Should the World Rely on English as a Lingua Franca?
Should the world RELY on English as a lingua franca?
Pierre Frath
CIRLEP, Department of English, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) pierre.frath@univ-reims.fr
ABSTRACT
English has become a global lingua franca, a unique linguistic situation in world history. As there is no discernible coercion, it seems the world has freely chosen English and yet if for example we look at European linguistic policies, the hegemony of one particular language has never been an objective. So what has happened? Is such hegemony a good thing? If not, what credible alternative could be suggested?
Keywords: English as a lingua franca, linguistic policy, multilingualism
Introduction
Europe and the world at large seem to have agreed that English should become their lingua franca. There have been linguae francae before in history but this is the first time that one language has become global, worldwide and across all social classes in most societies. The question we will discuss here is straightforward yet hardly ever touched upon: is such a global hegemony a good thing or a bad one? We shall first examine the situation of other linguae francae in the past and at the present time: Greek, Latin, French, Swahili, and the situation during the colonial era. We shall compare our findings with the contemporary situation and see that the hegemony of English presents both positive and negative aspects. A very positive aspect is the actual existence of a worldwide lingua franca; as for the English language itself, its relative simplicity at the beginner’s level is certainly an advantage; another is that is provides learners with a direct access to probably the richest culture of the present time. The most important disadvantage is the risk of cultural and political domination. We shall suggest that, even though the achievements of English-speaking cultures are impressive, the world needs
Pierre Frath
CIRLEP, Department of English, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) pierre.frath@univ-reims.fr
ABSTRACT
English has become a global lingua franca, a unique linguistic situation in world history. As there is no discernible coercion, it seems the world has freely chosen English and yet if for example we look at European linguistic policies, the hegemony of one particular language has never been an objective. So what has happened? Is such hegemony a good thing? If not, what credible alternative could be suggested?
Keywords: English as a lingua franca, linguistic policy, multilingualism
Introduction
Europe and the world at large seem to have agreed that English should become their lingua franca. There have been linguae francae before in history but this is the first time that one language has become global, worldwide and across all social classes in most societies. The question we will discuss here is straightforward yet hardly ever touched upon: is such a global hegemony a good thing or a bad one? We shall first examine the situation of other linguae francae in the past and at the present time: Greek, Latin, French, Swahili, and the situation during the colonial era. We shall compare our findings with the contemporary situation and see that the hegemony of English presents both positive and negative aspects. A very positive aspect is the actual existence of a worldwide lingua franca; as for the English language itself, its relative simplicity at the beginner’s level is certainly an advantage; another is that is provides learners with a direct access to probably the richest culture of the present time. The most important disadvantage is the risk of cultural and political domination. We shall suggest that, even though the achievements of English-speaking cultures are impressive, the world needs
References: Capucho F. (2008) : "L’intercompréhension est-elle une mode? Du linguiste citoyen au citoyen plurilingue", In Revue Pratiques nº 139/140-Linguistique populaire? Cresef. – (pp 238 – 250). Capucho, F. and Pelsmaekers K. (2008): "Au-delà des familles de langues: le projet Eu&I" In: Les langues modernes, 102:1 (pp. 75-80). Céline L.-F. (1932) : Voyage au bout de la nuit Éditeur Denoël et Steele Durand Charles-Xavier (2009) : "La recherche scientifique paye une taxe à la langue unique", in Plurilinguisme, interculturalité et emploi : défis pour l’Europe Frath P. (2008) : "Une alternative au tout anglais en Europe : pourquoi et comment", Cahiers de l 'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain, CILL 32.1-4 (2006), 237-250 Frath P Frath P. (2005): "Post-cognitivism: a Plea for Reference in Linguistic Theory", Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Generative Approaches to the Lexicon, Pierrette Bouillon and Kyoko Kanzaki, eds., University of Geneva, May 19-21, 2005. Frath P. (2004): "Rules and Intentionality in the Generative Lexicon", in Journal of Cognitive Science, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2002), Institute for Cognitive Science, Seoul National University, South Korea. Memmi, A. (1957) : Portrait du colonisé, précédé du Portrait du colonisateur, éd. Buchet/Chastel, Paris. Rastier F. (2009): "Naturalisation et culturalisation" in L’évolution aujourd’hui : à la croisée de la biologie et des sciences humaines, Bruxelles, Académie Royale de Belgique, pp. 231-250. [6] Readers interested in a critical view on cognitivism may, for example, refer to Frath 2004, 2005, 2007. For a critique of Neo-Darwinism and cognitivism, see François Rastier (forthcoming). [8] For another example, see this author’s proposal for a multilingual language policy for Europe (Frath 2008). [9] See for example E. Castagne 2007, F. Capucho 2007, 2008, F. Capucho & K. Pelsmaekers 2008, Ch. Ollivier (2007). Also Filomena Capucho’s paper in this volume.