Multilingualism as an Edge
Abstract
The article presents a philosophical conceptualization of multilingualism. Philosophy’s general task is to subject human experience to reflective scrutiny and the experience of present day society has changed drastically. Multilingualism, as the vehicle of a new linguistic dispensation, plays a central role in it. We apply the metaphor ‘edge’ to explore the way multiple languages are deployed in, and intensively shape, the postmodern world. We also demonstrate how multilingualism is an edge, not only metaphorically, but involving true and real boundaries of various kinds, and all of them are essential for its nature.Keywords
philosophy; multilingualism; boundaries; edge
References
Alter, S. (1999) Darwinism and the Linguistic Image: Language, Race and Natural Theology in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Aristotle (1984) Metaphysics. In J. Barnes (ed.) The Complete Works of Aristotle (vol. 2). Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
Aronin, L. (2007) Current multilingualism as a new linguistic world order. CLCS Occasional Paper #67. Dublin: Trinity College.
Aronin, L. (2014) Spacetimes of Multilingualism. Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism. Uppsala, Sweden. June 2014.
Aronin, L. (2015) Current multilingualism and new developments in multilingual research. In P. Safont-Jordà and L. Portoles (eds) Multilingual Development in the Classroom: Current Findings from Research. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Aronin, L. and Jessner, U. (2015) Methodology in bi- and multilingual studies: from simplification to complexity. AILA Review 27: Research Methods and approaches in Applied Linguistics: Looking back and moving forward 27, 56-79.
Aronin, L. and Singleton, D. (2008a) The philosophy of multilingualism. In O. Arnandiz and M. Safont-Jordà (eds) Achieving multilingualism: wills and ways. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Multilingualism (ICOM) Universitat Jaume-1.
Aronin, L. and Singleton, D. (2008b) Multilingualism as a new linguistic dispensation. International Journal of Multilingualism 5(1), 1-16.
Aronin, L. and Singleton, D. (2013) Multilingualism and philosophy. In C.A. Chapelle (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 3951-3954). Wiley-Blackwell.
Aronin, L. and Singleton, D. (2012) Multilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Baker, C. (1993) Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
BBC News. (2009) Tear gas fired at Malay protesters. BBC, 7 March 2009. Online document http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7930198.stm
Bialystok, E. (1999) Cognitive complexity and attentional control in the bilingual mind. Child Development 70, 636-644.
Bialystok, E. (2001) Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bialystok, E. (2002) Cognitive processes of L2 users. In V. Cook (ed.) Portrait of the L2 user (pp. 147-165). New York: Multilingual Matters.
Bialystok, E. (2011) Reshaping the mind: The benefits of bilingualism. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 65(4), 229-235.
Bloomfield, L. (1933) Language. Revised from 1914 edn. New York: Holt.
Broun, M. (1937) Beobachtungen zur Frage der Mehrsprachigkeit. Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen 4, 115-130.
Cenoz, J. and Jessner, U. (eds.) (2003) The Multilingual Lexicon. Springer Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Cenoz, J., Hufeisen, B. and Jessner, U. (eds.) (2001) Cross-linguistic influence in Third Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistic Perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Cook, V. (1991) The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multicompetence. Second Language Research 7, 103-117.
Cook, V. (1992) Evidence for multi-competence. Language Learning 42(4), 557-591.
Cook, V. (1993) Linguistics and second language acquisition. London: Macmillan.
Cook, V. (n.d.) online document http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/ Multicompetence/MCEvidence.htm
Cook, V. (2013a) Multi-competence. In C.A. Chapelle (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley Blackwell.
Cook, V. (2013b) ELF: Central or Atypical second language acquisition? In D. Singleton, J.A. Fishman, L. Aronin and M.O. Laoire, (eds.) Current Multilingualism: A New Linguistic Dispensation (pp. 27-44). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Corder, S.P. (1967) The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics 5(4), 161-170.
Crane, M.T. (2010) Analogy, Metaphor, and the New Science: Cognitive science and early modern epistemology. In L. Zunshine (ed.) Introduction to Cognitive Cultural Studies, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Da Vinci, L. (1938) The Notebooks, selected English translation ed. by E. MacCurdy. London: Reynal & Hitchock.
De Angelis, G. and Dewaele, J.M. (2009) The development of psycholinguistic research on cross-linguistic influence. In L. Aronin and B.
Hufeisen (eds.) The Exploration of Multilingualism: Development of Research on L3, Multilingualism and Multiple Language Acquisition (pp. 63-77). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Edwards, J. (1994) Multilingualism. London & New York: Routledge.
Encyclopedia (1994) Энциклопедия для детей: Т.3 (География).сост. С.Т. Исмаилова. –М.: Аванта+. 1994
Gabryś-Barker, D. (2009) The role of transfer of learning in multilingual instruction and development. In J. Arabski and A. Wojtaszek (eds.) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning (pp. 152-169). Katowice: University of Silesia Press.
