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1. WHY A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
A language achieves a global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. Of all modern languages, not one has acquired such great strenght and vigour as English. This is why we say that English is a GLOBAL LANGUAGE.
To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities. There are 2 main ways in which this can be done:
Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country , to be used as a medium of communication in such domains as government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system. ➔ English has some kind of special status in over seventy countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, India, Singapore and Vanuatu.
Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign- language teaching , even though this language has no official status. It becomes the language which children are most likely to be taught when they arrive in school. ➔ English is now the language most widely taught as a foreign language in over 100 countries, such as China, Russia, Germany, Spain, Egypt and Brazil.
Such a language is often described as a ‘ second language ’, because it is seen as a complement to a person’s mother tongue, or ‘first language’. We need to make a distinction between first, second and foreign language.
- The distinction between second and foreign language This distinction is not based only on fluency or ability. We might expect people from a country where English has an official status to be more competent than those where it has none, but it turns out that it is not always so.
- The distinction between first-language speakers and the others First language speakers are not always native speakers. Sometimes children have parents who communicate with each other through a lingua franca learned as a foreign language and then they may decide to bring up their child with that language as the primary language of the home. Even though the baby is learning the language as its mother tongue, when he grows up he will notice that there are some differences between his language and the one used by native speakers.
WHAT MAKES A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
A language has traditionally become an internation language not because a great number of people speak it. It rather depends on who those speakers are. It depends on the power of those people , especially their political and military power. ➔ Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire , but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the others. They were simply more powerful. ➔ Greek became an internation language because of the power of Alexander The Great. *Some people have even associated English to Greek.
Other theories were made about why English has become so widespread. Some have suggested that 'It is easier to learn' for several reasons:
- It has less grammar , so it is easier in its grammatical constructions;
- The paucity of inflections , that is, English doesn’t have a lot of endings on its words;
- The absence of the gender , so we don't have to remember the difference between masculine, feminine, and neuter gender.
This theory is incorrect, because:
✗ Latin was once a major international language, despite its many inflectional endings and gender differences. ✗ Ease of learning has nothing to do with it either, because children of all cultures learn to talk over more or less the same period of time, regardless of the differences in the grammar of their languages.
In conclusion:
➢ A language does not become a global language because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion. These are all factors which can motivate someone to learn a language, but none of them can ensure a language’s world spread. ➢ Such factors cannot even guarantee the survival of the language, as in the case of Latin, which is learned today as a classical language by only a few people in school. ➢ Inconvenient structural properties (such as many inflectional endings, etc.) do not stop a language from achieving an international status either.
WHAT ARE THE DANGERS OF A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
LINGUISTIC POWER
Those who have a global language at their disposal or have it as a mother- tongue will be more able to think and work quickly with it, so they will automatically be in a position of power compared to those who have to learn it as a foreign language, creating an élite monolingual class. BUT If a global language is taught since birth, and if it is maintained continuously, people can develop bilingualism and have the same knowledge of a native speaker. Although it depends on financial factors, there is a solution that allows us to avoid this disadvantage.
LINGUISTIC COMPLACENCY
The presence of a global language may make people lazy about learning other languages , or reduce their opportunities to do so. This is more a question of interest and state of mind rather than a question of ability, but this lack of interest might well be fostered by the increasing presence of English as a global language.
LINGUISTIC DEATH
Perhaps a global language will hasten the disappearance of minority languages , or even make all other languages unnecessary. Many languages have died through time and, in many of these cases, the death has been caused by an ethnic group being assimilated within a more dominant society and adopting its language. Nowadays it is not easy to see how the arrival of English as a global language could directly influence the future of many other minority languages. But it is more likely to happen in those areas where English became the dominant first language, such as in North America, Australia and the Celtic parts of the British Isles.
It might also happen that the emergence of a global language can influence the structure of other languages – especially by providing several loan-words. Such influences can be both considered as a positive or negative thing, as in the case of French. → It is now illegal to use an English word where a French word already exists, even though the English term is very widespread. E.G. 'Computer' instead of 'ordinateur'.
