Language Policy and Language Planning

Language allows human beings to act cooperatively, to plan and to remember. It is a prime factor in the constitution of social groups as well as a major barrier between groups. Language policy and planning is rarely just about language; it always has social, political and economic dimensions. This revised second edition is a comprehensive overview of why we speak the languages that we do. It covers language learning imposed by political and economic agendas as well as language choices entered into willingly for reasons of social mobility, economic advantage and group identity. The first part of the book reviews the development and role of standard languages in the construction of national communities and identities. The second section examines the linguistic accommodation necessary when groups come into contact, and charts why lingua francas rise and fall. There is speculation on the future of International English as other power centres develop. The third section explores reactions to nationalism and globalisation, with a discussion of language rights and the problems of language revitalisation.

Autorentext

Sue Wright is Research Professor at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is co-editor of Sociolinguistica and the Language and Globalization book series. She is the author of numerous publications on the linguistic dimension of nation building, globalisation, democracy and migration and on the linguistic effects of technological developments in communication.

Zusammenfassung
This revised second edition is a comprehensive overview of why we speak the languages that we do. It covers language learning imposed by political and economic agendas as well as language choices entered into willingly for reasons of social mobility, economic advantage and group identity.

Inhalt

1. Introduction

PART I: COMMUNITY AND THE ROLE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE

2. From Language Continuum to Linguistic Mosaic: European Language Communities from the Feudal Period to the Age of Nationalism
3. Language Planning in State Nations and Nation States
4. Nation Building in the Wake of Colonialism: Old Concepts in New Settings
   PART II: TRANSCENDENCE AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
5. Transcending the Group: Languages of Contact and Lingua Francas
6. French: The Rise and Fall of a Prestige Lingua Franca
7. English: From Language of Empire to Language of Globalisation
8. Lingua Francas for the New Millennium
9. Globalisation and Rethinking the Concept of Language
   PART III: RENAISSANCE AND REVITALISATION IN SMALL LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES
10. New Discourse, New Legal Instruments and a New Political Context for Minorities and their Languages
    11 . New Polities and New Nation Building
    12 . Endangered Languages
11. Conclusion: Community and Transcendence