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Politics and the Law of Babel
Abstract
The world language system is profoundly affected by the increase in the frequency and density of communication on a world scale. Most of the languages spoken today are not expected to survive the century and most of those surviving will lose or fail to get control of some higher functions of communication, notably in the fields of commerce and science. The minority languages best able to resist the pressure of more powerful competitors are those having a government as their champion, and their best overall protective strategy remains territorialization, either within the boundaries of a unilingual state or, in the case of multilingual societies, on the territorial model of Switzerland and Belgium that juxtaposes rather than mixes languages at the regional level.
... We need "meaningful diversity", with parity of participation and parity of esteem, but "[p] arity of participation is only possible by downplaying differences" whereas "parity of esteem can only be achieved by recognizing the equal moral weight of all participants regardless of their language skills" (ibid., 313). In her view, diversity in the EU is tantamount to mere juxtaposition, a collection of disconnected uniformities, as argued in Section 2.8 and Section 3.8, and this "enhances the centrality of English" (ibid., 314; see Laponce 2001). Is there an alternative? ...
... When the only viable options remain the member states' official language(s) and, in many realms, only English, 10 then the EU's approach to multilingualism is oppressive, to come back to Dahrendorf. Here, the Laponce mechanism, summarised by Philippe Van Parijs as "[t]he nicer people are with one another, the nastier languages are with each other", sheds light on the phenomenon of English displacing home languages in the EU (Van Parijs 2015b, 233; see Laponce 2001 andFishman 1972, 84). In short, when languages come into peaceful contact, the odds in favour of the more powerful language displacing the less powerful are overwhelming. ...
... Theoretically, this ideology supposes that both (majority and minority) will transform themselves reciprocally due to sustained contact. However, sociolinguistics has shown us that the majority language tends to transform (or even assimilate) more the minority than the other way around (e.g., Laponce 2001). For example, state policies toward immigrant groups in some Scandinavian countries would follow this model. ...
... From a linguistic justice perspective, Van Parijs' approach means that each language group should have a territory in which their language would be the only official language. Based on Laponce (2001), he argues that this way languages would be protected from language contact and language shift, which are produced in cases of peaceful contact between languages, where the more powerful language tends to dominate and assimilate the other(s). ...
... Theoretically, this ideology supposes that both (majority and minority) will transform themselves reciprocally due to sustained contact. However, sociolinguistics has shown us that the majority language tends to transform (or even assimilate) more the minority than the other way around (e.g., Laponce 2001). For example, state policies toward immigrant groups in some Scandinavian countries would follow this model. ...
... From a linguistic justice perspective, Van Parijs' approach means that each language group should have a territory in which their language would be the only official language. Based on Laponce (2001), he argues that this way languages would be protected from language contact and language shift, which are produced in cases of peaceful contact between languages, where the more powerful language tends to dominate and assimilate the other(s). ...
This chapter aims at offering an interdisciplinary analytical overview of the literature on the notion of “linguistic justice” and more generally fairness in multilingual contexts. It focuses the biggest part of its attention on political philosophy, but it presents also several contributions from economics, sociolinguistics, interlinguistics, and law. The purpose of the text is not to assess the internal consistency of alternative (and often contrasting) theories nor to try to find a common ground among them. Its goal is to emphasize the policy recommendations that derive from different approaches.
... However, sociolinguistics has shown us that the majority language tends to transform (or even assimilate) more the minority than the other way around (e.g. Laponce 2001). For example, state policies towards immigrant groups in some Scandinavian countries would follow this model. ...
... From a linguistic justice perspective, Van Parijs' perspective means that each language group should have a territory in which their language would be the only official language. Based on Laponce (2001), he argues that this way languages would be protected from language contact and language shift, which are produced in cases of peaceful contact between languages, where the more powerful language tends to dominate and assimilate the other(s). ...
