Chapter published in:

The Politics of Multilingualism: Europeanisation, globalisation and linguistic governance
Edited by Peter A. Kraus and François Grin
[Studies in World Language Problems 6] 2018
► pp. 89–109

Chapter 5. From glossophagic hegemony to multilingual pluralism?

Re-assessing the politics of linguistic identity in Europe

Peter A. Kraus | University of Augsburg

The chapter assesses the politics of multilingualism in contemporary Europe by focusing on the role of options and ligatures in the framing of linguistic identities. Whereas nation-state construction mostly entailed the establishment of monolingual spaces that should make for a convergence of linguistic ligatures and linguistic options, the emergence of new transnational settings at different levels is contributing to an increasing disconnection between language-as-an-option and language-as-a-ligature that affects not only minority, but also majority, members. This dynamic may have important implications for how demands for linguistic recognition are articulated by different groups.

Keywords: English, ligatures, linguistic identity, linguistic nationalism, Humboldt, identity, immigration, options, recognition, self-categorisation, migration, nation, nationalism, Allardt, cities, Taylor, Fishman, glossophagia, complex diversity, Dahrendorf, diglossia

Published online: 10 September 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.6.05kra

References

Allardt, Erik

(1979) Implications of the Ethnic Revival in Modern, Industrialized Society. A Comparative Study of the Linguistic Minorities in Western Europe (Commentationes Scientiarum Socialium 12). Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.

Anderson, Benedict

(1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised edition. London: Verso Books.

Breton, Raymond

(1964) “Instititutional Completeness of Ethnic Communities and the Personal Relations of Immigrants”, American Journal of Sociology, 70 (2): 193–205.

Burke, Peter

(2004) Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Calhoun, Craig

(ed.) (1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.

Calvet, Louis-Jean

(1974) Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glossophagie. Paris: Payot.

Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Peter A. Kraus

(2005) “Transnational Communication and the European Demos”, in: Robert Latham and Saskia Sassen (eds), Digital Formations: Information Technology and New Architectures in the Global Realm, pp. 283–311. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Coulmas, Florian

(1985) Sprache und Staat: Studien zur Sprachplanung und Sprachpolitik. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Dahrendorf, Ralf

(1979) Life Chances: Approaches to Social and Political Theory. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.

Deutsch, Karl W.

(1966) Nationalism and Social Communication. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.

Deutscher, Guy

(2010) Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World. London: William Heinemann

Eisenstadt, Shmuel N.

(1999) Fundamentalism, Sectarianism and Revolution: The Jacobin Dimensions of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fishman, Joshua A.

(1967) “Bilingualism with and without Diglossia; Diglossia with and without Bilingualism”, Journal of Social Issues, 23 (2): 29–38.

(1971) “The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society”, in: Joshua A. Fishman (ed.), Advances in the Sociology of Language, Vol. I, pp. 217–404. The Hague: Mouton.

(1980) “Bilingualism and Biculturism as Individual and as Societal Phenomena”, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1 (1): 3–15.

Geary, Patrick J.

(2001) The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gellner, Ernest

(1983) Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.

Giddens, Anthony

(1985) The Nation-State and Violence. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Habermas, Jürgen

[1962] (1990) Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, new edition. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.

Hroch, Miroslav

(1985) Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

von Humboldt, Wilhelm

(1836) Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluß auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts. Berlin: Druckerei der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Jacob, James E., and David C. Gordon

(1985) “Language Policy in France”, in: William R. Beer and James E. Jacob (eds), Language Policy and National Unity, pp. 106–33. Totowa NJ: Rowman & Allanheld.

Judis, John B.

(2016) The Populist Explosion. New York: Columbia Global Reports.

Kraus, Peter A.

(2008) A Union of Diversity: Language, Identity and Polity-Building in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(2011a) “The Multilingual City: the Cases of Helsinki and Barcelona”, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 1 (1): 25–36.

(2011b) “Neither United nor Diverse? The Language Issue and Political Legitimation in the European Union”. in: Anne Lise Kjær and Silvia Adamo (eds), Linguistic Diversity and European Democracy, pp. 17–33. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

(2012) “The Politics of Complex Diversity: A European Perspective”, Ethnicities, 12 (1): 3–25.

Kraus, Peter A., and Rūta Kazlauskaitė-Gürbüz

(2014) “Addressing Linguistic Diversity in the European Union: Strategies and Dilemmas”, Ethnicities, 14 (4): 517–538.

Laponce, Jean A.

(1987) Languages and their Territories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Maas, Utz

(1989) Sprachpolitik und politische Sprachwissenschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.

Mann, Michael

(2005) The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

May, Stephen

(2012) Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language. Second Edition. New York: Routledge.

Patten, Alan

(2014) Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundation of Minority Rights. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Phillipson, Robert

(2003) English-Only Europe? Challenging Language Policy. London: Routledge.

Portes, Alejandro, and Lingxin Hao

(2002) “The Price of Uniformity: Language, Family and Personality Adjustment in the Immigrant Second Generation”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25 (6): 889–912.

Spiegel Online

(2011) “1000 Fragen: Wie sterben Sprachen?”, available at: www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/wissen/0,1518,777771,00.html, last accessed 6 September 2017.

Szeverényi, Sándor, and Beáta Wagner-Nagy

(2011) “Visiting the Nganasans in Ust-Avam”, in: Riho Grünthal and Magdolna Kovács (eds), Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities, pp. 385–404. Helsinki: University of Helsinki/Finno-Ugrian Society.

Taylor, Charles

(1992) Multiculturalism and “The Politics of Recognition”. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

(2016) The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Therborn, Göran

(1995) European Modernity and Beyond: The Trajectory of European Societies, 1945–2000. London: SAGE Publications.

Trabant, Jürgen

(2014) Globalesisch oder was? Ein Plädoyer für Europas Sprachen. Munich: Beck.

Tully, James

(2008) Public Philosophy in a New Key, Vol. II: Imperialism and Civic Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van Parijs, Philippe

(2011) Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vertovec, Steve

(2009) Transnationalism. London: Routledge.

Weber, Max

[1922] (1980) Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 5th edition. Tübingen: Mohr.