Search

It is shown that the two sets of criteria yield different lists and hierarchies of the top 10 languages: I Ethnologue i - English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Malay vs. The top 10 languages are next analyzed from the perspective of the relation between language and power inherent in [5] model known as the "Global Language System", in which languages are classified into hypercentral (English), supercentral (e.g. French and Spanish), central (typical of nation-states) and peripheral (local, minority languages). Chapter 7, "Language and war", is an overview of the conflicts over languages, given that language is an important marker of in-group membership as opposed to out-groups. All the interviewees were from highly multilingual countries; most of them speak three languages - one of which is among the five most powerful ones (i.e. English, Chinese, French, Spanish or Arabic) - and are able to communicate in English. [Extracted from the article]

Timothy Brennans Borrowed Light is a wide-ranging critique of contemporary postcolonial theory by way of a return to intellectual history. Brennan counter-poses a tradition of institutional commitment, systemic thought, and polemic in Vico and Hegel to the interest in subjectivity, fragments, and language games found in Nietzsche andBataille. He suggests that though the latter has been ascendant since the late 80s, the former school of thought in fact has been the key to overturning colonialism in the past and continues to be so today. This review critically appraises Brennans challenging work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "A Living Language: Selected Aspects of Tok Pisin in the Press (on the Basis of Wantok Newspaper)," by Marcin Walczyński.

The article reviews the book "Tristan da Cunha and the Tristanians," by Daniel Schreier and Karen Lavarello-Schreier.