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Saleh Al-Raeesi
Saleh Al-Raeesi
Shersta Chabot
ENG 108
Feb 4, 2015
Rhetorical analysis-“Across cultures, English is the word”
“Across cultures, English is the word” is an article written by Seth Mydans for the New
York Times which has a global readership base. The article sets out to convince the readers that
English has truly become a global language and will remain so for a long time to come and this
paper is a rhetorical analysis that tries to establish if the writer has made a persuasive argument
using the rhetorical appeals of pathos, logos and ethos.
Logos
In this article, the writer relies on objective evidence to make his arguments and thus
convince the reader that his point is valid. He also presents opposing views and skillfully
manages to counter those arguments using logic.
To prove that English is the most dominant language in the globe today and is going to
stay that way, the writer points out that one fourths of the world’s population can communicate
to some degree in English (Mydans).
To prove how English has permeated society, Seth points out that English is a common
language in almost every endeavor from science, air traffic control and global Jihad where it is
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used to connect Arab speaking members and the non Arab speaking. He reinforces this fact by
stating that even for native speakers like Chinese, Hindi and Spanish, it is English that they use
to communicate across cultures and it is English that they teach their children to help them
become citizens of an intertwined world. He further goes on to state that call centers across the
globe use English while radio pop caries the language to every Conner of the world. The
invasion of English alongside the global economy where an example organizations in Sweden
which is English even though they are in Sweden goes to reinforce the argument even further.
Lastly the author mentions that English is every body’s second language adding that in many
places, to be educated is to know how to speak the language (Mydans).
The author continues to use logos to show that even though variations of the language
have arisen, there is no threat of these variations to destroy the language as has been the case in
the past but rather they tend to reinforce its dominance (Mydans).
The author points out where variations of the English language has occurred citing
Singapore, Nigeria and the Caribbean but states that the emergence of these variations have been
curtailed by increasing literacy rates (Mydans).
Apart from the emergence of diverse English forms, the writer also indicates that there
are increasing number of literature emerging from these variations citing the case of Shakespeare
translations into New Papua Guinea and the translation of the Don Quixote into a hybrid of
English and Spanish that is spoken along the Mexican American border. Rather than lead to the
demise of English, these variations the author notes will only strengthen the language since to
him it is too entrenched to die out. Therefore the language is according to him going to survive
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but will be one of the family of its variations that will be spoken across the globe. This to him is
quite different to what happened with Latin (Mydans).
The writer also goes ahead to use logos to prove why the language is too entrenched. To
support his argument, the writer points out that globalization and the dominance of English have
gone hand in hand with globalization reinforcing each other. He points to the internet where he
shows that though there is an increase of traffic in other languages, English remains the common
language. He boosts this idea by stating that though Estonian has an amazing web presence;
Estonians use English to communicate with others outside their country. Indeed the author goes
on to say that none native English speakers are three times more than the native English speakers
adding that teaching English has become a multibillion dollar industry with a third of the global
population being expected to learn the language soon (Mydans).
The writer breaks down the figures showing that 400 million people speak English as
their native language, 300 to 500 million speak it as a fluent second language and 750 million as
a foreign language. He goes on to add that the United States which is the largest English
speaking in the world has only 20% of the English speaking population while Asia alone has an
estimated 350 million English speakers which is almost the same number as speakers in Britain,
United States and Canada (Mydans).
To further illustrate how non English speaking countries are fast adopting the language,
the writer points out that Jun Liu of China who is a non native speaker of English was for the
first time elected President of the global education association teachers of English to speakers of
other languages. As such, even with the collapse of the language in Britain, it will still continue
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to dominate in the global arena since those who were colonized by the language are now
remaking it, domesticating it, and becoming more and more relaxed using it (Mydans).
On the other hand, the author point out that skeptics of the entrenchment of English point
out that the same advance of technology that pushed the language to the global arena may be its
undoing indicating that software that could perfectly translate languages thus making it
unnecessary for one to learn a global language like English. While the author agrees with this, he
counters the argument by pointing out that more and more universities are shifting towards
English even though there are still challenges (Mydans).
In sum, the author uses logos to show how the language has risen in the global arena,
why it may not collapse with the emergence of variations as other languages like Latin did, to
show how deep rooted the globalization of the language has become and also to strengthen his
arguments by providing contrasting views then countering them.
Ethos
Ethos is the use of the writer’s status to enhance an argument’s credibility and though the
writer has not provided their own credentials, he heavily relies on sources that have impressive
credentials to make out arguments.
To illustrate the rise of the language the writer uses Nicholas Olster who is a widely
known author with the book History of the world under his name as stating that the rise of
English is a phase like any other phase of language that was dominant like Latin. However he
quickly introduces another scholar and sets his credentials as an expert in the English language
and author of English as a global language who states that the world we live in today has
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changed so drastically that history is no longer a guide adding that for the first time, English is a
language that is truly being spoken on a global scale.
The writer further introduces John McWhorter who he mentions as being a linguist at the
Manhattan institute and also the author of “The tower of Babel” who states that English is
dominant in a way that no language has been before (Mydans).
To prove how deep rooted English as a global language has become, the author quotes
Mark Warsheur whose credentials are stated as being a professor of education and informatics at
California University who states that it has gotten to the point where in any part of the world, to
be educated means to know English (Mydans).
Lastly, to prove that the rise of the variant forms of English will not create the downfall
of the language, the author points to Jean-Paul Nerrière, whose credentials are given as a retired
vice president of IBM USA, who is French who states that at some point there will be a version
of simplified English spoken across the globe that will have only about 15000 words (Mydans).
From the article, it is thus clear that the author has heavily relied on Ethos to boost the
credibility of his arguments. In fact, the author has used this tactic so well that one gets the
feeling that this paper is a discourse of the English language by prominent scholars.
Pathos
Pathos is a way of using emotions to gain approval for ones arguments. However, in this
argument the author did not rely on Pathos very much only using it to define English as a global
language. He further used pathos when he quotes Jean-Paul Nerrière stating that we are the
majority referring to those who speak the language as a second or foreign language (Mydans).
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Summary
In this Article, “Across cultures, English is the word” the author sets out to convince
readers of the New York times that English has become a global language that cuts across
cultures and is here to stay and has indeed done impressive work by using different persuasive
skills. In the article, the author has used logos not only by presenting facts but also to bring out
contrasting arguments and countering those arguments effectively. He has also managed to
skillfully apply the use of ethos to make the article appear more than a discourse of eminent
scholars on the subject rather than his own work. Lastly though he did not rely on pathos very
much, there are still incidents where he managed to do so.
As a result the author makes a very strong case that English is a global language that is
spoken across cultures and there is no feasibility of it being upstaged in the near future.
Reference
Mydan, Seth. “Across cultures, English is the word”. The New York Times, April 9th, 2007.
Web, February 16th 2015.