[Edit] Performative writing
The above ideas have influenced performative writing; they are used as a justification for an attempt to create a new form of critical writing about performance (often about performance art). Such a writing form is claimed to be, in itself, a form of performance. It is said to more accurately reflect the fleeting and ephemeral nature of a performance, and the various tricks of memory and referentiality that happen in the mind of the viewer during and after the performance.
[Edit] Sources
Austin, J.L. How to Do Things with Words Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. ISBN 0-19-824553-X
Andersson, Jan S. How to define 'Performative'. Stockholm: Libertryck. 1975
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English is spreading, changing other languages and being changed by them – in Internet time. |
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We are the world. Not everyone is thrilled. Paul Johnson, Forbes Magazine columnist explains:
The French educational world is convulsed by a report on the future of its school system. A commission headed by education expert Claude Thélot has recommended that the teaching of English be mandatory in all French schools and that it be accorded the same importance as the French language and mathematics. The commission takes the position that English is now the "language of international communication" and that French young people must be taught to speak and write it fluently.
Another report on the level of knowledge of English attained by youngsters in eight European countries gives France the lowest rating, claiming the French actually regressed between 1996 and 2002. The Spanish, traditionally the least polyglot of western European nationalities, are now doing better than the French. Under a 1990 law, all Spanish schoolchildren are now taught a foreign language (98% choose English) from the age of 8 and in some regions start at 6. In the Madrid region there are 26 bilingual schools and colleges in which courses--with the exception of Spanish literature and mathematics--are taught in English; by 2007 there will be 110.
Unlike the Americans and British, who simply allow the spread of English to take its course, the French have spent billions on promoting their language in French-speaking territories in Africa and the Pacific. Pushed by the Académie Française, the French government has imposed sanctions on officials or agencies financed by taxes that are found using Americanisms or English phrases where a French equivalent exists. Some French parliamentarians have raised an angry fuss over the Olympic Games' press conferences being held in English and over a recent report by the European Central Bank to the European Parliament given in English. It was not so long ago that the EU Secretary-General, when asked why he invariably gave press conferences in French (with no translation), replied: "Because French is the language of diplomacy," adding, under his breath, "and civilization." Recently the academician Maurice Druon, together with a group of elderly French lawyers, demanded that French be made the judicial language of Europe.
Professor Claude Hagège of the Collège de France has come to agree with the idea of teaching English in French primary schools but only if another language is taught at the same time. Both Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Minister of Education François Fillon support the proposal to make teaching English mandatory. However, Jacques Chirac--who hates the spread of English--has made what he sees as a high-minded plea for cultural diversity and the richness of language. "Nothing," he says, "would be worse for humanity than to move toward a situation where we speak only one language." That's an odd statement coming from a man committed to an EU in which the harmonization process is being extended to all laws and administration that have the slightest impact on economies and whose aim is the "United States of Europe."
Must not a superstate of a score of nations have a common language? The Germans, the principal allies of the French in the EU, have allowed English to replace French as their country's second language in schools and in business. Indeed, some German firms with big export interests already hold board meetings in English. They find it "more convenient." That is also an increasing practice in Sweden and the Netherlands.
The Inevitable Spread
As the author of more than 40 books--most of which have been translated, some into as many as 30 languages--I have some insight into the process whereby English spreads. The Dutch and the Swedes no longer bother to bring out local-language editions of my books. However, some languages present particular problems. There have to be two Portuguese-language editions, one translation done in Lisbon for Portugal proper, another in Rio de Janeiro for Brazil, evidence of strong linguistic bifurcation. The same happens with Spanish--one translation in Madrid for Spain, another in Buenos Aires for Latin America. For China there have to be three editions: one Big Letter, one Small Letter and one for Hong Kong.
Languages are things of beauty. But linguistics students know perfectly well that language cannot be dictated by elites ruling from above. It is the one naturally democratic force in the world--surging up from below. That is why French schoolchildren, no matter what the Académie Française orders, say "Yeah" instead of "Oui." As for the further spread of English, much will depend on what happens in India, a subcontinent of countless languages and dialects. The British promoted Hindi as a common language for India. But under mid-19th-century reforms, English was promulgated as the language of administration. Educated Indians today speak and write English fluently, and it is spreading faster in India than in any other country. Indians, even those from poor families, recognize English to be their passport to affluence, not least through telephonic outsourcing. Today millions earn their living by speaking English.
