Discourses of Linguistic dominance: A Historical Consideration of French Language Ideology.

Autor/in	Kasuya, Keisuke
Titel	Discourses of Linguistic dominance: A Historical Consideration of French Language Ideology.
Quelle	In: International review of education, (2001) 3-4, S.235-251Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-8566
DOI	10.1023/A:1017993507936
Schlagwörter	Strong Influence; Historical Perspective; Natural Order; Human Reason; National Language
Abstract	Abstract The paper offers a historical perspective on the linguistic and cultural imperialism embedded in the struggle to maintain French as a leading international language. France was the nation-state where the ideology of national language was first clearly formulated and directly extended to overseas colonies. This shows the close relationship between linguistic nationalism and imperialism. It was believed that French was the language of universal human reason and had the power to civilize people who spoke it. This myth of the "clarté française" and the "mission civilisatrice" had a strong influence on various kinds of metalinguistic discourses that created the taken-for-granted representation of French as dominant language. It is the essential strategy of language dominance to establish the hierarchy of languages as if it were natural order of things. When French was obliged to yield the status of international language to English, there emerged the ideology of "Francophonie" which tried to defend its privilege against the monopoly of English, but the same ideology is also directed against minorities' claims for their own linguistic human right. It could be said that these discourses form a recursive prototype of language dominance whose variations are to be found in other shapes almost all over the world.
Erfasst von	OLC
Update	2023/2/05