This report aims at offering an interdisciplinary analytical overview of the literature on the notion of " linguistic justice " and more generally fairness in multilingual contexts. It focuses the biggest part of its attention on political philosophy, but it presents also several contributions from economics, sociolinguistics, interlinguistics and law. The purpose of this report is neither to assess the internal consistency of alternative (and often contrasting) theories, nor to try to find a common ground among them. Its goal is to emphasize the policy recommendations that derive from different approaches. The report also discusses how different theories or approaches to linguistic justice have been applied to the case of the management of multilingualism in the European Union.
... Lastly, Anglo-Quebecers will be expected to display a stronger cosmopolitan affiliation than Franco-Ontarians, given that the English language-the world's current lingua franca (Laponce, 2001)-is likely to be conducive to a cosmopolitan affiliation. It is indeed likely easier for Anglophones to conceive of themselves as "citizens of the world", given that their language has more influence throughout the world and is spoken more often and in more places than French. ...
... However, the EU simultaneously endorses an instrumental notion of language, epitomised in its increasing reliance on English as its unofficial lingua franca. This paradox of the paradox is compounded by the Laponce mechanism, whereby nationaland official EUlanguages 10 come into peaceful contact with English as an additional language in their territory and, despite its gradually ubiquitous grip, do not feel threatened by English, for their place in the sun is guaranteed both through the territoriality principle, at the national level, and in the treaties, at the supranational level (see Laponce, 2001;Van Parijs, 2015). ...
Translation pays a pivotal role in the workings of the European Union, the most multilingual body of institutions in the world – with 24 official and working languages. This paper offers an exclusive and transdisciplinary look into the EU’s translation policies, practices and ideologies, drawing together theoretical and epistemological threads from applied and sociolinguistics, translation studies, philosophy of language, political theory and language policy research to analyse both the EU’s acquis communautaire and interviews recently conducted by the author with EU translators and decision-makers. Its chief argument is that translation remains trapped within a mechanistic, utilitarian framework increasingly predicated on English as a lingua franca of sorts, heightening the EU’s de facto (English-speaking) monolingualism and flying in the face of its de jure multilingualism policy. The paper also stresses the detrimental effect that the effacement of translations – currently in practice through the authentication of language versions – has on the status of translation and translators, as well as on language hierarchy. Drawing insight from Jacques Derrida’s and Paul Ricoeur’s visions for Europe, the paper ends with a call for a translation turn in the EU, encompassing a renewed role for language and translation in its bodies, agencies and institutions.
... Aquesta ideologia assumeix que a causa del contacte sostingut, tant la majoria com la minoria s'influeixen i es transformen recíprocament. Així i tot, la sociolingüística ha demostrat que la llengua majoritària tendeix a transformar (o fins i tot assimilar) més la minoria que no pas al revés (entre d'altres, Laponce 2001). Les polítiques estatals envers els col·lectius d'immigrants en alguns països escandinaus serien exemples d'aquest model. ...
... Tsunoda (1983) records the change in linguistic usage in the field of natural sciences over a whole century showing an advancement in the strong spreading of English detrimental to German and French which starts off slowly from 1930 and which is exponential from the 1950s onwards. Just to give some actual examples of the spreading of English, by means of data gathered by Laponce (2001) and added to by Sano (2002) with reference to Chemical Abstracts, in the period 1978-2000 there is a noticeable increase in publications only in the Chinese language, whereas there is a sharp decline in the other important languages of culture such as French and German. Russian, stable until the fall of the Soviet regime, also shows a decline after that date, while the quantity of publications in Japanese, although a small percentage of all publications, remains stable over time. ...
The chapter discusses the different types of scientific communication based on the target audience (specialists, learners, lay community). It touches upon sociolinguistic issues relating to the expansion of English as a so-called 'lingua franca' and the consequences for scientific genres and registers in other languages.
