Why Does Language Matter to Political Philosophy - Assignment Example

 Introduction It is very rarely discussed in academic circles the importance of language in a nation's polity and overall development. A primary reason for this is that language planning is seen as a political act by the government or administration in power and many academicians are wary of getting involved in the murky world of politics. But there are other reasons why this is so, as propounded by authors Kaplan and Baldauf (2007) and enumerated below for simplicity: No coherent paradigm yet that can address the complex issues in this field; Difficult to find authors of studies which are objective and not descriptive; and The need to consider also the ecology or social landscape of these studies. It is against this background that this paper will try to examine and discuss the polity of language development and planning in a certain African country and how crucial this is to its overall national economic and cultural development. In particular, language planning is too closely related to two broad areas of human interest on a national or macro-economic level: a developmental and conservational approach to a country's natural resources (mineral, energy, water, fishery, etc.) and secondly, of its human resources. Both natural and human resources are very different in planning time frames and desired outcomes (Kaplan & Baldauf, 2009). In their initial discussion, the authors emphasized that planning for human resources using forms of language planning can take several years and sometimes over several generations before its benefits, if any, can be felt or seen. It may alter societal behaviour and culture or it may not. The main difficulty in assessing whether programs like these are effective or not is the lack of any tangible measurements in which it must compete with other national resource programs. Discussion We know that language is critical in human development, judging from early history to the modern era. The Roman Empire had engaged in it in some sort to manage all conquered people within its vast territories and that also happened in informal ways when centuries later Islam was on the rise and Arabic became the dominant language in the Middle East and parts of Europe, Africa and Asia where the religion had spread. Imperial China also saw the need of language planning to administer its vast empire through its civil service and bureaucracy. The height of Western imperialism and colonialism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had required some sort of language planning in order to administer captured territories. Together with the powerful missionary movements and the rise of the Industrial Revolution that needed vast sources of raw materials, there was clearly a need for better communication between the colonizers and the conquered populace (Ibid., p. xi). Subsequent events in the twentieth century, such as the collapse of former empires and the rise of many independent nations required increasing use of language planning as a formal policy by the new nations. The next few decades and the transition to the twenty-first century which saw the development of many life-changing technologies brought people close together in shorter time frames. Some examples are the invention of the railways, steam engine and the steam boat, ocean travel and airplanes facilitated the travel and migrations of people in greater numbers which required facility with languages of other cultures. The new millennium also brought about the internationalization of media (cable and satellite television), globalization of business, large-scale tourism and instant digital communications (fax, cellular phones and the Internet) such that the world now seems a much smaller place. Like in previous centuries, a persistent question is which language is to be used in these interactions such as commerce and trade, what language is superior to another language and this requires language planning. Language planning as a separate and distinct scientific discipline is relatively new. In a nutshell, its primary purpose is to effect the desired change deliberately in the language polity of a community. Conversely, it is used to stop unwanted change such as what the French are doing with their fear of American cultural and linguistic imperialism through books and films, primarily that coming from Hollywood (Marshall & Johnston 2005, p. 267). The process of language planning is usually undertaken by the government but it is also performed on lower levels like individuals and smaller organizations. Ostensibly, the reasons for doing it are many ranging from standardizing to modernizing a language to incorporate new terms but extending to lofty goals like preservation of culture (Murphy 1985, p. 132) and unification of minorities. With increasing globalization, it is sometimes difficult to delineate boundaries among countries any more and various political movements like secession, regionalism, federalism and local politics often require new views regarding the relationships between spaces, places and politics that sociologists like those in the language planning polity are equipped to handle. This notion of language and nation (the people of a country) can be traced to ancient times, even to the Bible itself as a Judaeo-Christian-Islam tradition in the story of Noah and his Ark in the Great Flood in the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament (Joseph 2006, p. 22). Politics permeates language and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish these reciprocal relationships with competing conceptions of language itself (Dallmayr 1984, p. 1). It is in this context that language will be discussed in connection with development of Tunisia which is located in northern Africa but is mainly an Arabic-speaking nation. Tunisia is an ancient nation dating back to the beginning of recorded history, with its people originally speaking the Berber language (Afro-Asiatic origin), then the Roman language when Carthage, its most famous city, fell during the Second Punic War. In modern times, it uses a mixture of French and Arabic that is used in developing its human capital (Daoud 2007, p. 256). Although Tunisia is largely homogeneous (98% of Tunisians speak Arabic), it uses the French language as one of its major languages (being a French colony between 1881 to1956). It therefore uses French in education (particularly in the sciences at the secondary level), the press, in