Language and cultural identity

This paper present introductory remarks on language and identity, language and the concept of ‘nation’, language, nation, and the community of speakers, ‘threats’ to linguistic identity, language policy and the rise of English.

Ti u ban 4: Văn hóa ho t đ ng gi ng d y ngo i ng th i kỳ h i nh p BẢN SẮC NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA Andreas Gardt Trường Đại học Kassel, Đức LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY Introductory remarks on language and identity Language and the concept of ‘nation’ Language, nation, and the community of speakers ‘Threats’ to linguistic identity Language policy and the rise of English Introductory remarks on language and identity The relationship between language and identity is always close This is true both for individuals as well as for groups For an individual, it may be sufficient to say “Good morning!” in English or whatever his native language is to be identified as a speaker from a specific country or a specific region, or as someone with a certain kind of formal education, or someone belonging to a certain social class Our phonetic patterns, our speaking volume and rhythm, our choice of words and of grammatical constructions function as identity markers When we speak, it makes others think that we are intelligent, vulgar, witty, or arrogant.1 Ascribing identity to a speaker is always a twofold move: it isolates him from all others – “identity as uniqueness” (as John Joseph calls it; Joseph 2004, 37) - and, at the same time, ascribes him to a particular group – “identity as sameness” One must not forget, however, that correlating language and identity does not imply a purely Although it is possible to define these markers individually, the perception of our language by others is as sociolinguistic research has shown – a holistic perception, which is dominated by the overall constellation of the linguistic variables; cf Auer 2007, 12: “a gestalt-like stylistic expression” - For examples see also Joseph 2004, 1ff 552 passive attitude on the part of the speaker, in the sense that he is passively exposed to the judgement of others Inasmuch as he can influence his language, he can perform what Robert Le Page and Andrée Tabouret-Keller call “acts of identity” (1985), i.e the conscious or subconscious choice of linguistic features to signal identity with a particular social group (as, for example, young people when using their in-group-language) Doing identity one could call it, in analogy to doing gender What is true for the language of an individual is also true for a language as a whole, for a national language From the outside, i.e from the perspective of speakers of other languages, a given national language and its speakers may be judged in a certain way, including appraisals of the speakers’ (alleged) ‘national character’ (e.g.: ‘French is an elegant language – just like its speakers’) But the speakers of this language themselves may also regard and use their language as an expression of their national identity, sometimes up to a point where they pass laws to protect their language from foreign influence This illustrates two points, which I will come back to later: Firstly, that linguistic identities are not static but dynamic phenomena, and, secondly, that linguistic identities are not ‘given’ but are constructed socially Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p In my paper, I will concentrate on collective linguistic identity, on a national level, as national identity is a particularly important form of cultural identity Language and the concept of ‘nation’ National languages are not just the product of an existing nation, but they also help to define the nation In numerous definitions of what a nation is, language is mentioned as an important criterion The Oxford English Dictionary defines “nation” this way (SOED 1973 ed.) “A distinct race or people, characterized by common descent, language, or history, usu [i.e usually] organized as a separate political state and occupying a definite territory“ The definition includes three typical aspects of the concept of nation: - a political aspect (political state; territory) - a cultural aspect (language; history) - an ethnic aspect (race; people; descent) However, there is a fourth aspect of the meaning of “nation” which is not mentioned in the definition of the OED: - volition The nation is also often regarded as the expression of a common will of its citizens Of course, these fours aspects not appear in all texts on linguistic identity all of the time In Germany, for historical reasons the cultural and the ethnic aspects played a prominent role Among them, language was of great importance In 1813 the German poet Theodor Körner wrote2: “What links us, is the holy tie of language, is our God, our fatherland/is our faithful German blood“ “Uns knüpft der Sprache heilig Band, / Uns knüpft ein Gott, ein Vaterland / ein treues deutsches Blut“ (Theodor Körner: “Jägerlied”, 1813) Tháng 11/2014 The political unit (fatherland) is linked to the cultural dimension (language), to the ethnic dimension (blood), and to religion (God), i.e to another cultural aspect of nation In statements like this the nation is not seen as the result of historical processes and decisions taken by social individuals, but as something of an almost timeless quality The more ideological these comments become, the more ahistorical they become The political entity (nation, country, empire, fatherland) is then presented in a way that suggests that