... Buying music through the internet in English is easy, as it refl ects, to a large extent, the actual music being listened to in most countries on all continents. But being interested in reading a French book requires linguistic skills available only to the francophone world, not to mention the myriad languages identifying much smaller nations or ethnic groups (Laponce, 2001). The risk is that the digitalization of, and access to, the world's cultural heritage will bear a strong Anglo-American bias, thus becoming one more powerful factor in spreading the US hegemony over current scientifi c discourse. ...
The purpose of this review article is to contribute to monitoring and debating changes in the electronic research environment. We shall present an overview (mainly tailored to cyberspace neophytes) of some of the best electronic resources currently available on-line for political science, drawing from our experience as editors of IPSAPortal, the International Political Science Association's website dedicated to selecting and reviewing the top e-hubs in our discipline. However, in venturing into political science cyberspace, we will try to offer a more general understanding of the major trends now impacting upon the internet galaxy. Much as we may be tempted just to stick to our little planet, we must be aware that it is part of, and emerges from, a much larger system.
Why do some countries have one official language while others have two or more? Why do Indigenous languages have official status in some countries but not others? How do we theorize about continuity and change when we explain state language policy choices? Combining both the theory and practice of language regimes, this book explains how the relationship between language, politics, and policy can be studied. It brings together a globally representative team of scholars to look at the patterns of continuity and change, the concept of state traditions, and notions of historical legacies, critical juncture, path dependency, layering, conversion, and drift. It contains in-depth case studies from a multitude of countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Norway, Peru, Ukraine, and Wales, and across both colonial and postcolonial contexts. Wide-ranging yet accessible, it is essential reading for practitioners and scholars engaged in the theory and practice of language policies.
The linguistic territoriality principle is popular both among theorists and practitioners of language policy. But its precise content is notoriously vague. A plethora of different meanings have been attached to it, leading to conceptual and normative confusion. This chapter proposes a novel conceptualization of this principle, in order to operationalize it both for theory and practice. It elaborates a proper definition of the LTP, illustrates its numerous versions and offers a state-of-the-art overview of justifications for and critiques of the LTP. The chapter works out, in short, a full ontology of the LTP, against the background of notions of mobility and inclusion. Our main research qiestion is the following: what is at the conceptual and moral core of the territoriality principle? What are the crucial notions that need to be present in order to meaningfully speak of linguistic territoriality, and why do these notions matter morally? To address these questions, we offer and discuss two metrics that could constitute the core of the LTP: the linguistic coerciveness metric and the linguistic diversity metric. We argue that, although the coerciveness metric is relevant, the diversity metric is at the conceptual core of territoriality, such that we ought to understand linguistic territoriality as fundamentally characterized by linguistic monism, or monolingualism. Finally, we draw implications that such a view of LTP might have for the key concepts of mobility and inclusion.
The linguistic conjunction regime in the Catalan education system has been subject to several controversies over the years and we can see one position in favour and another against the model. In this article we identify the main arguments in the public debate for and against the system and analyse its normative basis in accordance with contributions of political theory on linguistic justice. Ultimately, our goal is to assess to which extent there is room for rapprochement or reconciliation between the arguments of the two positions. Our main argument is that both positions, which have employed fairly stable reasoning over time with a shared tendency to avoid explicit identity arguments, may have a certain margin for rapprochement. Some interpretations of the values that underline the arguments of both position, such as ideals of equal treatment of languages, equality of individual opportunities and the guarantee of pluralism, could support a linguistic conjunction system of in schools in which Catalan has a prominent role, Spanish enjoys sufficient recognition, and equal competence in both languages is guaranteed at the end of the school period.
This book proposes a multidisciplinary assessment of the impact of complex diversity on language politics and policies, analysing how the legacies of the old interact with the challenges of the new. Its main focus is on the interplay of multilingualism on the one hand, and the dynamics of transnationalism, globalisation, and Europeanisation on the other. This interplay confronts contemporary societies with unprecedented questions, as they face the need to come to grips with increasingly varied and pervasive manifestations of linguistic and cultural diversity. This volume develops an integrative approach that identifies the key social and political dimensions at hand, offering an innovative contribution to the ongoing conversation on the manifestations and management of multilingualism.
