Danesi M., Rocci A. Global Linguistics - An Introduction

Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co., 2009. — X, 270 p.The book provides an introduction to an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that can be called "global linguistics" (GL). GL emerges to tackle the ever-growing phenomenon of intercultural communication (IC) in today's world of international contacts. The specific aim of GL is to look at the form and contents of dialogues among speakers of different cultural backgrounds who will use a "default language" or koiné (usually English) to interact, in order to detect communication breakdowns at various levels of "depth", as well as the opportunities for developing sound intercultural communication practice.The book includes an accessible presentation of fundamental questions concerning languages and language use. Among the questions addressed are the universal design features of languages, the connection between language and conceptual systems, how people use language to coordinate their actions and interact in a variety of social contexts, and the place of language in a semiotic view of culture. The volume also addresses how language, context and culture shape the way in which we argue a point and try to persuade other people, and why intercultural argumentation is both necessary and risky.Global Linguistics: An Introduction describes fundamental notions in linguistics and cognate fields and is thus well-suited for use as a textbook in courses dealing with IC in general. At the same time, the book is of general interest to scholars in linguistics and communication studies, as it places particular emphasis on theoretical models such as argumentation theory and conceptual metaphor theory, which are generally not presented in textbooks on language and IC.In a world where telecommunications technologies have made it routine for people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to interact on a daily basis, the risk for conflict based on misunderstanding has increased significantly. It goes without saying, therefore, that the need to understand the forms and meanings of the language used in such interactions has become an urgent one. The study of such use can be pigeonholed, for the sake of convenience, under the rubric of global linguistics, defined tentatively as the study of how the native languages of speakers influence the outcomes of intercultural interactions.Although much has been written on language in intercultural communication, relatively little effort has been expended to integrate the research and the theories in a textbook fashion. As instructors of a course on the topic of linguistic aspects of intercultural communication at the University of Lugano, we have always, in fact, had to prepare our own handouts, tailoring them to meet the needs of our students. We soon realized that these could be integrated into a manual with a broader focus. This book constitutes, in effect, our reworking of those materials into a systematic introduction to a field that, as mentioned, we wish to call “global linguistics”.