Linguistic imperialism
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Linguistic imperialism, often seen as an aspect of cultural imperialism, has since the early 1990s attracted the attention of scholars in the field of English applied linguistics, particularly since the publication of Robert Phillipson's influential book Linguistic Imperialism.
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Language imperialism
English language imperialism
Phillipson defines English linguistic imperialism as:
- "the dominance asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages".
Phillipson's theory provides a powerful critique on the historical spread of English as an international language and how it continues to maintain its current dominance particularly in postcolonial contexts like India, Pakistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, etc but also increasingly in "neo-colonial" contexts such as continental Europe. His theory draws mainly on Johan Galtung's imperialism theory, Antonio Gramsci's social theory and in particular his notion of cultural hegemony.
One of the central themes of Phillipson's theory is the series of complex hegemonic processes which, he asserts, continue to sustain the pre-eminence of English in the world today. His book analyzes the British Council's use of rhetoric to promote English, and discusses some of the key underlying tenets of English applied linguistics and English language teaching methodology.
Another very important theme in his work is what he calls "linguicism" the processes by which endangered languages become extinct or lose their local eminence as a direct result of the rising and competing prominence of English in disparate global contexts.
Defining linguistic imperialism is bound to be problematic and one's attitude towards the term will depend largely on one's personal political orientations particularly in terms of how a person relates to the increasing political, economic and military power of the English-speaking nations of the West.
The idea that linguistic imperialism is an accusatory term used by trendy leftists to account for the historical spread of English is a view often advanced by monolingual native-speakers of English who may see the current status of English as a fact worthy of celebration. Moderate proponents of English linguistic imperialism are likely to be liberal humanists who may dismiss the theory outright suggesting that English linguistic imperialism is a little more than a conspiracy theory. David Crystal and Henry Widdowson have been described as adopting this position. Extreme proponents of English linguistic imperialism are likely to envisage a monolingual, monocultural, and unipolar world view with a powerful Anglocentric centre of power. Samuel P. Huntington (known for his Clash of Civilisations theory and his recent vilification of the rising use of Spanish by the Hispanic community in the USA) falls into this category. Others in this category may include White supremacists, Neocons and nostalgic colonialists like the prominent British historian, Paul Johnson.
In contrast those who see the increasing spread of English in the world as a worrying development that marginalises the status of local and regional languages as well as potentially undermining or eroding cultural values are likely to be far more receptive to Phillipson's views. Proponents of this view may also be inclined to believe that multilingualism and cultural diversity are facts of the world that ought to be celebrated and rigorously maintained. Alastair Pennycook (http://www.education.uts.edu.au/ostaff/staff/alastair_pennycook.html), Suresh Canagarajah (http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/departments/english/faculty/canagarajah.html), Adrian Holliday and Julian Edge broadly fall into this group and are often described as critical applied linguists (http://www.tesolislamia.org/suggested_read2.html).
Other language imperialism
At times, especially in colonial situations or where there is a dominant culture seeking to unify regions under its control, a similar feature has arisen. Thus in each of the Far East, Africa and South America, regional languages are being or have been coercively replaced or marginalised by dominant culture use within the more powerful culture - Tibetan by Chinese mandarins, Quechua marginalised by Spanish, and so on.
Despite the English language's reputation for linguistic imperialism, during the Middle Ages English too was the subject of linguistic imperialism from the French language, particularly following the Norman conquest. For hundreds of years, French or Norman French was the language of status in England above English, and to this day many English words derived from Latin/French often have a more 'cultured' sound to a native English speaker as opposed to the English/Germanic derived synonym. See also Law French.
Following the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire over much of present day Germany and Central Europe, the German language and dialects became the preferred language of choice for the aristocracy of Central Europe. With varying degrees of success, the German language spread across much of Central and Eastern Europe as the language of trade and status. This progression was finally brought to a cataclysmic end during World War II. See also Germanization.
Common causes of linguistic imperialism
In general, historically, there appear to be two main trends resulting in linguistic imperialism:
- A culture or culture obtains a dominant role in some context. Persons from other cultures are pressured to adopt that cultures language to further their own lives, or are restricted or punished in their use of native culture.
- One important aspect of this is where the dominance is not in terms of politics, but in terms of the media, thus many Middle Eastern countries feel that English is aggressively imperialistic due to its ubiquitous nature in media, films and on the internet.
- A culture which imposed its dominance over multiple local cultures, withdraws. The choice of language in the ensuing region becomes highly politicised, and as not everyone speaks each native tongue, and the civil service, affluent or dominant classes and other authorities all speak the previous colonial tongue; it is retained as the only common neutral language, even though individually most people would prefer to dispense with it.
- The imposition of the language of the dominant group on to the other groups of people in a political union.
- A case in the point is the imposition of Hindi as the official Indian language (language for official purposes as opposed to just being a national language), even though India is a multilingual country with more than 15 major national languages. Hindi is the language used in civil services and in governmental examinations even in regions where no one speaks the language. On the other hand Switzerland is also a multilingual country with three major national languages. However unlike India, it has recognized all the three languages as official languages.
See also
- Critical Applied Linguistics
- Cupla focal
- Cultural hegemony
- English as a second language
- Esperanto
- International auxiliary language
- Language immersion
- Language revival
- Linguicide
- Linguistic Darwinism
- Linguistic protectionism
- Official language
Further reading
- Canagarajah, Suresh (1999), Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0194421546
- Crystal, David (2003), English as a Global Language, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521530326
- Holliday, Adrian, Martin Hyde & John Kullman (2004), Intercultural Communication, Routledge. ISBN 0415270618
- Kontra, Miklos, Robert Phillipson, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas & Tibor Varady [eds.] (1999), Language: A Right and a Resource, Central European University Press. ISBN 9639116645
- Pennycook, Alastair (1995), The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language, Longman. ISBN 0582234735
- Pennycook, Alastair (1998), English and the Discourses of Colonialism, Routledge. ISBN 0415178487
- Pennycook, Alastair (2001), Critical Applied Linguistics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805837922
- Phillipson, Robert (1992), Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0194371468
- Philipson, Robert [ed.] (2000), Rights to Language, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 080583835X
- Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Robert Phillipson [eds.]; Mart Rannut (1995), Linguistic Human Rights, Mouton De Gruyter. ISBN 3110148781
External links
- Robert Phillipson (http://babel.ruc.dk/~ROBERT/)
- For further discussions (http://www.tesolislamia.org/viewpoint.html)
- Pennycook (http://www.tesolislamia.org/articles/TEML.pdf)fr:Impérialisme linguistique