LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRE IN THE CONTEXT OF RESEARCH ON MULTILINGUALISM

Abstract

The speaker's linguistic repertoire is one of the determining factors of linguistic communication. It is also an important starting point for research on communicative behaviour in situations characterised by the presence of language contact. The linguistic repertoire represents the equipment a speaker brings to his communicative activity and thanks to which he can cope with even difficult situations of misunderstanding. The linguistic repertoire is the sum of knowledge about languages and the sum of linguistic competences related to all the languages spoken. The paper defines the concept from a theoretical perspective and points out the potential of research on language repertoires, especially in relation to research on multilingualism. In the analytical section, results of a research task on oral multilingual communication are presented. It is highlighted how they relate to the mapping of language repertoires. Using the example of two speakers with multilingual competence but with different linguistic repertoires, authors show what strategies these speakers choose to avoid misunderstanding in verbal interaction. The aim is to highlight the necessity of understanding linguistic repertoires and choosing an adequate methodology for mapping them.