Abstract The linguistic situation in the Arab world is in an important state of transition, with the “spoken” vernaculars increasingly functioning as written languages as well. While this fact is widely acknowledged and the subject of a growing body of qualitative literature, there is little quantitative research detailing the process in action. The current project examines this development as it is occurring in Tunisia: I present the findings from a corpus study comparing the frequency of Tunisian Arabic–Standard Arabic equivalent pairs in online forum posts from 2010 with those from 2021. The findings show that the proportion of Tunisian lexical items, compared to their Standard Arabic equivalents, increased from a minority (19.7%) to a majority (69.9%) over this period. At the same time, metalinguistic comments on the forum reveal that, although its status is still contentious, Tunisian has become unmarked as a written language. These changes can be attributed to major developments in Tunisian society over the period of study – including internet access and the 2011 revolution. These findings suggest destabilization of the diglossic language situation in Tunisia and a privileging of national identity vis-à-vis the rest of the Arab world.
{"title":"‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum","authors":"Karen McNeil","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0126","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The linguistic situation in the Arab world is in an important state of transition, with the “spoken” vernaculars increasingly functioning as written languages as well. While this fact is widely acknowledged and the subject of a growing body of qualitative literature, there is little quantitative research detailing the process in action. The current project examines this development as it is occurring in Tunisia: I present the findings from a corpus study comparing the frequency of Tunisian Arabic–Standard Arabic equivalent pairs in online forum posts from 2010 with those from 2021. The findings show that the proportion of Tunisian lexical items, compared to their Standard Arabic equivalents, increased from a minority (19.7%) to a majority (69.9%) over this period. At the same time, metalinguistic comments on the forum reveal that, although its status is still contentious, Tunisian has become unmarked as a written language. These changes can be attributed to major developments in Tunisian society over the period of study – including internet access and the 2011 revolution. These findings suggest destabilization of the diglossic language situation in Tunisia and a privileging of national identity vis-à-vis the rest of the Arab world.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2022 1","pages":"51 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49202719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The symbolic values that speakers attribute to certain linguistic features constitute an important sociolinguistic topic which, barring a few seminal works, has not drawn much attention from scholars working on Maghrebi Arabic, and more specifically, Moroccan varieties. The present paper aims to deepen our understanding of metalinguistic representations of Jebli, a sedentary rural variety of Moroccan Arabic, within the speech communities of Larache and Ouezzane, two urban centres lying on the southern periphery of the Jbala region of Northern Morocco. We first analysed several samples of performed speech taken from an online Moroccan comedy sketch series entitled Jebli & Beldi, which includes a character epitomizing the Jebli accent, in order to identify those salient linguistic features that are perceived as being typically Jebli. As these phonetic and morphosyntactic traits are consciously selected in performed speech, it may be assumed that they make up a linguistic stereotype. We then asked a group of informants in the cities of Larache and Ouezzane to describe what they regarded as the typical features of Jebli speech and also their attitudes towards these features. The results of our study show that the features informants named partly coincided with our own sketch-based selection, and their attitudes towards these features were generally negative. These features did not appear in the speech of most informants, suggesting either their absence in their dialect or a deliberate avoidance strategy on their part. A small number in fact used these features but denied doing so, suggesting that the features are socially stigmatized. We argue that the symbolic values ascribed to some typical Jebli features may trigger their avoidance, which in turn may generate linguistic variation and even lead to linguistic change.
