported that she was able to speak Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Norwegian. William, who has good command of Portuguese, also draws on Portuguese to communicate with Claire, though this is mainly done when it is ‘time for Portuguese’ (e.g. during breakfast), as Berenice explained to me.

Importantly, Claire is nearly 5 years older than Emma. In the following section, I demonstrate how this difference becomes relevant in analysing the different ways in which children are socialised through multilingual language practices. I also note ways in which gendered parental roles are discursively enacted and negotiated in each family.

Methods and data

The primary data set consists of audio recordings made by Adriana and Berenice. Table 1 shows details about the self-recordings, which were made during meals, play time, or other daily routines (cf. Blum-Kulka 1997; Tannen, Kendall, and Gordon 2007).

Table 1. Information about self-recordings.

Participant	No. of recordings	First recording	Last recording	Total length	Contexts
Adriana	19	20 October 2017	30 May 2018	8 h and 53 min	bedtime routine, role-play, cooking and having meals
Berenice	8	15 October 2017	13 March 2018	4 h and 46 min	assistance with homework, using tablet, having meals

I supplement the analysis of recorded interactions with data generated in semi-structured interviews, which lasted just over one hour each and covered themes such as language beliefs and practices, transnational practices, and life before migrating to Norway. The interviews happened between June and August 2017, were audio recorded and fully transcribed.

Analysis

The analysis developed here conceives of interpersonal relations as products of social interaction (Davies and Harré 1990). Drawing on the assumption that ‘who one is is always an open question with a shifting answer depending upon the positions made available within one’s own and others’ discursive practices’ (Davies and Harré 1990, 46), parent–child bonds are taken to be forged in contextualised interactions.

In order to better understand how participants are positioned in interaction, focusing on certain linguistic signs can be helpful. As noted, here I focus on the use of the ‘You are … ’-format and on terms of endearment as linguistic signs that may open up subject positions that are discursively taken up, or resisted, by participants in their translingual interactions. As I will argue, through the use of these linguistic signs and by drawing on their translingual repertoire, parents (i) convey value-laden aspirations of child-rearing, (ii) position children according to expected social roles, and (iii) forge parent–child ties. Finally, Excerpts 1–6 were selected because they illustrate how subject positions were differently negotiated by participants while becoming ‘relevant context for each other’ (Wortham and Reyes 2015, 24). A noteworthy age-graded distinction in the use of these linguistic features, discussed below, further motivated the choice of these excerpts.

Socialising through endearment terms and the ‘you are’-format: a focus on parental discourse¹

In this subsection I analyse Excerpts 1–4, which are from recordings made by Adriana. In Excerpt 1, Adriana was cooking dinner and Emma asked to help her.

1. Dos and don’ts

23.11.2017 (00:01:33–00:01:54)

01 Emma:

/en blomst/ kan jeg mexer mamma? kan jeg [mexer?

 

/a flower/ can I stir mummy? can I [stir?

02 Adriana:

[não é kan jeg não posso mexer mamãe?

 

[no it's not can I can I stir mummy?

03 Emma:

posso mexer mamãe?

 

can I stir mummy?

04 Adriana:

pode meu amor

 

you can my love

05 Emma:

# [mexer

 

[stir

06 Adriana:

[mas cuidado muito cuidado porque tá muito quente só mexe um pouquinho

     

but [be] careful [be] very careful because it’s very hot stir just a little bit

07 Adriana:

# cuidado meu amor • só um pouquinho tá bom

 

[be] careful my love • just a little bit is good

In this passage, Adriana imposes a condition that Emma (3;2) has to follow: Emma must be very careful, otherwise she could get hurt. In line 04, Adriana introduces the term of endearment ‘my love’ (repeated in line 07). This endearment term is not used to select Emma as the next speaker. Pauletto, Aronsson, and Galeano (2017) have also noted how endearment terms have been employed by parents to simultaneously accomplish ‘more-than-addressing-action’ (Lerner 2003). That is, endearment terms are used to display the parent’s affective stance and alignment with the child. Drawing on Ahmed’s (2004) proposition of emotion as something that sticks to objects, the motherly affection, expressed by the endearment term ‘my love’, can be interpreted as sticking to a specific language practice, namely, speaking Portuguese (line 03). At the same time, it sticks to the practice of helping, rendering cooperation as a worthy value in this mother-daughter relationship. Finally, it indexes a particular parental social position (cf. Silverstein 2003), namely, that of a caring mother; such position is discursively constructed and taken up by Adriana. Excerpt 2, below, corroborates this interpretation.

