Linguistic relativism in the age of global lingua franca: Reconciling cultural and linguistic diversity with globalization

Abstract

Globalization's intertwining of culturally and linguistically diverse peoples is empowered and reflected by an unprecedented worldwide lingua franca. This current state of affairs seems unproblematic if, following a simple utilitarian view, language merely consists of a neutral tool for communication, and thus what is said in one may just as well be said in another. But are languages really neutral, though? Or do they contain implicit ontological world views, attached to the cultural framework from which they arise and evolve? Then, if so, would a particular global lingua franca – i.e. English – compromise or even threaten both linguistic and cultural diversity?The following paper poses these questions and conciliates their frequently radicalized answers. On the one hand, it critically revisits the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and offers a revised theory of linguistic determinism – centered on culture rather than language – which affirms language's ontological non-neutrality. On the other hand, it shows that, within this conception, linguistic diversity can coexist with, and even positively contribute to, the development of a global lingua franca; while simultaneously profiting from a lingua franca's capacity to generate a shared plane where linguistic and cultural distinctiveness is not homogenized and diminished, but rather shines through, enabled and reinforced.