The multiplicities of multilingual interaction

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how the authors to the papers in this issue understand how communication takes place when interlocutors use different named languages or use different semiotic resources to make meaning. The paper looks at the many ways in which this question is answered, since multilingual interaction takes place at different societal levels, in different social spaces, and with very different interlocutors. It also explores the factors that make multilingual interactions successful. In particular it looks at whether the success depends on the features chosen by the languager, or the willingness of the listener to infer the message. The differences between multilingualism, plurilingualism, and translanguaging are explored. The paper also brings together the factors identified by the authors as making successful interaction possible – an attitude of openness, flexibility and respect toward the language, an ability to shuttle among semiotic features in different scales, and the use of strategies of negotiation.