Linguistic power comes from the ability to speak a language as well as to listen and understand it. It gives a sense of superiority to the person who possesses this characteristic. Effective communication is the key to gaining attention and dominion over the audience. Through this essay I will speak about the power English language holds over us today with various examples of countries that have English as their national language and some who don’t. I shall discuss the power of English with respect to the society and its functions, sexism, media, respect and aspects of translation.
When one thinks of ‘language’ it is the foundation to any form of communication. By means of verbal power one can authorise work, create awareness and even promote change. It is involved in every facet of life. In Robert Phillipson’s study of Linguistic Imperialism, we see how specific languages have gained control in the society, English being at the top of the list. With changing times, it is almost considered barbaric when one can’t speak the English language coherently. It has a distinct place in our lives. It poses a socio-economic threat when one cannot speak English in the periphery communities. Linguistic hegemony has gained its power by disempowering the other languages, it has assumed its place in various parts of the world. (Mustapha, 2014) We might assume that internationally this linguistic hegemony is visibly strong but the truth is in today’s globalised world English has almost become the ‘Global Villagers Language’. We can visibly notice that English has created a league of superior individuals, who have command over the language and as a result, strength in the faculties of media, politics as well as the society. Robert Phillipson talks about how the English language has gained this unanimous power in various strata of our lives. Phillipson said that English has achieved a dominion over other world languages because of its active promotion the working of international markets. It is the base of communication – be it legal or otherwise. (Phillipson, 2014) All the foreign policies as well as corporate promotional activities are held in English. It has become a factor in identity formation and has gained importance in all the developing countries thanks to the first world countries’ idea of unilinguist approach. Various countries including India, where we see language barriers, have opted to promote the usage of English language through all the States. However, we see this promotion and propagation only in the urban markets. The rural markets still hold steady with the usage of regional and local languages. Phillipson states that this linguistic hegemony has its strength thanks to popular opinion, however, there are ways to change the situation with simple things such as counter hegemonic power involving bilingual education, regional and cultural music and by shifting the importance from popular cultural norms to other internal factions. (Eriksen, 1992) International politics has made English the only source of communication and superiority. George Orwell, in his book about English language and politics, stated the decline of a language has economic and political consequences thus, English being used has its pros and cons. (Orwell, 2013) A global means of communication is necessary and the first step towards political regeneration but it can become the channel that is killing individualism.
Whilst considering other languages that are at play in the world, we see roots of English spread far and wide right from the colonial times. Languages such as French have considerable global importance given that France was a colonial super power, but English over took that race. The fight between the dominance of language started long before one actually looked at it from the perspective of communication. It had a lot to do with expansion of the English-speaking empire and political gains. (Kitchin, 2005)
When we consider sexism in language, we overlook a lot of factors. It has become a consensual norm to use certain pronouns in a gender-neutral sentence without actually realising it. Have you ever noticed the usage of pronouns 'he, him, his' in simple and neutral sentences? Why is it that the masculine pronouns have gained this priority? When we say English is not a sexist language, we overlook these minute aspects. Many feminists have stated that one feels like non-human with simple positions and job titles where do we see sexism for example in words like 'chairman' 'spokesman'. Our mind has been conditioned to situations such as these where masculine pronouns and words have been used generically. The underlying patriarchy that comes from the root of this language speaks even today. In French, Hindi or even Italian, we see distinctions in words that make them gender specific, giving them equal importance, but in case of English, this neutral perspective still visibly shows masculine dominance. The language shows bias in the sexes that was clearly formed through years of discrimination. (Lei, 2006) Women, in the past, were considered powerless and supposed to be home-makers. English does not possess any third person singular pronoun which is not discriminatory and gender neutral. It most definitely comes from linguistic inheritance developed in the Bad Old Days. Let's take an example of how the word ‘master’ means ‘host’ while the word ‘mistress’, which is the feminine of master does not mean ‘hostess’ but connotatively means ‘lover’. Similar case is visible when one states 'the man in the street' to be an ordinary person why 'the woman in the street' is indicated as a prostitute. (Nielsen, 1977) English has gained this importance because it easily stereotypes and generalizes situations with its words that aren't gender neutral and can have impactful meanings. (Meyerhoff, 2003) All forms of sexism in language is a problem in the society and is a reflection of the human thought process. The usage of sexist language happens on the unconscious level and therefore to eliminate it is impossible but one can fix the concept of prejudice in the human being thoughts. Rosalie Maggio states that it is of utmost importance to acknowledge the problem of sexism in society on the level of language alone, but conscious efforts can be made to make imperative changes.
