Unial Sketch Grammar: for Speakers of English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (original) (raw)
Related papers
A History of Modern Translation Knowledge. Sources, concepts, effects, 2018
This chapter surveys the various kinds of universal language that have existed throughout history and their relationship with translation. Up to and beyond the Early Modern period, debates on the subject tended to be couched in mystical or religious terms, and were concerned primarily with rediscovering languages postulated as original or perfect, considered to be embodiments of God’s creation. Then from the 17th century, attention turned to the need for a global language that could serve as a vehicle for science, trade and education, and foster world peace. This led to the development of, first, philosophical languages, such as those proposed by Dalgarno, Wilkins and Leibniz, which involved the a priori construction of philosophical grammars of supposedly universal concepts that were then used to generate a range of invented terms; and then to the International Auxiliary Languages of the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g Volapük, Esperanto and Ido), based on natural languages rather than created from scratch. Today, discussions tend to centre around perennial questions relating to linguistic universals and/or political and practical matters arising from the role of English as lingua franca of the globalized world.
Plurilingualism and Universalism
EOP Newsletter - Editorial 91, 2022
When we created the European Observatory for Plurilingualism in 2005, we had no idea that the issue of languages and plurilingualism could be at the heart of a political and philosophical debate absolutely fundamental for the present and future. Our initial questioning was provoked by a very rapid phenomenon which marked our European linguistic space. On the one hand, it was the fact that within a few years English had established itself as the almost sole language of use within the European institutions and, on the other hand, the spectacular acceleration of the penetration of the French language by Anglicisms. And these two questions were all the more intense as none of the founders of the OEP, who were fine linguists or had a good linguistic culture, were hostile to the English language or had any kind of defensive or purist position with regard to the French language.
Language Universals: Myth or reality?
Recently I looked through my student essays and I believe that at least one of them "Language Universals: Myth or reality?" deserves to be placed on my Academia page and could be useful at least as a digest with links to some key sources in this field. When reading it please treat it generously as a non peer-reviewed student work. It was also one of my first papers written in English.
This volume contains all contributions pertaining to the second edition of I Dialoghi di San Giorgio, organized by the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the topic: The Architectures of Babel. Linguists, semiologists, philosophers, sociologists, scientists and poets discuss on the role of languages in cultural, ethnic and religious integration or clash. Starting from contemporary examples, scholars interpret Babel diaspora as a resource that replaced the impossible ideal of one unique language with the fruitful alternative of translation. The issue under discussion is the mutation of languages, which today seem more and more syncretisms of words, graphs, numbers, images, rather than verbal systems. And, against the effects of «globalised society», scholars try to understand how languages can increase the value of cultural specificity, how they can favour new knowledge structures, how they can play a role in preserving, while promoting, cultural differences.