government and in business. School children generally undergo four languages from childhood to adulthood: the first is Tunisian Arabic at home, then standard Arabic at age 6, at age 8 taught to speak French and starting at age 12 also taught English. This overemphasis on language skills is due to Tunisia's lack of any significant natural resources such oil, minerals and water (potable freshwater). This makes the language situation in the country dynamic and complex by producing discontinuities in the polity of language experiences and attitudes. It is an ambivalent attitude that recognizes ethnic and multilingual pluralism as an important help in nation building (Hornberger 2001). Tunisia has a small European population at 1% (mostly French, Italians and Jews) with another 1% speaking Shelha (a Berber language). Its language situation is markedly different from other nations where various ethnic groups speak different dialects (like in post-apartheid South Africa) that offers school instruction in both English and Afrikaans (derived from Dutch) and native dialects like Zulu, Xhosa and Swati are spoken. A clear benefit of Tunisia's language policy is shown by its top ranking economically among Arab and African nations. It gives top priority to education because of its agricultural economy and a marked lack of natural resources mentioned earlier with a large portion of the country arid or semi-arid desert. Yet, Tunisia has a high per capita GDP in the region and has managed to attract foreign direct investments because of its multilingual culture. Its services sector contribute 63% to the economy with industrial sector 26% and agriculture at only 11%. This deliberate government policy with regards to its language-related polity is emphasized with 30% of its annual budget devoted to education and vocational training. This makes the country attractive to investors from Europe with its liberalized economy (Togan 2000, p. 69). Conclusion Tunisia's strategic location (at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf Region) plus its government's vigorous efforts to promote its country as a major tourism and services hub, is shown by its level of economic activities and investments today. Its structural reforms had enhanced its competitiveness in the world market and is particularly suited to the demands of globalization. In Tunisia's case, it is well-positioned to take advantage of growth in two major world languages – English and French (Chua & Baldauf 2009, p. 1). The nation, like many other governments, undertook language planning policies in a pro-active manner. It was a deliberate action because the country's rulers knew the effects of linguistic policies on power relationships. In fact, this was what were taken by the three so-called Maghreb states in the area – Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia – when they became independent from France. It in this historical context official languages were changed from French to Arab (Weinstein 1990). The rulers there knew the potency of language planning as a force for economic and social development. It was another form of de-colonization in a new era and Tunisia was not particularly eager to sever its ties with its former colonial power. Instead, the country saw an opportunity to re-assess its language policies but continued to stress its former ties to France (Spolsky 2004, p. 135). The end result is a country that saw tremendous growth without all the necessary bitterness regarding language issues. The pressure for national identity was still present but a more important factor were the demands for efficient communications. This was the reason why French was retained, although unofficially. Tunisia today is not only bilingual but even multilingual as result of this language policy (McGuinness 2002, p. 461). The one nation, one state and one language paradigm has been replaced by multilingualism in many of the countries today like post-apartheid South Africa (Orman 2008, p. 104). Language policies in a nation's polity are all presumed to be equal, however (Wodak & Corson 1997, p. 39). Reference List Chua, C. S. K. & Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (2009). Handbook of Research in Second Language Learning and Teaching (Vol. 2). Florence, Kentucky, USA: Routledge. Dallmayr, F. R. (1984). Language and Politics: Why Does Language Matter to Political Philosophy. Notre Dame, Indiana, USA: University of Notre Dame Press. Daoud, M. (2007). The Language Situation in Tunisia. Language Planning and Policy in Africa: Algeria, Cote D'ivoire, Nigeria and Tunisia. Ed. Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Hornberger, N. (2002). Multilingual Language Policies and the Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Approach (Doctoral dissertation, August 30, 2001). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Joseph, J. E. (2006). Language and Politics. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Kaplan, R. B. & Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (2007). Language Planning and Policy in Africa: Algeria, Cote D'ivoire, Nigeria and Tunisia (Vol. 2). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kaplan, R. B. & Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (2009). Language Planning from Practice to Theory 2nd edition. The Politics of Language Planning, 29. Progressive Draft. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Marshall, B. & Johnston, C. (2005). France and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History. Oxford, UK: ABC-CLIO. McGuinness, J. (2002). Footprint Tunisia Handbook. Bath, UK: Footprint Travel Guides. Murphy, P. E. (1985). Tourism: A Community Approach. Florence, Kentucky, USA: Routledge. Orman, J. (2008). Language Policy and Nation-building in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Berlin, West Germany. Springer. Spolsky, B. (2004). Language Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Togan, S. (2000). Turkey, Tunisia and Israel: A Comparison of Agreements with the European Union. Trade Policy Developments in the Middle East and North Africa (Vol. 763). Eds. Bernard M. Hoekman and Hana Khayr al-Din. Washington, DC, USA: World Bank Publications. Weinstein, B. (1990). Language Policy and Political Development: Communication, the Human Context. Sta. Barbara, CA, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Wodak, R. & Corson, D. (1997). Language Policy and Political Issues in Education. Berlin, West Germany: Springer. Read More