Study suggests and examines that the influence of English language has become the global identity of media. With technology replacing face to face communication and new age media becoming dominant we see language play a key role. (Clark, 2013) With the political, economic and social changes in the contemporary society we see changes in education, the workplace and media. The dominance of English language in this sphere cannot go unnoticed. We see schools all over the world stressing on the importance of learning English. It is by and large one of the most taught and spoken languages in terms of education. Print Media on the other hand has been giving the English language a pillar of strength. Almost every digital print media company focused on perfect grammar and syntax and communicates in English. We see this growth in English language as it has become a global means of communication. To be updated with what is going on in the world one needs to know English. With an increasing number of new age media such as websites, blogs and social media we see creators focusing on English. Almost every written media has been created with the English language in mind. It also happens that when we translate from English to another language there are tons of errors, as the channel of communication was meant to be directly English. An investigation suggests that English has linguistic impacts on media. It's almost as if the computer speaks English and that is why it is imperative for us to learn it. Various legal and political agendas have been implemented to provide for the minority languages. These debates show a connection between education, expression as well as culture as international instruments and how the importance of minority languages have been deteriorating over time. Multilingualism is not easy and that cannot be forced upon the public which is why English has gained its way forward. Many savants state that English is putting the minority languages on death row and this leaving cultural integrity crippled. Although, in this case the picture is not entirely bleak, there are various interventions mainly to involve rights and obligations to facilitate the minority languages to maintain cultural diversity. English does have dominion over the minority languages but cultural authenticity add substance to minority languages. For someone like me, who speaks over 6 languages fluently, it doesn't seem like a far-fetched dream. However, it is visible that it poses a threat to various cultures, that rely on one single language, that is not English, for survival.
We see tons of barriers in terms of minority languages, sexism, hegemonic power with respect to English language. For a language that faces so much criticism and still maintains its superiority, we really need to give English the credits for surviving the global markets. Minority languages and their usage has been termed barbaric by some who belie that superiority lies in the English language. English holds so much power in our daily life that we all overlook that there are divisions within the language too. In case of dialects of the English language we notice that the Western dialects namely the British and the American accents and words have gained power over the minority dialects of English language. In case of an American who speaks English vis-à-vis a Nigerian who speaks English, western supremacy leads us to believe that the American speaking in English has more credibility than the Nigerian. (Mpofu, 2014) Apart from the linguistic hegemony that English already holds we need to fight this stereotypical perspective that is actually causing danger for the developing and the underdeveloped countries. (Mianda, 2014) It is a growing cause for concern because this ideology of supremacy has been labelled. Through these many years English has become the medium for various people to communicate. (Wu, 2016) This communication in English has also caused the death of many minority languages. In India, English is considered as a language that enhances one’s status. There was this movie named Hindi medium that gained popular attention because it depicted how studying in an English medium school meant that one belonged to the highest strata of the society and not being able to study in English would make their child incompetent for the world.
The English-speaking empire grew because of the British colonial era and the American hegemonic power. However, we see greater power in the American Hegemony, right from slangs to the accent, it used cultural propagation as a soft power rather than drastic steps such as colonising. English is a global citizen’s language but having said that it has gained its importance because it was the accepted outcome of colonialism. It is at the end of the day an accepted form of colonialism that still exists within the independent world.