Gentner, D. and Jeziorski, M. (1993) The shift from metaphor to analogy in western science. In A. Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd ed.) (pp. 447-480) .Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Hamers, J.F. and Blanc, M.H.A. (2000) Bilinguality and Bilingualism (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hammarberg, B. (2001) Roles of L1 and L2 in L3 production and acquisition. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen and U. Jessner (eds.) The Multilingual Lexicon. (pp.21-41). Springer Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hammarberg, B. and Hammarberg, B. (2005) Re-setting the basis of articulation in the acquisition of new languages: a third-language case study. In B. Hufeisen and R. Fouser (eds.) Introductory readings in L3. (pp. 11-18). Tubingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Hufeisen, B. and Jessner, U. (eds.) Cross-linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistic Perspectives (pp. 21-41). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Huizinga, J. (1919/1924) The Autumn of the Middle Ages, or The Waning of the Middle Ages (published in 1919 as Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen and translated into English in 1924).
Jessner, U. (2003) The nature of cross-linguistic interaction in the multilingual system. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen and U. Jessner (eds.) The Multilingual Lexicon (pp. 45-55). Springer Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kellerman, E. (1995) Cross-linguistic Influence: Transfer to nowhere? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 15, 125-150.
Kemp, C. (2009) Defining multilingualism. In L. Aronin & B. Hufeisen (eds) The Exploration of Multilingualism: Development of Research on L3, Multilingualism and Multiple Language Acquisition (pp. 11-26). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kramsch, C. and Jessner, U. (eds.) (forthcoming) The Multilingual Challenge. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Lacey, A.R. (2001) A Dictionary of Philosophy. London and New York: Routledge.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Odlin, T. (2003) Cross-linguistic influence. In C. Doughty and M. Long (eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 436-486). Oxford: Blackwell.
Ortega , M. (2008) Cross-linguistic influence in multilingual language acquisition: The role of L1 and non-native languages in English and Catalan oral production Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura. Online document http://www.redalyc.org/ articulo.oa?id=255020449007
Politis, V. (2012) What is behind the ti esti question? In J.L. Fink (ed.) The Development of Dialectic from Plato to Aristotle. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp. 199-223.
Ringbom, H. (2005) L-2 Transfer in Third Language Acquisition. In B. Hufeisen and R. Fouser (eds.) Introductory readings in L3. (pp. 71-82). Tubingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Schmidt, R. and Frota, S. (1986) Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner. In R. Day (ed.) Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass. pp. 237-326.
Selinker, L. (1972) Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10(3), 209-231.
Selinker, L. and Douglas, D. (1985) Wrestling with 'context' in interlanguage theory. Applied Linguistics 6, 190-204.
Sharwood Smith, M. and Kellerman, E. (1986) Crosslinguistic influence in second language: an introduction. In E. Kellerman and M. Sharwood Smith (eds.) Crosslinguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 1-9). Oxford: Pergamon.
Sharwood Smith, M. (1983) Crosslinguistic aspects of second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics 4, 192-199.
Singleton, D., Fishman, J.A., Aronin, L., O Laoire, M. (eds.) (2013) Current Multilingualism: A New Linguistic Dispensation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Sjöholm, K. (1995) The Influence of Crosslinguistic, Semantic, and Input Factors on the Acquisition of English Phrasal Verbs: A Comparison between Finnish and Swedish Learners at an Intermediate and Advanced Level. Esbo: Schildts Förlags Ab.
Skuttnab-Kangas, T. (2004) Killer English. Online document http://www.multilingualblog.com/index/php/killer_english/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (n.d.) Boundary. online document http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boundary/
Strevens, P. (1982) The localized forms of English. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongue: English across Cultures (pp. 23-30). Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.
Tarone, E. (1979) Interlanguage as chameleon. Language Learning 29(1), 181-191.
United Nations System-Wide Earthwatch (n.d.) Oceans and Coastal Areas. Online document http://earthwatch.unep.net/oceans/coastalthreats.php
Wei, L. (2000) Dimensions of bilingualism. In L. Wei (ed.) The Bilingualism reader (pp. 3-25). London & New York: Routledge.
Williams, S. and Hammarberg, B. (1998) Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking model. Applied Linguistics 19, 295–333.
Wittgenstein, L. (1921) Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung. Annalen der Naturphilosophie 14, 185-262 (English translation by C. K. Ogden, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1922.
Oranim Academic College of Education Israel
Trinity College, Dublin Ireland
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Holders of the submitted texts are the Authors. The Reader is granted the rights to use the material available in the TAPSLA websites and pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution - Share Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0). The user is free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.