(2)	Emma positioned as helpful

15.11.2017 (00:14:47–00:14:59)

01 Emma:

mamma det er ferdig

 

mummy it’s done

02 Adriana:

ferdig bobo? fala ‘mamãe, acabei’ • fala ‘trabalhei’

  

done. don’? say ‘mummy, I’m done’• say ‘[I’m] done working

03 Emma:

trabalhei

  

[I’m] done working

04 Adriana:

muito obrigada meu amor quer mais um trabalho?

  

thank you very much my love want another job?

In excerpt 2, Emma (3;2) helps Adriana to portion the pasta Adriana was going to cook for dinner. After Emma stated that she was done with a task (line 01), in line 02, Adriana elicits Portuguese from Emma, who says ‘trabalhei’. The term of endearment ‘my love’ (line 04), recurrently used by Adriana, positions Emma once again into the expected role of a helpful daughter. The use of this endearing term combined with the employment of the polite phrase ‘thank you’ and Adriana asking if Emma wants another job ascribe value to the act of helping in the construction of this mother-daughter relationship. Moreover, as in Excerpt 1, instead of selecting the next speaker, ‘my love’ seems to accomplish two actions: display affect towards Emma speaking Portuguese (as prompted by Adriana in line 02) and display alignment with Emma’s portioning the pasta.

In Excerpts 1 and 2, instead of merely selecting an addressee, the endearment term ‘my love’ sticks (Ahmed 2004) to speaking Portuguese, through the use of Portuguese (Schieffelin and Ochs 1986). Moreover, it socialises Emma into the expected social role of a solicitous daughter as the parent–child relationship is iteratively constructed through repetition (Gordon 2009; Ahmed 2004). In Excerpt 3, the theme of help emerges again. This time, however, it is brought up explicitly by Håkon. Additionally, Excerpt 3 shows that the ‘you are … ’-format is used to position Emma as annoying.

(3)	Emma positioned as annoying

02.02.2018 (00:14:08–00:14:28)

01 Adriana:

nossa Emma que coisa feia

 

gee Emma what an ugly thing

02 Emma:

TELEFONE ((crying))

 

telephone

03 Adriana:

mas o telefone tá sem bateria amor

 

but the telephone is out of battery love

04 Emma:

não

 

no

05 Adriana:

sim

 

yes

06 Emma:

NÃO

 

no

07 Adriana:

[não grita

 

[don’t scream

08 Håkon:

[her • telefonen din

 

[here • your telephone

09 Emma:

den er min

 

it’s mine

10 Adriana:

[oh lá

 

[look there

11 Håkon:

[ja den er din vær så god

 

[yes it’s your there you go

12 Emma:

((giggles as she is handed her telephone))

13 Adriana:

você é muito chata sabia

 

you’re very annoying you know

14 Emma:

ué

 

oh

 

((4 s elapse))

15 Adriana:

tá sem bateria • não funciona • e agora?

 

it’s out of battery • it doesn’t work • and now?

16 Håkon:

pappa hjel- pappa hjelper ikke deg når du bare lager bråk • kan du ordne selv

 

daddy [won’t] hel– daddy won’t help you when you only make noise

 

you can fix it yourself

In Excerpt 3, Emma (3;4) cries very loudly because she wants her phone, used to control her talking doll. Adriana and Håkon try to explain to Emma that the phone’s battery is dead. In line 01, Emma’s crying and screaming are evaluated negatively by Adriana. In line 03, Adriana uses the term of endearment ‘love’, perhaps to try to calm Emma down. Emma refuses to calm down, to which Adriana promptly reacts, disapproving of screaming as an appropriate behaviour in mother–child communication. After being challenged by Emma’s negatives and scream (lines 04 and 05), and perhaps taking advantage of Emma’s apparent mood being lighter (i.e. Emma giggles in line 12), Adriana positions Emma as very annoying using the ‘you are … ’-format (line 13). Elaborating on the role of language in the ways others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves, Busch (2017, 249) suggests that ‘it is only through discourses that ‘interpellate’ or ‘address’ us in the second person, that tell us who we are and how we differ from other people, that we are constituted as speaking subjects’. In the family context, the use the ‘you are … ’-format can be thought of as a discursive instantiation of how we are perceived by others, which can affect our constitution as speaking subjects and the forging of family ties.