Volumul „Graiuri basarabene actuale. Texte dialectale, Glosar. Studii” a fost elaborat în cadrul proiectului „Limba şi folclorul românesc în procesul de consolidare a statului Republica Moldova”. Echipa de proiect și-a propus cercetarea stadiului actual de evoluţie a limbii române, vorbite pe teritoriul Republicii Moldova, urmărirea procesului intens de apropiere a graiurilor teritoriale de aspectul îngrijit al limbii naţionale, relevarea dinamicii ariilor dialectale în ultimele două decenii.
Pentru realizarea acestui deziderat au fost organizate cercetări dialectologice de teren. Colectarea şi prelucrarea materialelor dialectale a fost efectuată de executorii proiectului, în comun cu studenţii Universităţii AŞM, în cadrul practicii de iniţiere în specialitate, pe un eşantion de 30 de localităţi din reţeaua „Atlasului lingvistic moldovenesc” (ALM).
National identities must interact with the linguistic identities of groups within state borders. Individuals are typically categorized by their first-language capabilities, and theories about ethnic fragmentation and sub-national conflict are largely based on these categorizations. Though we are aware that most people in Africa are multilingual, this has not shifted our theorizing. If people are indeed multilingual, particularly in a lingua franca, then their economic and political behavior may be different from what we expect to emerge from their first-language identities. This paper seeks to push theorizing to include the linking role of lingua francas. It looks at a particular language, Dyula, and shows how it spread historically in West Africa and contemporarily within Burkina Faso. Using original survey research, it shows the geographic regions in which it has spread and the individuals who adopt it. This can help to predict its future role, and that of other lingua francas across the continent of Africa, suggesting an alternate end-point to the bifurcated debate about national identities that advocates either monolingual or linguistically demarcated states.
The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines a cosmopolitan as ‘a person who is free from local, provincial or national bias or attachment; a citizen of the world’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a cosmopolitan as ‘at home throughout the world or in many spheres of interest’. To what degree does cosmopolitanism, a somewhat theoretical ideal, constitute a serious option in the 21st century? And to what degree might it trump the more primordial type of loyalty that is associated with either the nation or the nation-state?
Assuming that a language has some control over its destinies will help us outline the appropriate actions to be taken by a political decision maker who, typically, makes the same assumption of governability when he or she wishes to guide a minority language towards security and prosperity. Of course, most languages are far from having the control of the functions of goal setting, integration, adaptation and socialisation required by Parsonian theory to distinguish a system from a set. Most languages lack pilots; most of them are like leaves in the wind. But major standardised languages have at least some control over their own evolution, and those that are supported by a government have ways of steering their relations among the other languages with which they are linked by communication, competition, cooperation and conflict. What should the geopolitical survival strategy of such a language be when it is confronted with a more powerful competitor? The social sciences are often said to abound in theories but to be short of laws. That this be so makes it all the more important that we give due attention to one of these laws, a law that governs language contact: the ancient law of Babel (Laponce 1984; 1992; 2001). x2018;Behold, they are one people, they have only one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do: and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible to them. Come, let us go down, and then confuse their languages, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth …’
El propósito de este artículo de revisión es el de contribuir al seguimiento y el debate de los cambios en el entorno de la investigación electrónica. Vamos a presentar una visión general (adaptado principalmente a los neófitos del ciberespacio) de algunos de los mejores recursos electrónicos disponibles en línea para la ciencia política, la elaboración de nuestra experiencia como editores de IPSA-Portal, el sitio web de la Asociación Internacional de Ciencia Política dedicada a la selección y revisión los mejores e-hubs en nuestra disciplina. Sin embargo, al aventurarse en el ciberespacio de la ciencia política, vamos a tratar de ofrecer una comprensión más general de las principales tendencias que afectan la galaxia del internet. Por mucho que estemos tentados sólo para pegarnos a nuestro pequeño planeta, tenemos que ser conscientes de que es parte de, y surge de, un sistema mucho más grande.