{"title":"The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco","authors":"Montserrat Benítez Fernández, J. Guerrero","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2022-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2022-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The symbolic values that speakers attribute to certain linguistic features constitute an important sociolinguistic topic which, barring a few seminal works, has not drawn much attention from scholars working on Maghrebi Arabic, and more specifically, Moroccan varieties. The present paper aims to deepen our understanding of metalinguistic representations of Jebli, a sedentary rural variety of Moroccan Arabic, within the speech communities of Larache and Ouezzane, two urban centres lying on the southern periphery of the Jbala region of Northern Morocco. We first analysed several samples of performed speech taken from an online Moroccan comedy sketch series entitled Jebli & Beldi, which includes a character epitomizing the Jebli accent, in order to identify those salient linguistic features that are perceived as being typically Jebli. As these phonetic and morphosyntactic traits are consciously selected in performed speech, it may be assumed that they make up a linguistic stereotype. We then asked a group of informants in the cities of Larache and Ouezzane to describe what they regarded as the typical features of Jebli speech and also their attitudes towards these features. The results of our study show that the features informants named partly coincided with our own sketch-based selection, and their attitudes towards these features were generally negative. These features did not appear in the speech of most informants, suggesting either their absence in their dialect or a deliberate avoidance strategy on their part. A small number in fact used these features but denied doing so, suggesting that the features are socially stigmatized. We argue that the symbolic values ascribed to some typical Jebli features may trigger their avoidance, which in turn may generate linguistic variation and even lead to linguistic change.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2022 1","pages":"181 - 202"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49304898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract What we in this article describe as “Sino-Muslim heritage literacies” have existed in China for as long as there have been Muslims in the region (since the 7th century according to the best evidence). The community’s religious and heritage literacy practices can incorporate a systematic Arabic representation of Chinese, systems of Chinese characters representing Arabic pronunciation, and more contemporary digitalised manifestations of heritage literacy in everyday life. Using a social practice approach to literacy, this paper reports on multi-generational interviews, artefact collection, and ethnographic observations with two families in Xi’an (Shaanxi, China) to explore how heritage literacy practices maintain a presence in Sino-Muslim life through traditional systems of community and religious education and contemporary social and material networks. We discuss what these empirical cases reveal about literacies in Sino-Muslim religious life, with respect to how heritage is adapted or diminished across generations. We also argue that it is crucial to situate Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in spaces beyond rigid and state-defined ethnic and religious discourses which tend to confine the identity of Sino-Muslims into officially designated categories. Doing so, we contend, has useful theoretical and methodological import, and can shed light on inquiry about heritage literacy in other minority settings.
{"title":"Everyday heritaging: Sino-Muslim literacy adaptation and alienation","authors":"Ibrar Bhatt, Heng Wang","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2022-0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2022-0058","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract What we in this article describe as “Sino-Muslim heritage literacies” have existed in China for as long as there have been Muslims in the region (since the 7th century according to the best evidence). The community’s religious and heritage literacy practices can incorporate a systematic Arabic representation of Chinese, systems of Chinese characters representing Arabic pronunciation, and more contemporary digitalised manifestations of heritage literacy in everyday life. Using a social practice approach to literacy, this paper reports on multi-generational interviews, artefact collection, and ethnographic observations with two families in Xi’an (Shaanxi, China) to explore how heritage literacy practices maintain a presence in Sino-Muslim life through traditional systems of community and religious education and contemporary social and material networks. We discuss what these empirical cases reveal about literacies in Sino-Muslim religious life, with respect to how heritage is adapted or diminished across generations. We also argue that it is crucial to situate Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in spaces beyond rigid and state-defined ethnic and religious discourses which tend to confine the identity of Sino-Muslims into officially designated categories. Doing so, we contend, has useful theoretical and methodological import, and can shed light on inquiry about heritage literacy in other minority settings.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2023 1","pages":"77 - 101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49447938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Language vitality and endangerment theorizing and research have been focused mainly on whole languages, relegating their individual dialects to the background, on the one hand; and on using single scales in assessing vitality and endangerment, on the other. In this paper, however, we advocate a paradigm shift for more, better successes in this undertaking. Therefore, we aim to examine the degree(s) of vitality and endangerment of Gombe dialect of Fulfulde using multiple evaluative scales, both western and non-western. Prior to placing the dialect on these scales, we collected data from Fulfulde speakers of varied age ranges, all Gombe radio stations and listeners of their Fulfulde programs, using ‘insider’ participant observations, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a proficiency test component (after which both the respondents and the researchers agreed on the proficiency levels of the former) and online surveys. Analysis of the data reveals that the vitality of this code is better viewed relatively rather than absolutely. Its subsequent placement on the evaluative scales only helps to corroborate this. Finally, while our analysis shows that dialects are just as place-able on these evaluative scales as whole languages are (notwithstanding the hitches characterizing the scales), we argue that, with sustained collective efforts, a dialect-focused evaluative framework is likely to be born in the foreseeable future.