Finally, in line 16, reminding Emma of what is a culturally appropriate response to this situation and conveying the values he finds important in rearing his child, Håkon describes the consequences of having inappropriate behaviour. That is, if Emma makes noise, she won’t be helped by her father. Instead, she would have to find a solution by herself, so she starts crying again a few seconds later.

In other parts of this recording, positioning herself as a caring mother, Adriana draws on Portuguese to soothe Emma (e.g. ‘vem cá, vem, mamãe dá beijinho, vem cá’, ‘come here, come, mummy will give you a kiss, come’). Conversely, Håkon’s turn in line 16 (in Norwegian) simultaneously accomplish two things: it conveys the values and behaviours he considers appropriate, and it positions himself as a pragmatic father whose solicitude is not unconditional; rather, it depends on Emma displaying appropriate behaviour. Besnier (1990) discussed how social categorisations such as gender gain meaning contextually in examining the relationships between language and affect. Excerpt 3 illustrates how positions enacted by Adriana and Håkon in this event seem to reflect gendered parental roles. Below, I present one final excerpt (4) from an interaction between Adriana and Emma.

(4)	Emma positioned as smart

22.01.2018 (00:03:08–00:03:44)

01 Emma:

música de au au • bi i e i i bingo e ti ta de ((with ‘Bingo’ song melody))

 

doggy song • bi i e i i bingo e ti ta de

02 Adriana:

ahhh b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o Bingo é seu nome

 

ahhh b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o, b-i-n-g-o Bingo is his name

03 Emma:

b-i-n-g-o ((‘b’ and ‘i’ pronounced as letter names in Portuguese, ‘n’, ‘g’ and ‘o’ pronounced as letter names in English))

04 Emma:

inglês inglês [cantar

 

English English [sing

05 Adriana:

[ah inglê– inglês eu não sei como é que canta em inglês não

 

[oh Engli– English I don’t know how to sing in English no

06 Emma:

b-i-n-g-o Bingo e ti tade ((‘n’ ‘g’ and ‘o’ pronounced as letter names in En glish))

 

b-i-n-g-o Bingo e ti tade

07 Adriana:

ah é assim? ah Emma sabe • mas Emma é muito esperta

 

oh it’s like this? oh Emma knows it • why Emma’s very smart

In Excerpt (4), Emma (3;4) is positioned as smart because she can sing in English. In line 04, Emma asks Adriana to sing the song ‘Bingo’ in English. After Adriana says that she cannot sing that song in English (line 05), Emma demonstrates to Adriana how she sings it (line 06). Then, in line 07, a variation of the ‘you are … ’-format (as Emma is referred to here in the third person) is used to position Emma as smart. This discursive practice evinces how there is no negative sanctioning of Emma using English (see also Smith-Christmas 2018); rather, demonstrating knowledge of a song in English is actually valued by Adriana, reflecting a hierarchy of languages into which Emma is being socialised. The excerpts above suggest that Adriana prefers that Emma uses Portuguese. Nonetheless, English is accepted too without negotiation.

I now turn to the analysis of two excerpts (5 and 6) of interactions between Claire and her parents. In contrast with the excerpts above, it is the child who mainly uses the ‘you are … ’-format.

Child agency and the use of the ‘you are’-format

The excerpt below starts with William making a comment ‘ah gurias’ (line 01), referring to specific behaviours (e.g. Claire walking away because she was upset) as gendered, and Claire (7;10) joining the conversation in line 02. Though not having any turns in the Excerpt 5, Berenice’s mother was remotely participating in the interaction through a video call.

