Are Languages Exchangeable?

An Inquiry into the Dominance of English

Abstract

As globalization proceeds, English is becoming regarded as more and more important around the world. The dominance of English has evoked a range of controversy, but views differ even among its critics. The point is whether languages are exchangeable or not. To clarify the relation between language and culture, this paper first look into linguistic relativity. Laboratory experiments by cognitive linguists clearly show that language has inherent properties to affect our thought. But this is not the whole story. Language can influence our thought through not-inherent ways. That is, English has an ideological function in the globalizing world. Our world is increasingly dominated by neoliberalist market system, where everything is becoming exchangeable commodities. This was not the case decades ago, where colonialism was powered by the tight connection between language and culture. Thus, finding an alternative to neoliberalist globalization is the prerequisite for overcoming the dominance of English