[lit-ideas] "She speaks European"

 
 
In a message dated 7/30/2004 1:02:46 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
JL has  provided a healthy trove of references to 'African Language,'  
'African
Language Program[s].' and the like. Yet it still doesn't follow,  as Paul 
Grice
of happy memory would have reminded us, that there is such a  language as
African.
If there is a corresponding 'European Language  Teachers Association.' I'm 
pretty
sure that its members neither study nor  speak a language called 'European.'


---- Ah, the problem of the indefinite 'an'. 
 
The issue certainly becomes more subtle when we speak of "European" (as  
opposed to "African", or "Asian" -- there are too many languages in those  
continents). Surely, if you hear Mr. Pappandreu speak in Modern Greek, the  
statement
 
      (1) Mr. Pappandreu speaks Greek.
 
entails (among historians of language):
 
    (2) Mr. Pappandreu speaks Indo-European.
 
Oddly, R. Paul seems to be suggesting that (2) is a _sloppy_ variant  of what 
R. Paul would have as more correct:
 
   (3) Mr. Pappandreu speaks _an_ Indo-European language --  viz.: Greek.
 
The issue ("Do not multiply languages beyond necessity") was once attacked  
by Geary, in "The Foundations of Language: The Willhelm Herder  Lectures"

"We speak of English, the  English, and the Englishes.
       But we don't speak [of] the Japaneses.  Language, and
       Languages, are cultural constructions  [Derrida, op. cit]. 
       The Hun, The German, the Teutonic,  (all) refer to _Family_, 
       not Genus -- let alone, as some may  wish it, _species_.
       It's back to "The Tongues of Men", as  the Bible nonsexistly
       puts it [sexistly?]. The bottomline  is: all dialect[ic]al differences 
       are arbitrary ['dialectic'] and  there's only The One and Only 
       Language that Mankind at Large Should  Speak -- and I
       speak it (at large)." 
 
Cheers,
 
JL

 


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