(5)	prøver du å si at jeg er søt og kjekk og tøff og grei

16.10.2017 (00:50:31–00:51:10)

01 William:

ah gurias

 

oh girls

02 Claire:

ah promper altså du er dum

 

oh farter really you are stupid

03 Claire:

du er det

 

you are

04 Berenice:

tá tá tranqüila agora esquece o [papai Claire

 

okay okay now forget about [daddy Claire

05 William:

[prøver du å si at jeg er søt og kjekk og tøff og [grei

[are you trying to say that I’m sweet and handsome and tough and [fair

06 Claire:

[du er ingen av de [delene

 

[you are none of [them

07 Berenice:

[ai … um cansaço essa /implicância/

 

[ugh … so tiring this /nagging/

08 Claire:

du er dum irriterende og plagsom

 

you are stupid annoying and troublesome

09 Berenice:

dá um cansaço essa implicância dos dois aqui

 

it's tiring this nagging of the two

10 William:

åh har du lyst å være med? er du misunnelig? @

 

oh do you want to take part in it? are you envious? @

11 Berenice:

@@@ não

 

@@@ no

12 Claire:

misunnelig kan du være

 

envious you can be

In lines 02 and 03, Claire uses the ‘you are … ’-format to position William as stupid. In the following line, Berenice joins in to appease Claire and tell her to forget about William. In a bantering tone, William asks if Claire is trying to say that he is sweet, handsome, tough, and fair (line 05). Claire uses the ‘you are … ’-format again in lines 06 and 08 to say William is none of them, but stupid, annoying and troublesome. In lines 07 and 09, Berenice tells her mother how tiring this nagging between William and Emma is. In line 10, noticing that Berenice was complaining to her mother about the father and daughter exchange, William jokingly asks if Berenice wants to take part, to which Berenice replies negatively after laughing. The laughter in lines 10 and 11 reinforce the interpretation that the exchange was not to be taken seriously. An interesting similarity with the gendered parental roles noted in Excerpt 3 emerges here: Berenice takes up the role of the parent who aims at constructing cohesion in the family, whereas William’s provocation seems to be less aimed at cohesion, while still affecting Claire, or causing her to act, engage, connect (cf. Clough 2007). Moreover, it is interesting to notice how William was positioned by Claire’s use of the ‘you are … ’-format in Excerpt 5 significantly contrasts with how she had positioned him the day before, as seen in Excerpt 6, below.

(6)	du er verdens beste pappa

15.10.2017 (00:08:48–00:08:59)

01 Claire:

ååååh kjære pappa du er verdens –

 

ooooh dear daddy you’re world’s-

02 William:

kjære

 

dear

03 Claire:

du er verdens beste pappa

 

you’re world’s best daddy

04 William:

((U))

05 Claire:

nei det er det ikke

 

no that’s not it

06 William:

i hvert fall verdens beste for deg

 

at least world’s best for you

In Excerpt 6, Claire (7;10) makes a compliment to William telling him he is the world’s best dad. William takes a humble position, by responding that in Claire’s opinion he is the world’s best dad, as though suggesting the title is undeserved. On the other hand, in Excerpt 5 Claire’s seems upset for she uses words to classify her father that do not exactly match the ideal type of the world’s best dad. We are reminded by Wortham and Reyes (2015, 13) that ‘[a]ny social action accomplished through discursive interaction can be refigured and undone, if subsequent discourse provides robust enough signals to that effect’. This underscores a dynamic understanding of subject positions in parent–child interactions and it reinforces the appropriateness of extensive ethnographic engagement in order to capture this dynamicity. Analyses of Excerpts 1–6 provide unique insights into what social actions are interactionally accomplished in parent–child interactions as participants draw on their translingual repertoires. Such findings are now supplemented with interview data (Excerpts 7 - 10), below.

The affective dimension in parental accounts of language choice

Excerpts from the semi-structured interviews with the participants yielded a better understanding of how the parents articulate reasons and identify factors that influence their language practices in the home. In Adriana’s case, her perceptions of the entanglements between language and national identity, along with plans for the future seem to be important reasons for her to use Portuguese with Emma. In Berenice’s case, Claire’s mood is something she reported taking in consideration when eliciting Portuguese from her, or not doing so. She also noted how peer evaluation works in a positive way.