{"title":"Assessing the vitality of Gombe dialect of Fulfulde: a multi-scale approach","authors":"Abdulkadir Adamu, Abdulkarim Musa Yola","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0100","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Language vitality and endangerment theorizing and research have been focused mainly on whole languages, relegating their individual dialects to the background, on the one hand; and on using single scales in assessing vitality and endangerment, on the other. In this paper, however, we advocate a paradigm shift for more, better successes in this undertaking. Therefore, we aim to examine the degree(s) of vitality and endangerment of Gombe dialect of Fulfulde using multiple evaluative scales, both western and non-western. Prior to placing the dialect on these scales, we collected data from Fulfulde speakers of varied age ranges, all Gombe radio stations and listeners of their Fulfulde programs, using ‘insider’ participant observations, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a proficiency test component (after which both the respondents and the researchers agreed on the proficiency levels of the former) and online surveys. Analysis of the data reveals that the vitality of this code is better viewed relatively rather than absolutely. Its subsequent placement on the evaluative scales only helps to corroborate this. Finally, while our analysis shows that dialects are just as place-able on these evaluative scales as whole languages are (notwithstanding the hitches characterizing the scales), we argue that, with sustained collective efforts, a dialect-focused evaluative framework is likely to be born in the foreseeable future.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2023 1","pages":"193 - 231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42077298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Based on an ethnography incorporating interview, linguistic landscape and observational data, this research illustrates how temporary linguistic value is negotiated and how an Arctic tourism destination is made fit for consumption for a specific audience. Set within a tourism resort in the Finnish Arctic during two weeks in Winter when the region habitually receives a large influx of Russian-speaking visitors, we illustrate how Russian is conceptualized as a means of economic practice by stakeholders in the local tourism industry. While some offer services specifically for a Russian-speaking audience as part of a short-term high-risk/high-reward investment, others regard Russian as an expression of a negative niche market that compromises the overall image of the Arctic as a global tourism destination. We discuss these different understandings of commodity value and highlight, how stakeholders in the local tourism economy imagine and discursively construct Russian-speaking tourists. In doing so, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the conditions of language commodification and the processes involved in the valuation and devaluation of linguistic resources within temporary linguistic markets.
{"title":"Conditions of commodification: Russian as a transient commodity in an Arctic tourism resort","authors":"S. Muth, Maiju Strömmer","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0060","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Based on an ethnography incorporating interview, linguistic landscape and observational data, this research illustrates how temporary linguistic value is negotiated and how an Arctic tourism destination is made fit for consumption for a specific audience. Set within a tourism resort in the Finnish Arctic during two weeks in Winter when the region habitually receives a large influx of Russian-speaking visitors, we illustrate how Russian is conceptualized as a means of economic practice by stakeholders in the local tourism industry. While some offer services specifically for a Russian-speaking audience as part of a short-term high-risk/high-reward investment, others regard Russian as an expression of a negative niche market that compromises the overall image of the Arctic as a global tourism destination. We discuss these different understandings of commodity value and highlight, how stakeholders in the local tourism economy imagine and discursively construct Russian-speaking tourists. In doing so, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the conditions of language commodification and the processes involved in the valuation and devaluation of linguistic resources within temporary linguistic markets.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2023 1","pages":"103 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46851631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study examines how Hong Kong returnees negotiate and construct their transnational identities in their post-sojourn period via two indexical cues, stance taking, and self-labelling. Based on the narratives about remigration, this study investigates how returnees construct their identities discursively by taking stances to evaluate and align with sociocultural values and using self-labelling to index their transnational identities in their post-sojourn period. In doing so, this study hopes to contribute to the existing migration studies on Hong Kong returnees in terms of language and identity construction.
