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This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world, bringing in approaches from linguistics, sociology, history, political philosophy, and psychology. It provides the basic tools to analyse different kinds of multilingualism, and suggests questions and problems for discussion at the end of each chapter.
List of contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1: The polyphonic world
- 2: Multilingualism is...: Twenty definitions - and more
- 3: Descriptive and theoretical concepts
- 4: Power, inequality, and language
- 5: The polyglot individual
- 6: Multilingual (international) institutions
- 7: Talk of the town: Language in super-diverse cities
- 8: Multilingual (multiethnic) countries
- 9: Diversity in cyberspace: The multilingual Internet
- 10: Integration and separation: Language
- 11: Integration and separation: Society
- 12: Research methods for investigating multilingualism
- References
About the author
Florian Coulmas is Senior Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Duisberg-Essen University. He has previously held teaching and research positions at Georgetown University, Chuo University Tokyo, and the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. From 2004 to 2014 he served as Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. His publications include The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems (Blackwell, 1999), Writing and Society (CUP, 2014), and Guardians of Language (OUP, 2016).
Summary
This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world, bringing in approaches from linguistics, sociology, history, political philosophy, and psychology. It provides the basic tools to analyse different kinds of multilingualism, and suggests questions and problems for discussion at the end of each chapter.
Additional text
Florian Coulmas offers a fresh perspective on multilingualism that sets a new standard for an introductory text on the topic. Its coverage is impressive, with fascinating examples from a wide range of spheres, demonstrating vividly the dynamic nature of the multilingual phenomena. It will attract generations of new researchers to the topic and put them on the right track.