Interconnections between language and national identity

(7)	pra … ela ter interesse no Brasil a primeira coisa é a língua

Interview with Adriana

Researcher:

e pra você então, o que que significaria ela saber falar português?

Adriana:

comunicar … com eles lá. é– gostar do Brasil? Talvez ter um interesse, porque se você não ensina, né, /mais tarde/ eles não vão ter interesse no Brasil. Nós somos brasileiras, então. Talvez nós vamos embora um dia, não sei @@@ talvez a gente decide ir embora. Eu acho que pra … ela ter interesse no Brasil a primeira coisa é a língua (mhmm) pra poder falar e comunicar.

Researcher:

and for you then, what would it mean for her to know how to speak Portuguese?

Adriana:

To communicate … with them there. Erm– to like Brazil? Maybe to have an interest, because if you don’t teach, right, /later on/ they will not be interested in Brazil. We are Brazilian, so. Maybe we’ll leave one day, I don’t know @@@ maybe we’ll decide to leave. I think that for … her to be interested in Brazil the first thing is the language (mhmm) to be able to speak and communicate.

Excerpt 7 is from a passage of the interview in which I asked Adriana what it means to her for Emma to be able to speak Portuguese. Adriana’s response corroborated an understanding of national identity supported by constructionist approaches. Joseph (2004, 94) reminds us of the fluidity and arbitrariness of nationality as a construct, an assumption well captured in the claim that identity is ‘something we construct and negotiate throughout our life’. Similarly, stressing the relational nature of (social) emotions, Pavlenko (2005, 196) claimed that they ‘are intrinsically linked to our identities, or subject positions, and identity narratives’. Also, the relevance of examining the extent to which parents rely on their own lived experiences to make decisions related to language practices in the home is supported by previous studies (e.g. Lomeu Gomes 2021; King and Fogle 2006). In this excerpt, Adriana justifies her using Portuguese in the home with Emma because they (Adriana and Emma) are Brazilian. Plans for the future and the maintenance of family ties with relatives in Brazil also seem to be important reasons in shaping language practices in Adriana’s home. This suggests that the interconnections between emotions and the subject position related to national affiliation taken up by Adriana play an important role in socialising Emma into and through speaking Portuguese.

Mood swings, language shifts

When asked if language is a topic of conversation with Claire, Berenice answered positively. That is, she stated that Claire had started asking questions about language (e.g. trying to guess what language people are speaking on the tram). The questions in Excerpt 8 illustrate Berenice’s attempts to elicit Portuguese from Claire.

(8)	Um dia tá tudo bem, no outro dia tá tudo ruim

Interview with Berenice

Mas eu comecei um pouquinho … a ser um pouquinho mais ‘Claire, tu pode falar isso pra mim em português? Como é que diz isso pra mim em português?’. Aí ela:

‘Ah, se diz assim assim’ ou ‘Ai mamãe, não quero’. Então tem aí um pouquinho de re … então … e criança é assim, né. Um dia tá tudo bem, no outro dia tá tudo ruim (uhum). Então tem que ver como é que tá o humor dela, se tá num humor empolgado ou não.

But I started a little … to be a little more ‘Claire, can you say this to me in Portuguese? How do you say this in Portuguese?’. Then she:

‘Oh it is said like this and that’ or ‘Oh mum, I don’t want’. So there’s a bit of re– so … and children are like this, right. One day it’s all fine, the next day it’s all bad (uhum). So I must see what her mood is like, if she’s in an excited mood or not.

The excerpt above (8) suggests that, through ‘prompting routines’ (Ochs 1986) or ‘Wh-questions’ (Lomeu Gomes 2020), Berenice seems to adjust how much Portuguese she tries to elicit from Claire depending on Claire’s mood. Recent studies investigating family multilingualism have stressed the agency of children and adolescents as an important aspect in shaping language practices in the home (Said and Hua 2019; Obojska 2019). The passage above illustrates how children’s emotions are relevant in considering their agency in language negotiations in the home.

Peer evaluation and family bonds

Another aspect that seems to influence Claire’s perception about speaking Portuguese is her friends’ opinions about it, as illustrated in Excerpt 9.