{"title":"Identity construction of Hong Kong returnees: stance taking and self-labelling in narratives","authors":"Hon Leung Clement Chan","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0106","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines how Hong Kong returnees negotiate and construct their transnational identities in their post-sojourn period via two indexical cues, stance taking, and self-labelling. Based on the narratives about remigration, this study investigates how returnees construct their identities discursively by taking stances to evaluate and align with sociocultural values and using self-labelling to index their transnational identities in their post-sojourn period. In doing so, this study hopes to contribute to the existing migration studies on Hong Kong returnees in terms of language and identity construction.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2023 1","pages":"129 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41455303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study aims to reveal the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the necessity of using English as an international language. For this purpose, this study conducted a web survey of Japanese workers, and statistically examined the extent to which the use of English increased or decreased after the outbreak. The findings are as follows. First, although some types of use decreased or increased, the majority did not show substantial changes. Second, the changes in English use were largely influenced by worker factors, such as types of occupation and employment (e.g. it declined typically among sales workers but not among the self-employed and freelancers), the degree of remote working (e.g. not being allowed to work remotely reduced it), and industry (e.g. it declined among workers in accommodation and real estate sectors but increased among public servants). These findings suggest the following implications: (1) non-decline in English use would suggest its resilience as an international language, the necessity of which could endure even in such a global upheaval; and (2) the frequency of using English (and other modes of international communication) is relatively independent of reduced human mobility, but it is largely affected by the economic climate.
{"title":"Does the pandemic hamper or boost the necessity for an international language? A survey on English use frequency among Japanese workers","authors":"Takunori Terasawa","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0122","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aims to reveal the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the necessity of using English as an international language. For this purpose, this study conducted a web survey of Japanese workers, and statistically examined the extent to which the use of English increased or decreased after the outbreak. The findings are as follows. First, although some types of use decreased or increased, the majority did not show substantial changes. Second, the changes in English use were largely influenced by worker factors, such as types of occupation and employment (e.g. it declined typically among sales workers but not among the self-employed and freelancers), the degree of remote working (e.g. not being allowed to work remotely reduced it), and industry (e.g. it declined among workers in accommodation and real estate sectors but increased among public servants). These findings suggest the following implications: (1) non-decline in English use would suggest its resilience as an international language, the necessity of which could endure even in such a global upheaval; and (2) the frequency of using English (and other modes of international communication) is relatively independent of reduced human mobility, but it is largely affected by the economic climate.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2023 1","pages":"161 - 185"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45513436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The rise of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) has prompted concerns over linguistic injustice, educational disadvantage, societal inequality and epistemic homogenization. As EMI tends to generate heated debates, its drivers need to be better understood. Borrowing conceptual frameworks from political science, this article proposes a new understanding of the drivers of EMI, pointing to the introduction of new steering tools in the 1980s to govern Europe’s higher education institutions. Conducting Process Tracing in a Dutch university, and drawing on document analysis and interviews with nine “elite participants” – Ministers of Education, University Rectors, Members of the University Executive Board, Faculty Deans and Programme Leaders – we argue that the very first EMI programme at our case university may be traced back to a set of governance reforms in the Dutch higher education sector that introduced key performance indicators and institutional profiling. Responding to calls for linguists to engage with the political economy, we identify previously under-illuminated links between political processes and EMI. We conclude that close attention to the political economy is key to understanding the rise of EMI, and more generally language shift, and ultimately to tackling linguistic injustice that may follow in its wake.
