| Description |
1 online resource (423 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; Preface; 1 Introduction: the global language system; 1.1 The global language system: a galaxy of languages; 1.2 A historical atlas of the world as a language system; 1.3 Supercentral constellations in the present language system; 1.4 Scope and approach of this book; 1.5 Plan of the book; 2 The political economy of language constellations; 2.1 Languages as 'hypercollective goods'; 2.2 The communication potential of a language: the Q-value; 3 Language, culture and the unequal exchange of texts; 3.1 Texts as commodities in international exchange |
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3.2 Protectionism and free trade in cultural exchange3.3 Monoglossia, polyglossia and heteroglossia; 3.4 Discussion; 4 India: the rivalry between Hindi and English; 4.1 Characterization of the Indian constellation; 4.2 State formation, nation-building and language unification; 4.3 The vicissitudes of language policy in India; 4.4 Discussion; 5 The triumph of bahasa Indonesia; 5.1 Gandhi's dream; 5.2 The rise of Malay; 5.3 The demise of Dutch; 5.4 The rejection of Javanese; 5.5 Discussion; 6 Africa: the persistence of the colonial languages; 6.1 A two-by-three comparison |
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6.2 Three francophone constellations south of the Sahara6.3 Three English-centred constellations south of the Sahara; 7 South Africa: the survival of the old language regime; 7.1 The language regime under Apartheid; 7.2 Language policy after Apartheid; 7.3 The dynamics of the constellation; 7.4 Discussion; 8 The European Union: the more languages, the more English; 8.1 Civil Europe (1): language unification in national constellations; 8.2 Civil Europe (2): Q-values in the European Union; 8.3 Institutional Europe (1): the public level; 8.4 Institutional Europe (2): the bureaucracy |
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8.5 Discussion9 Conclusions and considerations; 9.1 Conclusions; 9.2 Considerations; Notes; References; Index |
| Summary |
This bold and accessible study of human languages and communication explores issues which are at the forefront of today's globalized society. The human species is divided into more than five thousand language groups that do not understand each other. And yet these groups constitute one coherent world language system, connected by multilingual speakers in a surprisingly powerful way. The chances of a language thriving depend on its position in the system. There are thousands of small, peripheral languages, each connected to one of a hundred central languages. The entire system is he |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Language and languages -- Philosophy.
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Language policy.
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English language -- Foreign countries.
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English language -- Foreign countries
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Language and languages -- Philosophy
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Language policy
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780745663463 |
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074566346X |
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