(9)	as amigas dela acham legal

Interview with Berenice

Berenice:

Mas eu tô sendo mais ativa nisso, que eu não tava sendo muito por medo. Por medo de, de pressioná-la e ela se fechar.

Researcher:

Entendi.

Berenice:

Mas agora eu tô indo devagarinho e tá indo. E também é legal porque as amigas dela acham legal. (ah) Isso é super bacana. Especificamente uma diz: ‘Det er så kult! Det er så kult! Claire snakker portugisisk. Portugisisk er så kult!’ (@@@) Então daí eu ‘Viu Claire?’ (@@@)

Berenice:

But I’m more active in this, because I wasn’t being a lot because of fear. For fear of, of pressuring her and she [would] close off.

Researcher:

I see.

Berenice:

But now I’m doing it slowly and it’s going. And also it’s nice because her friends find it nice (ah). This is super cool. Specifically one says: ‘It’s so cool! It’s cool! Claire speaks Portuguese! Portuguese is so cool! (@@@) So then I ‘See Claire?’ (@@@)

The influence of peers and siblings on language use of children has been reported in the literature (e.g. Kheirkhah and Cekaite 2018; Slavkov 2017). If the school environment is not conducive to the use of pupils’ full linguistic repertoire, they might feel pressured not to use the named language(s) used more frequently in the home. Conversely, Excerpt 9 illustrates that peer evaluation can have the opposite effect, that is, it may encourage children to use their full linguistic repertoire outside the home. This would depend, among other things, on the peers’ views of multilingualism (cf. Purkarthofer 2018; Purkarthofer and De Korne 2019).

(10)	‘Mamãe, essa guria me incomodou muito hoje!’

Interview with Berenice

Agora tem outra coisa em relação à, ativa da língua, sim. Tu quer ver outra coisa que ela fala? Quando ela tá na frente das amigas dela, ela só fala português comigo. E eu fico um pouco desconfortável. Por quê? Porque, no geral, é assim:

‘Mamãe, essa guria me incomodou muito hoje!’

Now there’s one thing in relation to, active of language, yes. You want to see another thing she says? When she’s in front of her friends, she speaks only Portuguese to me. And I get a bit uncomfortable. Why? Because, in general, it’s like this:

‘Mum, this girl bothered me a lot today!’

In Excerpt 10, Berenice talks about how Claire takes advantage of knowing Portuguese in situations outside the home where other people (supposedly) do not speak Portuguese. On such occasions, Portuguese is drawn upon as though it were a secret code, allowing parent and child to experience complicity in ways that would not be socially acceptable if the language used by them was known by overhearers.

Discussion

I have proposed that articulating Busch’s (2012, 2017) notion of the linguistic repertoire with Ahmed’s (2004) interest in what emotions do and Clough’s understanding of affect serves as an appropriate theoretical frame to examine the affective dimension of the ways in which participants negotiate their familial subject positions in mundane translingual interactions. In this section, I focus on two aspects prefigured in the analysis of Excerpts 1–6 that deserve further attention, namely, the interconnections between age and the employment of certain linguistic features, and the enactment and negotiation of gendered parental roles.

The age difference of the children in the two families is an important aspect to be taken into account in analysing the specific ways in which children are socialised through the use of language and to use language. For instance, the endearing term ‘my love’ seems to be more frequently used in interactions with 3-year-old Emma. Conversely, 7-year-old Claire uses the ‘you are … ’-format more frequently to discursively position her father, conveying emotions indirectly (Pavlenko 2004). Internal differences of each family’s dynamics could explicate this difference. An alternative explanation is that the employment of certain linguistic signs varies according to the children’s age. In the case presented here, the term of endearment ‘my love’ is more frequently used by parents in interactions with younger children, which has also been documented in monolingual interactions in Italian-speaking and Swedish-speaking families (Pauletto, Aronsson, and Galeano 2017; see also Ciriza 2019). On the other hand, the ‘you are … ’-format is used by Adriana, but also by Claire, suggesting that this form of positioning might not be so readily available for younger children. Given the restricted number of families participating in this study, this is a possibility worth investigating in future research.