Borrowing from Jean Gottmann's political geography one of its major themes - that built on the tension between freedom and boundary - the author adds the notion of cultural diversity in order to make a comparative analysis of the language policies of multilingual societies, notably those of Canada.
This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions – language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions – language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group than to other members of the same group. The article then applies the linguistic injustice test to two models of linguistic justice: linguistic territoriality and linguistic pluralism. It is argued that real-life cases of linguistic territoriality tend to pass the test. It is argued that instantiations of linguistic pluralism tend to fail the test.
This report on research in progress is based on data obtained through written questionnaires administered to UBC (University of British Columbia) and Ottawa University students who were asked to rank the importance and the degree of satisfaction associated with 14 characteristics of either the self or the social environment (gender, age, nationality, profession, religion, preferred political party, place of birth, province of residence, city of residence, university, ethnic group, language, family, and friends). Using gender, language, and race as examples, the author shows the usefulness of a role by role approach in comparative analysis, notably for the study of minority groups.
Dans cet article, l'A etablit les differences entre le Canada et les Etats-Unis au niveau des perspectives de recherches sociologiques. L'A fait part ici des opportunites qui existent concernant la mobilite, les relations sociales, l'ethnicite, la stratification sociale, la politique sociale, ainsi que les orientations politiques et theoriques de la discipline
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The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-native Englishes. By Braj B. Kachru.
The decline of many minority languages, and the associated shift towards majority languages, raises the question of whether there is a point of no return, or ‘threshold’ in the process. This paper develops a formal model of language vitality as a function of preferences for conducting activities in one or the other language, percentage of minority‐language speakers, and expectations‐based adjustment to the observed change in language vitality. It shows that long‐term survival with low demolinguistic figures is possible if they are compensated for by a clear preference for minority‐language activities, and that insufficient preferences still allow for sustainable vitality if the public can be persuaded that language authorities are strongly committed to the protection of the language. Critical (threshold) values distinguish combinations of the independent variables leading to decline from those leading to survival. Formal expressions are provided for these critical values, suggesting that the concept of threshold is relevant to the analysis of language survival, but that it must be seen as a function of several variables rather than some unidimensional value. The concept of threshold developed here is then used to propose guidelines for policy measures aimed at reversing language shift.
Perhaps nowhere else in the world is the problem of language endangerment so great as in India and, unfortunately, very little effort has been made to protect and preserve these languages. As many as 153 classified and 289 unclassified languages in the country have a total number of speakers in the range of one to five, according to the census report. This paper identifies the endangered languages and places them in the following categories: extinct languages, languages in the process of becoming extinct, and languages threatened by extinction. The minority languages, particularly tribal languages, are more prone to extinction. Besides analyzing the causes of language endangerment, the paper emphasizes that language loss is not inevitable if appropriate measures are taken in time. When a language dies, its death forbodes the death of the culture, world-view and aspirations of a speech community.
As English emerges as the first world-wide lingua franca, countries whose native language is not English increasingly face the following dilemma: either they will have to lose their soul (by switching off the protection of their national language and culture) or they will have to lose their heart (by scaling down the redistributive component of their welfare state). This conclusion rests on the following premises, which the article presents and vindicates: (1) If weaker languages are to survive, the countries in which they are spoken will have to insist on the linguistic territoriality principle. (2) Plurilingual portfolios do now and increasingly will tend to include English. (3) If some area’s native language emerges as a world lingua franca and if the territoriality principle is in place elsewhere, the migration of the high-skilled will display a growing bias towards the lingua-franca countries, here called for this reason the ground floor of the world. (4) If there is a significant asymmetric skill drain, then the other countries’ governments will have no real option but to reduce net taxation on high-skilled labour income. The article closes with a brief discussion of various conceivable strategies for avoiding, or at least softening the dilemma.