Towards an Ecology of World Languages

Louis-Jean Calvet, Andrew Brown (Translated by)

ISBN: 978-0-7456-2955-1

Hardcover

304 pages

June 2006, Polity

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Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION: practices and representations
1. The ecology of languages
The need for identity and its linguistic
manifestations: endogenous and exogenous
relexifications
The graphic environment
Dramatic change in a specific linguistic ecology: the example of Australia
The political frontier and the ecolinguistic system
The influence of the horse on European languages 98
A false conception of linguistic ecology: Bickerton's
simulation project
Conclusions
2. The galaxy of languages
Constellations of languages
The galactic model and linguistic policy:
the example of the European Community
The Hindi constellation
The Bambara constellation
The galaxy of writing systems
Conclusions
3. Regulation and change: the homeostatic model
An example of internal regulation: vernacular variants of French
Of ships and languages: from Christopher Columbus to lingua franca
Vernacularization as ecological acclimatization:varieties of French in Africa
African argots and the ecolinguistic niche; the example of Bukavu
Conclusions: acclimatization and acclimatation
4. Linguistic representations and change
Linguistic insecurity and representations: a historical approach
Some theoretical problems: a first approach
Some problems of description
Conclusions
5. Transmission and change
The transmission of first languages and the myth of the mother tongue
The case of creoles: upheaval in the ecolinguistic niche and linguistic change
The transmission of gravitational systems
Conclusion: evolution and revolution
6. Five case studies
One name for several languages: Arabic schizoglossia Several names for one language: the example
of Kituba
One, two or three languages? The example of Serbo-Croat
Kraemer: the invention of French in the socioprofessional context
An ecological niche: the Island of St-Barthélemy
CONCLUSION: Inventing language, giving it a name
Notes
Bibliography
Index