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Is English Appropriate for a Global Language? ⇐ ПредыдущаяСтр 5 из 5
Some have also argued that there are other intrinsic features of the English language that set it apart, and make it an appropriate choice as a global language, and it may be worthwhile investigating some of these claims: · The richness and depth of English's vocabulary sets it apart from other languages. The 1989 revised " Oxford English Dictionary" lists 615, 000 words in 20 volumes, officially the world’s largest dictionary. If technical and scientific words were to be included, the total would rise to well over a million. By some estimates, the English lexicon is currently increasing by over 8, 500 words a year, although other estimates put this as high as 15, 000 to 20, 000. It is estimated that about 200, 000 English words are in common use, as compared to 184, 000 in German, and mere 100, 000 in French. The availability of large numbers of synonyms allows shades of distinction that are just not available to non-English speakers and, although other languages have books of synonyms, none has anything on quite the scale of " Roget’s Thesaurus". Add to this the wealth of English idioms and phrases, and the available material with which to express meaning is truly prodigious, whether the intention is poetry, business or just everyday conversation. · It is a very flexible language. · Its grammar is generally simpler than most languages. · Some would also claim that it is also a relatively simple language in terms of spelling and pronunciation, although this claim is perhaps more contentious. Some argue that the cosmopolitan character of English (from its adoption of thousands of words from other languages with which it came into contact) gives it a feeling of familiarity and welcoming compared to many other languages (such as French, for example, which has tried its best to keep out other languages). · Despite a tendency towards jargon, English is generally reasonably concise compared to many languages, as can be seen in the length of translations (a notable exception is Hebrew translations, which are usually shorter than their English equivalents by up to a third). It is also less prone to misunderstandings due to cultural subtleties than, say, Japanese, which is almost impossible to simultaneously translate for that reason. · The absence of coding for social differences (common in many other languages which distinguish between formal and informal verb forms and sometimes other more complex social distinctions) may make English seem more democratic and remove some of the potential stress associated with language-generated social blunders. · The extent and quality of English literature throughout history marks it as a language of culture and class. As a result, it carries with it a certain legitimacy, substance and gravitas that few other languages can match. On balance, though, the intrinsic appeal of English as a world language is probably overblown and specious, and largely based on chauvinism ornaï veté. It is unlikely that linguistic factors are of great importance in a language's rise to the status of world language, and English's position today is almost entirely due to the aforementioned political and economic factors. WHY study ENGLISH? } Historical reasons } Internal political reasons } External political reasons } Practical reasons } Intellectual reasons } Entertainment reasons } The Internet What About The Future? Although English currently appears to be in an unassailable position in the modern world, its future as a global language is not necessarily assured. There are two competing drives to take into account: the pressure for international intelligibility, and the pressure to preserve national identity. It is possible that a natural balance may be achieved between the two, but it should also be recognized that the historical loyalties of British ex-colonies have been largely replaced by pragmatic utilitarian reasoning. Even today, there is a certain amount of resentment in some countries towards the cultural dominance of English, and particularly of the USA. As has been discussed, there is a close link between language and power. The USA, with its huge dominance in economic, technical and cultural terms, is the driving force behind English in the world today. perhaps the only possible candidate for such a replacement would be China, but it is not that difficult to imagine circumstances in which it could happen. A change in population (and population growth) trends may prove to be an influential factor. The increasing Hispanic population of the USA has, in the opinion of some commentators, already begun a dilution of the “Englishness” of the country, which may in turn have repercussions for the status of the English language abroad. Hispanic and Latino Americans have accounted for almost half of America’s population growth in recent years, and their share of the population is expected to increase from about 16% today to around 30% by 2050 Language death In linguistics, language death (also language extinction, linguistic extinction orlinguicide, and rarely also glottophagy) is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety. Language death may affect any language idiom, including dialects and languages. Language death should not be confused with language attrition (also called language loss) which describes the loss of proficiency in a language at the individual level. Types of language death Language death may manifest itself in one of the following ways: · gradual language death · bottom-to-top language death: when language change begins in a low-level environment such as the home. · top-to-bottom language death: when language change begins in a high-level environment such as the government. · radical language death · linguicide (Also known as sudden death, language by genocide, physical language death, biological language death) The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language until they cease to use their original (or heritage) language. This is a process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population Languages with a small, geographically isolated population of speakers can also die when their speakers are wiped out by genocide, disease, or natural disaster. A language is often declared to be dead even before the last native speaker of the language has died. If there are only a few elderly speakers of a language remaining, and they no longer use that language for communication, then the language is effectively dead. A language that has reached such a reduced stage of use is generally considered moribund. Once a language is no longer anative language - that is, if no children are being socialised into it as their primary language - the process of transmission is ended and the language itself will not survive past the current generation. Language death can be fast, when the children are taught to avoid their parents' language for reasons such as work opportunities and social status. At other times, minority languages survive much better, for example when the speakers try to isolate themselves against a majority population. Often, especially historically, governments have tried to promote language death, not wishing to have minority languages.
Вопросы к зачету:
1What does sociolinguistics study? 2What is the ligiustic variable? 3 Regional dialects and isoglosses 4Social dialects 5Accent 6 The register/Ideolect 7 Diaglossia 8 Speech community 9 Code switching 10 Types of code switching 11 Female genderlect 12Male genderlect 13Gender neutral language 14 Constructed languages 15Language planning 16 Language ideology 17 Language death 18 Global language 19 The history of the English l- ge 20 World Englishes
Темы рефератов к зачету 1. The history of the English l- ge 2. Standard English 3. Received pronunciation 4. British slang 5. Irish English 6. Welsh Ehglish 7. Scottish Engish 8. Cockney Dialect 9. Amirican English 10. American dialects 11. American slang 12. Canadian English 13. English in New Zealand 14. English in Australia 15. Indian English 16. Ebonics 17. African English 18. Pakistan English 19. Esperanto 20. Sign languages
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