Angielski jako lingua franca?


Polecam Wam recenzję pewnej książki, która może się okazać bardzo ciekawa, choć pojawia się pytanie – na ile jest odkrywcza (Nicholas Ostler: The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel, Walker & Co., 352 str.).

Co zwróciło moją uwagę na pierwszy rzut oka:

  • „The learned language is not valued for its own sake, but only for the benefits that are seen to flow from it, and only for as long as those benefits outweigh the costs” – aż korci, żeby zastanowić się, na ile jest to prawdziwe w odniesieniu do tematyki książki, a na ile w kontekście decyzji, jakie podejmują tłumacze;
  • „English in the global age is often portrayed as an exceptional case. Writers who take this view point out that English differs from previous lingua francas in two important ways: first, it has no serious competition, and second, although it was originally spread by conquest, commerce and missionaries, its influence no longer depends on coercion. Because of this, the argument runs, it will not suffer the fate of its predecessors”

versus

  • „English (…) will be the last lingua franca. As Anglo-American hegemony withers, the influence of English will decline; but what succeeds it will not be any other single language. Rather we will see a technologically-enabled return to a state of Babel. Thanks to advances in computer translation, „everyone will speak and write in whatever language they choose, and the world will understand

I tu mogą zacząć się schody… :)

[wybrane fragmenty pochodzą z ww. recenzji]