it contains a kind of core which transcends time and guarantees the identity of the entity, its sameness throughout history – which, in fact, is a basic assumption in identity discourse And within the logic of this argument this does not seem alltogether implausible: After all, how can something function as a firm point of orientation, if it is not stable in itself? History and social change are the enemies of identity politics This essentialist view of the nation stands in sharp contrast to the approach taken in contemporary research Benedict Anderson speaks of the nation as an imagined community (1991): it is not only kept alive only by the wish or desire to belong to it, but it is brought into being by the will to create it In a similar way, Stuart Hall speaks of narrating the nation (1996), and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger use the expression the invention of tradi- tion These analytical approaches are constructivist: social entities are Hobsbawm 1983, 1: “‘Invented traditions’ is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual and symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which atomatically implies continuity with the past In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establich continuity with a suitable historic past.” – See also Hutchinson/Smith on ethnicity (1996, 6f.): ethnic groups show six central features: a common proper name; a myth of common ancestry/fictive kinship; shared historical memories/shared memories of a common past; one or more elements of common culture, normally including religion, customs or language; a link with a homeland (not necessarily physcial, but symbolic); a sense of solidarity 553 Ti u ban 4: Văn hóa ho t ñ ng gi ng d y ngo i ng th i kỳ h i nh p not seen as the inevitable results of processes governed by teleological laws, but as social constructions governed by social interests To point out the constructivist dimension of an entity like a nation does not mean, however, that it has no ontic reality Of course, it has: once the concept of nation has been established, it is part of what we regard as ‘objective reality’ And to point out, that there is no ‘natural necessity’ for a nation to become reality, does not mean to say, that at any point in history anything is possible A short summary of the first section: In definitions of the concept of nation four aspects play a dominant role – a political, a cultural, an ethnic and a volitional aspect In different countries, different aspects dominate: In Germany, for example, the cultural dimension of the concept (with language being central to it) and the ethnic dimension (common descent) were of particular importance Whereas modern research regards nations as the results of processes of social construction, identity politics tend to point out the assumed ontological, ‘natural’ quality of the nation Language, nation, and the community of speakers Much of what has been said about the nation is also true for the national language Jacob Grimm, as one of the Grimm brothers best known for his collection of fairy tales, was also one of the leading historical linguists of his time With his brother he started a comprehensive German dictionary, the preface of which he ended in these words in 1854: “Beloved German countrymen, of whatever territory or belief you may be, enter the great hall of your inherited, ancient language, learn it, hallow it and cherish it, the life and future of your people depend on it.”4 “Deutsche geliebte landsleute, welches reichs, welches glaubens ihr seiet, tretet ein in die euch allen aufgethane halle eurer angestammten, uralten sprache, lernet und 554 There are many statements like this, from many countries To mention just one more from the German tradition: In 1982, a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East German writer Peter Schneider states in his book “Der Mauerspringer”: “If there is still a fatherland of the Germans, it has most likely survived in their mother tongue.”5 These and many other quotations illustrate that in the discussion of language and identity there is often the assumption of a strong interdependence between language, its speakers (the people) and the political entity (nation, empire etc.) Current linguistic theory is characterized to a high degree by the conviction that language does not just denote pre-existing reality, but segments the amorphous mass of impressions into distinct semantic units, thus guiding our view of reality along these lines of segmentation In an early text of the 17th century, the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon had put it in a nutshell by saying “verba res secant” – words dissect things (Novum Organum, aphorism 59) This constructivist position is, as said before, widely accepted in present academic thought (and not just in the field of liguistics), and Wilhelm von Humboldt’s remark from the 19th century is still regarded as valid: that the different languages are “the means of the particular ways of thinking and feeling of the nations”.6 According to this view, it is due only to this linguistic structuring that we can deal with reality intellectually: a national language contains a particular view of the world which more or less guides our thinking, our cognitive access to reality This view of the close correlation between language and thinking leads to my next point: heiliget sie und haltet an ihr, eure volkskraft und dauer hängt in ihr” (Grimm 1854, LXVII) “Wenn ein Vaterland der Deutschen weiterhin existiert, so hat es am ehesten