(Socio)linguistics seen through an Inventory of World Languages
Calvet, Louis-Jean
(Socio)linguistics seen through an Inventory of World Languages - 2007.
7
How many languages are spoken around the globe? How many people speak each of them? What are their names? How much do they "weigh"? These "simple" questions and the way we try to answer them allow us to reconsider the analytical tools that (socio)linguists have at their disposal to account for the complexity and the confusion that typify human communication in the era of globalization. As empirical and/or scientific objects, as collective facts permeating individual praxis, "languages" represent epistemological problems that sometimes baffle the science supposed to describe them. To the point that it sometimes looks as if it has got its tongue!
(Socio)linguistics seen through an Inventory of World Languages - 2007.
7
How many languages are spoken around the globe? How many people speak each of them? What are their names? How much do they "weigh"? These "simple" questions and the way we try to answer them allow us to reconsider the analytical tools that (socio)linguists have at their disposal to account for the complexity and the confusion that typify human communication in the era of globalization. As empirical and/or scientific objects, as collective facts permeating individual praxis, "languages" represent epistemological problems that sometimes baffle the science supposed to describe them. To the point that it sometimes looks as if it has got its tongue!
Réseaux sociaux