Understanding Semantics of Language Development

Abstract:     
This paper questions the culture-specific concept of “development” as it is deployed in mainstream Linguistics or in Economics. What is developed language and what is under/un-developed language? The popular notions of “good” “standard” language vis a vis dialect, patois, Pidgin, Creole, Folk-language etc., which are used in the classroom discourse also, are contested here following Phillipson (1992). The author tried to show that the cultural convention of using these terms in an epistemological discipline is approximated by the extra-linguistic socio-economic condition. This book-chapter is an amalgamation of author’s previously published papers’ revised version with some additions.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: Luddite view, cybermultilingualism, internal and external colonization

Accepted Paper Series