in ihrer Muttersprache überlebt.” “die Organe der eigenthümlichen Denk- und Empfindungsarten der Nationen” (Humboldt 1821[?], 26) Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p ‘Threats’ to linguistic identity An alleged threat to the language is nearly always also perceived as a threat to the identity of the corresponding community of speakers and the corresponding cultural/political entity Despite the differences between the various historical situations, there is an underlying pattern to this argument which appears again and again To give only a few examples, both from history and from the present In a German text of 1647 the author states that by the use of French loan words in German “the German spirit is alienated, the natural way is corrupted” (Hille 1647, 3).7 And, in a very similar mode: “If you make [your] language a maid [by using foreign words, thus serving foreign interests, A.G.], you will become a servant”.8 In the current debate on the presence of English loan words in German (anglicisms) most of the arguments bear a striking resemblance to the arguments used against French loan words in the 17th century The most conservative position in this debate is held by the Verein deutsche Sprache [Association for the German Language], a private language society To quote from a programmatic article written by a leading member of the society (Dieter 2004, 142): “the spoken and written vocabulary of a language could […] ‘be described as’ the (genocultural) code of that ‘culture which uses it’ (Kerckhove 1994: 158) Put simply: word stem = gene […] Too many mutations at once […] destroy the phenotype This is how a linguistic breach is occurring at present - called ‘Denglisch’ in Germany […].” Structurally, this modern argument is not “Durch die Sprachverderbnis wird die Rede / und der Teutsche Geist erfremdet / die rechte Art / verunartet” (Hille 1647, 3) “Machst du die Sprach zur Magd: So wirst du werden Knecht” (Sigmund von Birken, in Neumark 1668, b6r) Tháng 11/2014 different from traditional arguments: language corresponds to the culture of its speakers on a very basic level When language is influenced in its ‘deep structure’ by foreign elements, this will inevitably affect the culture in its ‘deep structure’ as well The term “Denglish” reflects this mutation: following the logic of the argument, it should be either “Deutsch” or “Englisch” – but not a hybrid: Denglisch As the author of 1647 put it: by foreign words “the natural way is corrupted“ (Hille 1647), a change of the species has taken place This line of thought ignores the central cultural quality of language by turning it into a biological phenomenon, thus ‘de-socialising’ and ‘ontologising’ it A second quotation by the Verein deutsche Sprache9: The use of English words in German “weakens the linguistic and cultural autonomy of the European countries The linguistic autonomy as the most important sign of the economic and cultural independence of the European countries threatens to get lost” The organisers of the Verein deutsche Sprache make it quite clear that the loss of European “linguistic and cultural autonomy” would be a sign of the subordinantion of Europe to the United States, to its (alleged) linguistic and cultural dominance Structurally, this conviction is identical to the one set forth in the above quoted text from 1668: “If you make [your] language a maid, you will become a servant” Before I come to my final point, let me sum up what has been said so far Language plays a central role in the formation “Diese Entwicklung ist nicht nur eine Modeerscheinung - sie schwächt die sprachliche und kulturelle Eigenständigkeit der europäischen Länder Die sprachliche Eigenständigkeit als wichtigstes Merkmal der wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Selbstbehauptung der europäischen Länder droht allmählich verloren zu gehen.” (http://www.vds-ev.de/leitlinien) (20.7.2014) 555 Ti u ban 4: Văn hóa ho t đ ng gi ng d y ngo i ng th i kỳ h i nh p both of individual and collective identity In identity discourse what is regarded as true for the nation is also regarded as true for the national language: both are seen to possess a quality that transcends time, neither of them is regarded as a social construction, but, more or less, as a natural phenomenon And in the logic of this argument, only because they are ‘natural’, they can provide identity to their citizens and speakers In this process, language is not just a passive expression of peoples’ thinking, but it helps to shape their thinking: each language contains a specific view of the world, which its speakers grow up with and which guides their cognitive access to reality Because language, speakers, and the cultural/political unit correspond with each other so closely, a threat to the language is always also seen as a threat to the identity of the speakers and to the well-being of the cultural/political body In linguistic identity politics – in fact, in any kind of identity politics – identity is regarded as stable, permanent, natural, not as socially constructed In academic discourse, the opposite is the case: identity is regarded as man made, as the result of social dynamics The same holds true for language: in popular discourse (in folk linguistics, so to speak) a language that is supposed to supply identity tends to be seen less as a historical and social phenomenon, exposed to change, following fashions, but rather as something monolithic, resting in itself Whereas in linguistics and in the social sciences the opposite is assumed – So where