English meaning and culture

This page intentionally left blank part i MEANING, HISTORY, AND CULTURE This page intentionally left blank Chapter 1 English as a Cultural Universe 1.1. Englishthe Most Widely Used Language in the World Few would now disagree with the view expressed in Quirk et al.s (1985, 2) Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language that English is the worlds most important language. It is certainly the worlds most widely used language. As David Crystal noted more than a decade ago in his Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages (1992, 121), it is spoken by a large and ever-increasing number of people 800,000,000 by a conservative estimate, 1,500,000,000 by a liberal estimate. . . . It has official status in over 60 countries. Estimates also suggest that at least 150 million people use English fluently as a foreign language, and three or four times this number with some degree of competence. . . . English is also the language of international air traffic control, and the chief language of world publishing, science and technology. Crystals more recent estimates are even higher (Crystal 2001, 2003a, 2003b). In the words of the Indian American linguist Braj Kachru (1997, 69), the hunger for learning the languagewith whatever degree of competenceis simply insatiable. Given the rapidly expanding role of English in the contemporary world, it is hardly surprising that numerous books concerned with different aspects of English, both scholarly and pedagogical, are published every year. And yet there is one striking gap in this literature: although many books have been and are being published that link the Japanese language with Japanese culture or Chinese language with Chinese culture, hardly any recent books explore the links between the English language and Anglo culture. There are, no doubt, many reasons for this weakness within the huge literature dealing with English. I believe one of them is that in recent times considerable opposition has developed in the English-speaking world to the notion of a culture, that is, culture in the singular, an opposition linked with fears of essentialism and stereotyping. 3 4 Meaning, History, and Culture Although the notion of Japanese culture may be frowned on, it does not usually evoke a reaction as suspicious, or even hostile, as the notion of Anglo culture. No doubt this is partly because the Japanese language is spoken mostly in one region, whereas English is widely spoken in many different parts of the world. The question to whom does this language belong? posed recently (with respect to German) by the German Arab writer of Moroccan origin, Abdellatif Belfellah (1996), raises more problems in the case of English than, for example, in the case of Japanese (or indeed German), and it reverberates throughout the literature on English and Englishes (e.g., Hayhow and Parker 1994; Widdowson 1994). The very fact that the use of English is so widespread, and that its role in the modern world is so all-embracing, means that trying to link it with any particular culture or way of living, thinking, or feeling seems all the more problematic. From the point of view of people in the postcolonial world, for whom the local variety of English is often their native language or the main language used outside the domestic sphere, discussions of the links between English and Anglo culture may even seem offensive or at least insensitive. From the point of view of Anglo Celtic speakers of Englishin Britain, the United States, and elsewherediscussions of possible links between English and Anglo culture may also seem to be best avoided. Quirk et al. (1985, 16), for example, emphasize the cultural neutrality of English: English, which we have referred to as a lingua franca, is pre-eminently the most international of languages. Though the mention of the language may at once remind us of England, on the one hand, or cause association with the might of the United States on the other, it carries less implication of political or cultural specificity than any other living tongue. The authors do not deny the English language any cultural underpinning altogether: But the cultural neutrality of English must not be pressed too far. The literal or metaphorical use of such expressions as case law throughout the English-speaking world reflects a common heritage in our legal system; and allusions to or quotations from Shakespeare, the Authorized Version, Grays Elegy, Mark Twain, a sea shanty, a Negro spiritual or a Beatles songwittingly or nottestify similarly to a shared culture. The Continent means continental Europe as readily in America and even Australia and New Zealand as it does in Britain. At other times, English equally reflects the independent and distinct culture of one or the other of the English-speaking communities. (Quirk et al. 1985, 16) If English, which may remind us of England, nonetheless equally reflects the culture of numerous other communities, then the notion of a shared culture would seem to require some further discussion. But the subject is not mentioned again in that book. Crystals (2003b) influential recent books on the subject do not dwell on the issue of language and culture either. For example, his Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2003a), after noting that English is now the dominant or official language in over 75 territories (rather than 60, as in Crystal 1992), goes on to comment: With over 60 political and cultural histories to consider, it is difficult to find safe generalizations about the range of social functions with which English has come to be identified. General statements about the structure of the language are somewhat easier to make (Crystal 2003a, 106). English as a Cultural Universe 5 Clearly, if it is difficult to find safe generalizations about the social functions of English, the same applies to its cultural underpinnings, which are not discussed in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language any further. It is understandable that more than sixty cultural histories cant be all discussed at length in a one-volume encyclopedia. But the question still suggests itself: what about the shared culture mentioned, for example, by Quirk et al.s A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985)? The founder of modern general linguistics, Wilhelm von Humboldt, affirmed that there resides in every language a characteristic world-view . . . every language contains the whole conceptual fabric and mode of presentation of a portion of mankind (1988, 60). Although Humboldts language may now seem dated, twentieth-century language-and-culture studies have not undermined this viewquite the contrary. Should we now modify Humboldt to say every language but English? Because English, unlike other languages, is neutrala purely functional international language free from the baggage of any particular history and tradition? Or perhaps because English is so diversified that while sixty or more different traditions may be reflected in it there isnt any one tradition that provides some sort of shared conceptual fabric (in Humboldts sense)? With the growing importance of English in the contemporary world, there is an increasing urgency to the question of whether there is an irreconcilable conflict between, on the one hand, the view that English is shared by people belonging to many different cultural traditions and, on the other, the notion that English itself like any other languageis likely to have certain cultural assumptions and values embedded in it. The position taken in this book is that while there are many Englishes around the world (all of them worthy of recognition, appreciation, and study), there is also an Anglo Englishan English of the inner circle (Kachru 1985, 1992), including the traditional bases of English, where it is the primary language: . . . the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Crystal 2003b, 60) and that this Anglo English is not a cultural tabula rasa. 1.2. English and Englishes As the provocative title of Tom McArthurs The English Languages (1998) indicates, the word English (in the singular) and the phrase the English language have for many commentators become problematic. With the expansion of English worldwide came its diversification, and so many different varieties of English are now used in the world that the propriety of the term English itself is increasingly called into question. For millions of ordinary people, however, especially those who have their hearts set on learning English or having their children learn English, the news that according to some language professionals English does not exist any more is unlikely to be of much interest. On the other hand, the notion that there are many varieties of English and that in some contexts it may be appropriate to use the term English with a modifier can be relevant outside academic circles. The distinction between, for example, British English and American English is widely accepted as useful.1