India will soon be the world's most populous country. By 2050 India, with a population of 1.6 billion, will have overtaken China (1.4 billion). If India becomes a predominantly English-speaking country, as I expect will happen, China will have to follow suit or risk relegation. There are high stakes in the global language game. But there's not much we can do about it. Events will take their course. Everyone should calm down--and learn English.
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INCONSISTENT LANGUAGE POLICY CREATES PROBLEMS IN UKRAINE
By Oleg Varfolomeyev
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
The Party of Regions (PRU), which strengthened its grip on Ukraine's Russophone east and south after the March 26 parliamentary election, continues to probe the government's weaknesses, challenging it on the sensitive issue of language. The PRU-dominated Donetsk regional council has followed the example of the PRU-dominated Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sevastopol councils, approving regional-language status for Russian. The government, in response, threatened to come up with tough measures against all those who violate the constitution, according to which Ukrainian is the only language having official status. The government's position is that the councils' language decisions are a threat to national security, part of a plan to exacerbate tension in society and downgrade the status of Ukrainian. The government also argues that language matters are the remit of the national -- rather than regional -- bodies of power. The PRU, meanwhile, looks set to raise the issue at the national level. On May 17, the party's governing body -- the political council -- issued a statement, "On the Protection of Constitutional Rights of the Russian-speaking Citizens of Ukraine," promising to raise the Russian language issue soon after the new parliament convenes on May 25. In the statement, the PRU pledged "to continue to defend the right of people to think, speak, and educate their children in the mother tongue." The PRU brushed aside the Justice Ministry's protests against the decisions of Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sevastopol on the status of Russian, saying that only the Constitutional Court is entitled to rule on language matters. Incidentally, the PRU has been among the parties blocking the election of new judges to the Constitutional Court, fearing that the Court might take President Viktor Yushchenko's side and reverse the recent constitutional reforms that diminished the president's authority. On May 18, the Donetsk region council voted by 122 votes to three (with one abstention) to give Russian the status of regional language. As in the cases of Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sevastopol, Donetsk deputies said they were guided by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The council not only ruled that Russian may be used in business, official documents, and educational establishments on a par with Ukrainian, but it also called on parliament to give Russian state-language status along with Ukrainian. The council said that the current constitution ignores the fact that Russian is the mother tongue for about one-third of Ukrainians, equating Russian to the many minority languages spoken by small communities inside Ukraine. Along with the PRU, the Communists and the radical left-wing Progressive Socialists in the Donetsk council supported the language decision. Official reaction followed immediately. Donetsk Region Prosecutor Oleksiy Bahanets, who is subordinated to Kyiv, promised to appeal the council's decision in court as soon as he obtains official documents on the matter from the council. On May 18, the cabinet gathered for a meeting to condemn the eastern councils on language matters. Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Vyacheslav Kyrylenko blamed "certain forces" for trying to "downgrade and practically fully exclude the state language from usage, rather than protect minority languages." President Yushchenko's legal adviser, Mykola Poludyonny, went even further, warning of a separatist threat. The Justice Ministry was instructed to come up with amendments to language laws and regulations in order to toughen penalties for language-legislation violators. It was also decided that the next meeting of the National Security and Defense Council would be on the language issue. It may, however, take some time for the council to convene, as its secretary, Anatoly Kinakh, resigned last week. Kyrylenko apparently found it difficult to explain, speaking on television on May 22, why exactly the elevation of the Russian language status in the eastern regions was a national security threat. "The state has certain principles, and state language is an element of national security… very important for state institutes," he offered. The language row reveals the lack of understanding regarding how deep the language problem runs in Kyiv. It has been ignored for years, and President Yushchenko continues to insist that there is no language problem at all, despite the fact that pro-Communist and pro-Russian forces have been regularly using the language issue against the government in all sorts of elections. There has been no consistent policy of Ukrainianization, famous Ukrainian philosopher Myroslav Popovych believes. Commenting for the website Forum, he noted that it is sometimes difficult to admit that the issue is actually about the "assimilation of the Russian-speaking population," which has to be "logical and unforced," but so far has been forcible. Media expert Mykola Knyazhytsky told Forum that the main mistake of the government has been imposing Ukrainian in those regions where it is traditionally barely spoken, instead of financing Ukrainian culture in the traditionally Ukrainian-speaking areas, such as Lviv. (Interfax-Ukraine, May 17, 18; Channel 5,
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