does this leave us? How are we to respond to the ever greater influence of English in a world of globalization? Language policy and the rise of English It think it was the British Linguist David Crystal who first called English “the Tyrannosaurus Rex” of languages 10 , devouring any language that gets in its way However, English cannot be blamed for everything: changes in the linguistic world map are not always or only due to the international spread of English The rapid increase of various forms of communication, in combination with an increase of mobility and a drift from rural, seclosed areas to larger cities are major reasons for the decrease in the use of minority languages In Europe, there has been a response to this by the European Council, which in 1992 passed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages In May 2014 the Council renewed its claims: “The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) recalls that the Charter is designed for pluralist and multilingual societies and reiterates that ’the protection and promotion of regional or minority languages in the different countries and regions of Europe represent an important contribution to the building of a Europe based on the principles of democracy and cultural diversity within the framework of national sovereignty and territorial integrity’ (Preamble of the Charter).“11 So one way of trying to protect one’s linguistic and thus cultural identity is: a) protection of regional/minority languages While this measure may be described as a ‘positive move’ – as it helps to increase linguistic plurality – a second kind of linguistic policy measure consists of a ‘negative move’, by trying to exclude exogenous linguistic elements, particularaly loan words, such as anglicisms: b) exclusion of foreign linguistic influence (e.g loanwords) This can take place on the legal level, and there are several countries which have chosen this 10 11 556 See also Swales 1997 http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/default_en.asp Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p alternative, among which France is a well known example 12 Since 1635 France has had the Acadộmie Franỗaise which controls the usage of French However, the decisions of the Académie are not binding legally, which is different in the case of the Loi Toubon, a law passed in 1994, regulating the use of non-French languages in the public sphere (commercial slogans, for example, must be translated into French) English loan words may stick out clearly from the surface of a native language, thus provoking opposition concerned with questions of linguistic identity But of far greater cultural impact for a language and its speakers might well be the practice of using English for certain areas of intellectual life, i.e for specific fields of knowledge in the sphere of science 13 In some scientific disciplines not just publishing in English has become standard practice in a number of countries, but also the teaching of university courses It is extremely difficult to come to a decision in this question, that does justice to all its dimensions Of course, any scientist who wants to join the international scientific community will have to follow its rules, i.e publish papers in chemistry, the nanosciences or in internet technology etc in English For the country and culture he lives in, however, this will mean that sooner or later whole areas of knowledge cannot be dealt with anymore by the public, as the necessary linguistic means – such as the special terminology – are not available in his native language anymore Hence, these areas of knowledge are not accessible cognitively anymore for anyone who does not speak English In a curious way, this situation reminds of the European Middle Ages, where only Latin was the language of scholarly discourse, and where the native languages had to fight for their ‘intellectual rights’ Tháng 11/2014 But the importance of English is not as great in fields of knowledge other than the natural sciences In many academic disciplines – ranging from law, the humanities, the social sciences, even partly up to economics – the languages and texts within these disciplines are culturally ‘loaded’ to a noticeable degree This comes at no surprise: Languages inevitably ‘contain’ and thus reflect the culture of those who speak it, most obviously in their vocabulary The more specific a cultural item is, the less the word that denotes it can be replaced by a word from a different language And cultural distinctiveness also reaches beyond the lexical level of a language German sentence structure, for example, differs from the syntactic structures of English, and the stylistic and textual traditions and approaches in dealing with a given subject matter are also quite different Of course, this is the case even more where the typology of languages and the traditions of speaking and writing in them differ as much as they between Indo-European and Asian languages In order to justice to these demands – i.e to accept the practical dominance of English in certain fields of knowledge and to accept that each language and the texts produced in it are culturally specific in many respects and to accept and support one’s own linguistic identity – the educational institutions of many countries are called upon to practice the teaching of foreign languages, following a rule of a + b or c: teaching the native language plus either English or a different language, be it German, French, Japanese, or any other language, which is either traditionally