IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE IMPOSSIBLE? Writing an article title with much confidence, Marc Ettlinger gives us a brief article: “Here’s Why The World Can Never Have One Universal Language” His answer is two parts, and both of them are basically wrong. The first, So, the first part of the answer is that the general tendency is for languages to propagate and diverge. This is his most critical error. Ettlinger has mis-characterized the nature of linguistic processes. He pays lip service to but ultimately ignores the processes of globalization and the tendency for technology to homogenize the world into a global culture. Languages are converging, but he wants us to look the other way. Instead, he says that languages “change”. Bull. We know that languages don’t merely “change”. They EVOLVE. They are part of this world, and this is an evolving world in which changes do not happen merely randomly and without purpose, but as part of emerging processes of a vast and often poorly-understood nature. The term “cultural evolution” is anathema in those parts of academia ruled by postmodern ideology, however. Ettlinger picks the word “change” precisely, I’m sure, to avoid the connotation that there is some Hegelian Geist at work behind the scenes, secretly stacking the deck in favor of English and simplified Mandarin or whatever the case may be. But he does not argue his case for haphazard, happenstance “change”. He only assumes it, presumably because of his commitment to the ideology of irreducible pluralism. This is a common trope of contemporary linguists. I am convinced of that “evolution” is the better word for characterizing language transformations, but it might take some time for me to convince you if you are not already inclined to agree. As this blog unfolds, I’ll continue to share evidence showing how “evolve” is the more accurate term than “change”. But the question of “changes” versus “evolution” is not an empirical one so much as an ideological one. If you are a disciple of the irreducible pluralism of postmodernism, then you will never use a term that threatens the very premises of your work and threatens your academic standing. joe-perez/blog/is-a-universal-language-impossible/
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:17:11 +0000
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