Setting Limits to Identity: Constraints on Linguistic Variation in Children’s Literature

Abstract

This paper deals with problems stemming from linguistic variation in children’s literature in a pluricentric language such as Spanish. Specifically, a paradigmatic case of the tensions will be studied, namely a collection of children’s books about the Canary Islands, Leyendas Canarias (2012–2021). The sociolinguistic setting is the particular status of Canarian Spanish between American Spanish and European Spanish. The paper outlines a research project in discourse analysis and the linguistic landscape approach applied to the study of intralinguistic variation in children’s literature (Daly, 2017, 2018, 2019; Van Dijk, 1998). Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of lexical and morphological strategies, the research explores how intralinguistic diversity is represented and from which perspective it is conceived. The analysis shows the underlying power relations between varieties, that is, the centre and the periphery, and the effects that can be drawn for Canarian children in the creation of their own national identity.