COULD ANYTHING STOP A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
- If language dominance is a matter of political and especially economic influence, a revolution in the balance of global power could have consequences for the choice of global language.
- An alternative method of communication could emerge which would eliminate the need for a global language. E.G. Machine translation could be used to allow people to communicate directly using their first languages while a computer translates.
4. WHY ENGLISH? THE CULTURAL LEGACY
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The League of Nations – that later was replaced by the United Nations – was the first of many modern international alliances to use English in its proceedings: English and French were the two official languages, and all documents were printed in both.
These kind of alliances have international gatherings in all parts of the world and the importance of a lingua franca is obvious.
- Some of these associations use only English to carry on their affairs.
- Others do not write their proceedings in English, but the statements that they make to the world media usually are expressed in English.
English has a different role at meetings where a large number of nations participate and it is hard to find translators and interpreters for all language pairs (English/French, Spanish/French, etc.).
➔ SOLUTION: RELAY SYSTEM E.G. If there is no French/Spanish translator, one person translates from French into English and then another one translates the result from English into Spanish. Any language can be used, but English seems to be most often employed in the relay system.
NEWS REPORT
One of the most common type of text in the press is the news report , that is, a short text that speaks about events that have occurred since the last edition of the newspaper. Its structure consists of:
- HEADLINE (+eventually a subheadline) It indicates the topic of the report and should attract the reader's attention. *There is a wide use of NOMINALIZATION , that occurs when nouns derive from verbs or adjectives.
• ATTRIBUTION
The name of the news agency or the journalist who wrote the article and eventually an indication of time and place.
• LEAD
A summary of the story.
• THE MAIN BODY
Explanation of the events.
ADVERTISING
Towards the end of the 19th century, a combination of social and economic factors led to a dramatic increase in the use of advertisements , especially in the more industrialized countries. Firstly in the USA, publishers realized that income from advertising would allow them to lower the selling price of their magazines, increasing their circulation.
The spread of advertising increased and its main features were the trade name and the slogan.
As international market grew, the 'outdoor media' , such as posters, electric displays, shop signs , and other techniques became part of the everyday scene all around the world. The English advertisements are not always more numerous in countries where English has no special status, but they are usually the most noticeable.
BROADCASTING
English was the first language to be transmitted by radio, when US physicist Reginald A. Fessenden broadcast music, poetry, and a short talk to Atlantic shipping from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA , on Christmas Eve 1906.
In Britain, experimental broadcasts were being made until the foundation of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in 1922.
- It was a monopoly, that is, no other broadcasting company was allowed.
- In contrast with the USA, its revenue did not come from advertising, but from royalties and a public licence.
- It offered a public-service, to inform and entertain, that became highly influential also abroad.
THE DISCOURSE OF RADIO COMMERCIALS
Commercials use an exhortative or persuasive discourse. Persuasion is usually achieved through images and pictures, but in the case of radio commercials the only tool is language reinforced by the use of music.
The linguistic traits that recur most often in radio commercials are:
• HIGH PITCH TONE
The alteration of the speaker's voice quality.
• EMPHATIC STRESS
Exaggerating the pronunciation of specific words. These are called key words, that are usually brand-names of the products advertised, but also address the audience's needs.
• LEGHTENING OF VOWELS
Unusual pronunciation of words that suggest a cheap purchase, such as free, discount , etc.
• SHORT AND INDEPENDENT CLAUSES
The shortness and simplicity of the clauses is necessary since radio commercials usually do not last more than 30 seconds. It also helps the audience to process the message quickly.
• ELLIPSIS
Leaving out words unsaid for the hearers to fill out, so that it will suit everyone's needs the best.
The basic unit of discourse is the UTTERANCE , that is the equivalent of a speech act and it consists of one or more tone units. ➔ A TONE UNIT is a stretch of speech uttered under a single intonation and it is usually marked by cues , such as a pause, a shift, the lenghtening of a syllable , etc.
Every transcription of an oral production – as in the case of movie scripts – should indicate text division in tone units and eventually their cues. E.G. Give me \those. 'Those' is a single tone unit and it is the tonic syllable, so before it we may find a \ (backslash).
