Marching forward into the past
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Yael Peled
Abstract
Our contemporary idea of ‘monolingual multilingualism’ is rooted not only in the policy practices of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, but also in its intellectual history. The intellectual origins of this conception could be identified in the political writings of three philosophers who sought to reconcile linguistic diversity with social and political unity and the ethical requirements of a democratic polity: Johann Gottfried Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. Their shared preference for state monolingualism resonates today in recent work on language ethics in contemporary political theory. The chapter explores the link between language ethics in intellectual history and its contemporary theorising, and the problematic interpretation of ‘linguistic’ that guides it.
Abstract
Our contemporary idea of ‘monolingual multilingualism’ is rooted not only in the policy practices of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, but also in its intellectual history. The intellectual origins of this conception could be identified in the political writings of three philosophers who sought to reconcile linguistic diversity with social and political unity and the ethical requirements of a democratic polity: Johann Gottfried Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. Their shared preference for state monolingualism resonates today in recent work on language ethics in contemporary political theory. The chapter explores the link between language ethics in intellectual history and its contemporary theorising, and the problematic interpretation of ‘linguistic’ that guides it.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Multilingualism in a standard language culture 1
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I. Theoretical considerations and historical background
- Myths we live and speak by 45
- Marching forward into the past 71
- Language and ethnicity in a European context 97
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II. Case-studies
- Multilingual speakers in a monolingual society 127
- Multilingualism and standardization in Greece 153
- The development of Finnish into a national language 179
- Traces of monolingual and plurilingual ideologies in the history of language policies in France 205
- Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the sociolinguistic configuration of the Iberian Peninsula 231
- Dutch in Belgium 259
- The Caucasus 283
- Multilingualism and the disputed standardizations of Macedonian and Moldovan 309
- Name index 329
- Language index 331
- Index of geographical names 333
- Subject index 335
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Multilingualism in a standard language culture 1
-
I. Theoretical considerations and historical background
- Myths we live and speak by 45
- Marching forward into the past 71
- Language and ethnicity in a European context 97
-
II. Case-studies
- Multilingual speakers in a monolingual society 127
- Multilingualism and standardization in Greece 153
- The development of Finnish into a national language 179
- Traces of monolingual and plurilingual ideologies in the history of language policies in France 205
- Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the sociolinguistic configuration of the Iberian Peninsula 231
- Dutch in Belgium 259
- The Caucasus 283
- Multilingualism and the disputed standardizations of Macedonian and Moldovan 309
- Name index 329
- Language index 331
- Index of geographical names 333
- Subject index 335