Also worth further elaborating on is the point made in Excerpts 1 and 3 concerning the positions taken up by Adriana, as caring mother, and that of Håkon, as pragmatic father. A similar point was advanced in the analysis of Excerpt 5. In these cases, parents’ discursive practices did seem to follow heteronormative, gendered understandings of parental positions. However, the very assumption that these positions are discursively (re)produced opens up the possibility for these parents, on other occasions, to take up positions that subvert normative gendered positions. In fact, when discussing the data collection procedures with Adriana, she told me that most of the recordings were made in the evenings. In their home, Håkon is responsible for the morning routines with Emma. Therefore, it is likely that a different set of issues would have emerged had the recordings been made by Håkon and William, and captured more interactions between them and their respective daughters.

Furthermore, supplementing and enhancing my analysis of interaction data, analysis of interview data elucidated how certain aspects of the affective dimension of language practices of contexts outside the home influence language practices in the home. The interview with Adriana, for example, tapped into the intricate relationship between language and national identity, which seems to be a relevant motivator for Adriana to draw on Portuguese with Emma. In turn, the interview with Berenice pointed to how she seems to gauge Claire’s mood in order to determine how much Portuguese she might be willing to speak. Moreover, it showed that peers can positively influence the use of Portuguese with and by Claire. Finally, it illustrated how a special parent–child bond can be nurtured by the use of Portuguese as a secret code to be deployed in public spaces and talk about things that would not be socially acceptable if overhearers understood.

Conclusion

In this article, I reported on a part of a larger ethnographic study about the language practices and ideologies of Brazilian-Norwegian families raising their children multilingually in Norway. I set out to answer the following question: What are the social actions accomplished by the use of terms of endearment and the ‘you are’-format in translingual parent–child interactions?

I argued that the employment of the term of endearment ‘my love’ and of the ‘you are … ’-format in parent–child interactions discursively positions family members in particular ways. These positions can be taken up or refused through further discursive practices and, thus, have important consequences for the ongoing construction of familial bonds. Specifically, I proposed that terms of endearment and the ‘you are’-format are used in interactions in the home to (i) convey parental value-laden aspirations of child-rearing, (ii) position children according to expected social roles, and (iii) forge parent–child ties.

Analysis of interactional data was supplemented with interview data. This allowed me to bring into the analysis the role of home-external contexts in encouraging the parents to use Portuguese with their children in the home, enriching the understanding of the affective dimension of parent–child communication afforded by the interactional data. An important issue that was only marginally addressed here and deserves further attention is the potentially positive influence of peers in the continuous use of the named language used in the home.

In conclusion, in order to investigate the affective dimension of translingual language practices in parent–child interactions, this study combined Busch’s (2012, 2017) revised notion of the linguistic repertoire with Clough’s (2007) understanding of affect, and Ahmed's (2004) approach to emotions. This theoretical framework has allowed me to examine how emotions stick to language practices and named languages associated with these practices. Finally, the combination of this theoretical framework with language socialisation scholarship on the affective dimension of monolingual parent–child interactions advances the field of family multilingualism in directions that are still worth exploring further.

Transcription conventions
Roman type	=	Used for Portuguese
Bold type	=	Used for Norwegian
Italics type	=	Used for English
WORD	=	Upper case indicates loud voice
—	=	Em dash indicates self-interruption
?	=	Question mark indicates rising intonation
$\cdot$	=	Dot indicates pauses
()	=	Parentheses enclose backchannels
(())	=	Double parentheses enclose researcher annotation
[	=	Left square bracket indicates onset of overlap at word level
[ ]	=	Square brackets enclose insertions
‘ ’	=	Quotation marks enclose reported speech
@	=	Laughter
/ /	=	Slashes enclose uncertain transcription
#	=	Number sign indicates incomprehensible speech

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223265].

Notes on contributors

Rafael Lomeu Gomes

Rafael Lomeu Gomes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MultiLing - Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Norway. His research interests include multilingualism, social theory, immigration, digitally-mediated communication, and media discourse. Rafael is co-editor of the book series Global Forum on Southern Epistemologies (Multilingual Matters).

Notes

1 I thank research assistant Ingeborg Anna Bakken for transcribing parts of the audio recordings.