Diversity is More Than Grammatical Diversity: A Response to Terry Crowley's Review Article: Linguistic Diversity in the Pacific

A rejoinder to Terry Crowley's "Linguistic Diversity in the Pacific" (1999), suggests that the agenda of Muhlhausler's Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region (1996) was not to offer a politically correct interpretation of language los...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of sociolinguistics 1999-05, Vol.3 (2), p.255-288
Main Author: Muhlhausler, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Language Maintenance
Language Shift
Language Varieties
Linguistics
Methodological Problems
Methodology (Philosophical)
Oceania
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Summary:A rejoinder to Terry Crowley's "Linguistic Diversity in the Pacific" (1999), suggests that the agenda of Muhlhausler's Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region (1996) was not to offer a politically correct interpretation of language loss in the Pacific, but to look for the truth of the situation. The simple contention of the volume is that the tools employed by most linguists are not suited for this task. Most linguists have sought merely to develop a grammar or lexicon of a language without asking questions about the role of humans in language making. For this reason, an ecological linguistic paradigm is needed. Crowley's contention that the book seeks to deny indigenous languages the right to change is refuted. Rather, the issue in question is the possibility of adaptive change in a context in which social & technological development has greatly reduced cultural & natural diversity. 11 References. D. Ryfe
ISSN:1360-6441
1467-9841
DOI:10.1111/1467-9481.00074