Maxi-Min Language Use A Critical Remark on a Concept by Philippe van Parijs
Maxi-Min Language Use A Critical Remark on a Concept by Philippe van Parijs
Author(s): Jan KruseSubject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Language studies, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: maxi-min; minimex; linguistic justice; language policy; language choice;
Summary/Abstract: Philippe van Parijs explains in Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World the concept of maxi-min language use as a process of language choice. He suggests that the language chosen as a common language should maximize the minimal competence of a community. Within a multilingual group of people, the chosen language is the language known best by a participant who knows it least. For obvious reasons, only English would qualify for having that status. This article argues that maxi-min is rather a normative concept, not only because the process itself remains empirically unfounded. Moreover, language choice is the result of complex social and psychological structures. As a descriptive process, the maxi-min choice happens in the reality fairly seldom, whereas the max-mini use of languages seen as a normative process could be a very effective tool to measure linguistic justice.
Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, European and Regional Studies
- Issue Year: 2016
- Issue No: 09
- Page Range: 63-70
- Page Count: 8
- Language: English