Partner Search
Copenhagen Business School
The Danish co-ordinator of a project proposal within EU FP7 – SSH-2009 5.2.1
“Vehicular languages in Europe in an era of globalisation” seeks partners from
Central European Countries
(EU member states or associated countries) with
interests and competences combining languages and sociology, economics, politics
and psychology, within themes such as for instance:
 Sociolingistics
 Sociology of language
 Language policy
 Education economy
 Language and (political, economic) power
 Language and identity
 Culture, power and diglossia
 German and/or Russian as vehicular languages in East and Central Europe –
historical and contemporary aspects
Kontact person: Ms. Annedorte Vad - av.research@cbs.dk.
For further details, see the enclosed project description.
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SSH-2009 – 5.2.1. Vehicular languages in Europe in an era of globalisation: history, policy,
practice.
In a multilingual setting it is often the case that a particular language fulfils the role of a vehicular
language, or lingua franca, between speakers of different languages. The integration and close
cooperation between 27 states within the EU poses a practical challenge to the fundamental level of
communication and intercourse that is constituted by language, and entails further questions of a
social, economic and political nature in terms of power and effects on cultural and political
identities. The present research proposal addresses the question of multilingualism vs. a common
lingua franca by an interdisciplinary approach, combining theories and methods from the
humanities and from the social sciences. It comprises two parts: 1. A historical background study on
the use of vehicular languages and an overview of the theory of linguistic typology underlying the
research, and 2. Descriptive and experimental studies, which on the common theoretical foundation
provided by the theory examine linguistic, cognitive and socio-political effects of the use of a single
common language on society at large. This proposal, by its theoretical foundation and
interdisciplinary character, innovates the field by making the use of a lingua franca amenable to
scientific investigation and experimental scrutiny.
Project description
1. Preamble:
1.1 A historical study of the use of vehicular languages and diglossia situations in Europe and other
parts of the world, assessing the fundamental difference between the present and past situations. It
seeks to uncover the fundamental differences between the unbalanced situations with a politically
and economically dominant language suppressing (a) smaller language(s), and the “genuine lingua
franca” situation, where a common (third or mixed) language is adopted through a free choice by
speakers of different mother tongues.
1.2 The theoretical basis of the project is the theory of lexical typology elaborated over the past 12
years by the research group TYPOlex at Copenhagen Business School, expanded by recent
advances in cognitive science and sociology. The core of the theory is the recognition that a
language is not just a communication system, but also, and not least, a conceptualising tool that
structures the world of its speakers. It follows that the underlying lexical and grammatical systems
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of different languages determine the organisation of phenomena of the world into different
cognitive landscapes. Speakers of different languages thus do not conceptualise reality in the same
way and any lingua franca carries along its own identity and culture and therefore forces its own
categories and cultural conception of the world onto those who use it, and can thus become the
expression of communicative power and an instrument for increased influence.
The hypotheses following from this theoretical point of departure are then tested through two
series of studies with both linguistic, cognitive, and sociological, socio-political dimensions.
2. Descriptive studies:
A series of comprehensive descriptive studies on different text types such as advertising, textbooks,
and communication from the EU institutions to the citizens. These studies look into the cultural,
economical and political consequences of the use of a single lingua franca, as opposed to
multilingualism, from both a linguistic and cognitive, and a sociological and political point of view.
3. Experimental studies:
Large-scale experimental studies on acceptance and understanding of the lingua franca and the
matching communicative skill in different communication situations are carried out on different
populations representing different language types and according to sociological parameters such as
gender, class, education, age and nationality.
Conclusions
The aim of the project is, on a sound scientific basis, to seek to improve communication between
European citizens and the EU institutions by suggesting alternatives to the ‘lingua franca only’
strategy in order to preserve the linguistic and cultural diversity the EU is committed to (see e.g. the
communication from the Commission: A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism of
22.11.2005). The project sketches concrete plans, which in keeping with the spirit of the Barcelona
declaration and the Lisbon strategy seek to strengthen the European languages in education and
mass media through an active language policy. The theoretical foundation and the findings of the
project offer an account of how the use of a single lingua franca influences the thinking of people in
terms of categorisation and conceptualisation of the world, reduces their possibilities of expressing
themselves freely, in fact forces them to say what they can, not necessarily what they want to, and
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interferes with their feeling of identification with the European project on their own terms and
premises through their constitutional right to participate in all kinds of debates.