{"title":"New understandings of the rise of English as a medium of instruction in higher education: the role of key performance indicators and institutional profiling","authors":"A. Hultgren, R. Wilkinson","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0082","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The rise of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) has prompted concerns over linguistic injustice, educational disadvantage, societal inequality and epistemic homogenization. As EMI tends to generate heated debates, its drivers need to be better understood. Borrowing conceptual frameworks from political science, this article proposes a new understanding of the drivers of EMI, pointing to the introduction of new steering tools in the 1980s to govern Europe’s higher education institutions. Conducting Process Tracing in a Dutch university, and drawing on document analysis and interviews with nine “elite participants” – Ministers of Education, University Rectors, Members of the University Executive Board, Faculty Deans and Programme Leaders – we argue that the very first EMI programme at our case university may be traced back to a set of governance reforms in the Dutch higher education sector that introduced key performance indicators and institutional profiling. Responding to calls for linguists to engage with the political economy, we identify previously under-illuminated links between political processes and EMI. We conclude that close attention to the political economy is key to understanding the rise of EMI, and more generally language shift, and ultimately to tackling linguistic injustice that may follow in its wake.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2022 1","pages":"47 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44967717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Since the early 2000s, the government of Kazakhstan has been promoting educational reforms in higher education including introducing English-medium instruction (EMI), trilingual education (education in Kazakh, Russian, and English), and requirements of students and faculty to publish in impact factor. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to use the lenses of political economy and linguistic justice to interpret interview data from students, faculty, and administrators of six Kazakhstani universities implementing trilingual education. These data show that some stakeholders believe English is the language of science, and it is therefore necessary to read, study, and publish in English. Competing voices argue that privileging English will lead to a loss of knowledge from local scholars who are not proficient in English. The data indicate that stakeholders believe the pursuit of EMI and English academic publishing may achieve the goals of global competitiveness and economic development under a political lens, but at a cost to the linguistic justice of languages other than English and speakers of those languages.
{"title":"Both necessary and irrelevant: political economy and linguistic injustice of English in higher education in Kazakhstan","authors":"Bridget A. Goodman, A. Kambatyrova","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2021-0074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0074","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the early 2000s, the government of Kazakhstan has been promoting educational reforms in higher education including introducing English-medium instruction (EMI), trilingual education (education in Kazakh, Russian, and English), and requirements of students and faculty to publish in impact factor. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to use the lenses of political economy and linguistic justice to interpret interview data from students, faculty, and administrators of six Kazakhstani universities implementing trilingual education. These data show that some stakeholders believe English is the language of science, and it is therefore necessary to read, study, and publish in English. Competing voices argue that privileging English will lead to a loss of knowledge from local scholars who are not proficient in English. The data indicate that stakeholders believe the pursuit of EMI and English academic publishing may achieve the goals of global competitiveness and economic development under a political lens, but at a cost to the linguistic justice of languages other than English and speakers of those languages.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2022 1","pages":"77 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43544472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The global spread of English and its impact on the pursuit of linguistic justice has been a topic of concern for scholars in a wide range of different fields in the humanities and social sciences. Firmly convinced of the usefulness of cross-field collaboration to advance our understanding of the expansion of English globally, in this special issue we bring together experts in sociolinguistics and political theory with two goals in mind: (1) to illustrate, empirically, its consequences for speakers in situated contexts; and (2) to propose potential normative responses to the global spread of English. In order to frame the overarching theme of the special issue, and to show our stance as guest editors in connection to global English, in this opening piece we develop a critique to Philippe Van Parijs’ notion of linguistic justice. In particular, we take issue with his vision that promoting English as a global lingua franca is a good idea in order to enhance everyone’s equality of opportunities (e.g., in the labour market). We question such an assumption from both a theoretical and empirical point of view, and argue that having equal access to English is not sufficient to equalize everyone’s opportunities.
{"title":"Linguistic justice and global English: theoretical and empirical approaches","authors":"J. Soler, Sergi Morales-Gálvez","doi":"10.1515/ijsl-2022-0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2022-0026","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The global spread of English and its impact on the pursuit of linguistic justice has been a topic of concern for scholars in a wide range of different fields in the humanities and social sciences. Firmly convinced of the usefulness of cross-field collaboration to advance our understanding of the expansion of English globally, in this special issue we bring together experts in sociolinguistics and political theory with two goals in mind: (1) to illustrate, empirically, its consequences for speakers in situated contexts; and (2) to propose potential normative responses to the global spread of English. In order to frame the overarching theme of the special issue, and to show our stance as guest editors in connection to global English, in this opening piece we develop a critique to Philippe Van Parijs’ notion of linguistic justice. In particular, we take issue with his vision that promoting English as a global lingua franca is a good idea in order to enhance everyone’s equality of opportunities (e.g., in the labour market). We question such an assumption from both a theoretical and empirical point of view, and argue that having equal access to English is not sufficient to equalize everyone’s opportunities.","PeriodicalId":52428,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of the Sociology of Language","volume":"2022 1","pages":"1 - 16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48617900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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