connected with a given country or which seems useful for present political or economic reasons This then might turn out to be the most promising way to deal with the correlation of language and identity14: + English 12 Christian Schmitt (2000) 13 For the situation in Germany cf Ehlich 2012 and Ehlich/Meyer 2012 14 See also Crystal 2004 and 2012 557 Ti u ban 4: Văn hóa ho t ñ ng gi ng d y ngo i ng th i kỳ h i nh p c) teaching the native language or + German or French or Spanish… However, what might look like a symmetrical structure, is not really one: in most countries, where several languages are taught, English clearly dominates the other languages, for reasons mainly due to the strong geopolitical, economic, and cultural position of the United States But no country in the world does only business with the United States, and there will always be the need of experts who not only speak a language different from English but who are also familiar with life in the country that language is spoken in, with the political, social, economic, historical, and everyday traditions and practices of the people who live in this country A wide range of political, economic and cultural contacts based on a knowledge of various languages has always been an advantage for any country in the world – We like to see identities as stable and permanent, providing reliability in the face of change But identities are in a state of constant flux, even if we not notice it: we are not the same as our forefathers were a hundred or even fifty years ago And our linguistic identities change with us If we want to control this change, we must achieve a balance between linguistic and cultural tradition and innovation REFERENCES Anderson, Benedict (1991): Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism Rev Ed London/New York Auer, Peter (2007): Style and Social Identities Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity Berlin Crystal, David (2004): The past, present and future of World English In: Gardt/Hüppauf, 27- 46 Ehlich, Konrad (2012): Sprache(n) und Universität Eine Skizze In: Heike Roll/Andrea Schilling (eds.): Mehrsprachiges Handeln im Fokus von Linguistik und Didaktik Duisburg, 17-31 Ehlich, Konrad/Hans Joachim Meyer (2012): Thesen zur künftigen Rolle des Deutschen in der Wissenschaft und zu den Chancen wissenschaftlicher Mehrsprachigkeit In: Heinrich Oberreuter/Wilhelm Krull/Hans Joachim Meyer/Konrad Ehlich (eds.): Deutsch in der Wissenschaft Ein politischer und wissenschaftlicher Diskurs München, 30-34 Gardt, Andreas (ed.) (2000): Nation und Sprache Die Diskussion ihres Verhältnisses in Geschichte und Gegenwart Berlin Gardt, Andreas/Bernd Hüppauf (eds.) (2004): Globalization and the Future of German Berlin Grimm, Jacob (1854): Vorrede In: Jacob Grimm/Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsches Wörterbuch Berlin Vol 1, I-LXVII 10 Hall, Stuart (1996): The global, the local, and the return of ethinicity In: Stuart Hall/David Held/Don Hubert/Kenneth Thompson (eds.): Modernity: an Introduction to Modern Societies Cambridge, 634-628 11 Hille, Carl Gustav von (1647): Der Teutsche Palmbaum: Das ist / Lobschrift Von der Hochlöblichen / Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft Anfang / Satzungen / Vorhaben / Namen / Sprüchen / Gemählen / Schriften und unverwelklichem Tugendruhm Reprint München 1970 12 Hobsbawm, Eric (1983): Inventing traditions In: Eric Hobsbawm/ Terence Ranger (eds.): The Invention of Tradition Cambridge etc., 1-14 13 Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1821?): Ueber den Einfluss des verschiedenen Charakters der Sprachen auf Literatur und Geistesbildung In: Wilhelm von Humboldt Werke in fünf Bän- den Ed by A Flitner, K Giel Vol III: Schriften zur Sprachphilosophie 4th ed Darm- stadt 1963, 27-30 14 Hutchinson, John/Anthony (1996): Ethnicity Oxford D Smith (eds.) 15 Joseph, John E (2004): Language and Identity National, Ethnic, Religious Basingstoke/New York 16 Le Page, Robert B./Andrée Tabouret-Keller (1985): Acts of Identity: Creole-based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity, Cambridge/New York Crystal, David (2012): Plurilingualism, pluridialectism, pluriformity (Plenary paper for the annual conference of TESOL Spain, Bilbao, 10 March 2012; http://ww.davidcrystal.com/David_Crystal/english.htm) 17 Neumark, Georg (1668?): Der Neu-Sprossende Teutsche Palmbaum Oder Ausführlicher Bericht / Von der Hochlöblichen Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft Anfang / Absehn / Satzun-gen / Eigenschaft / und deroselben Fortpflantzung [ ] Weimar o.J Reprint München 1970 Dieter, Hermann H (2004): Does ‚Denglish’ DeDifferentiate our Perceptions of Nature? The View of a Nature Lover and Language‚ Fighter’ In: Gardt/Hüppauf, 139-154 18 Schmitt, Christian (2000): Nation und Sprache: das Französische In: Gardt, 673-745.Swales, John (1997): English as Tyrannosauros Rex In: World Englishes 16, 373-382 558 ... collective linguistic identity, on a national level, as national identity is a particularly important form of cultural identity Language and the concept of ‘nation’ National languages are not just... fields of knowledge and to accept that each language and the texts produced in it are culturally specific in many respects and to accept and support one’s own linguistic identity – the educational... (2004): Language and Identity National, Ethnic, Religious Basingstoke/New York 16 Le Page, Robert B./Andrée Tabouret-Keller (1985): Acts of Identity: Creole-based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity,