LINGUISTIC DIMENSION OF GLOBAL POLITICS: HISPANOPHONE

148 Pages·1.749 MB·Russian

by  KOVALEVSKAIA NATALIA

Golden Mile
GeRManY
Natalia
Kovalevskaia
Linguistic Dimension
of gLobaL PoLitics:
HispanopHone
BERLIN · 2013
Reviewed by: Y.N. Gladky, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Doctor of Geography O.L. Tserpinskaya, Doctor of Political Sciences
Academic Editor: V.S. Yagya, Honorary Academician of the Russian Federation, Honorary
Professor of Saint Petersburg State University, Professor, Doctor of History
Published with support from the corporate group
Club ROM (Russian Orthodox Maecenas),
Bossner and CLAN Magazine.
Natalia Vladimirovna Kovalevskaia
Linguistic Dimension of Global Politics: Hispanophone
This book contains an analysis of the current issues regarding the relationship
of language and society in the context of global politics. In the academic sense, the
linguistic dimension of global politics is a new line of research that focuses on a range
of international relations, which form a unique lingua-political, lingua-economic and
lingua-cultural infrastructure of the modern world in the era of globalization. In the
author’s opinion, the experience of Hispanophone in this context provides the most
relevant example.
For various specialists in international politics and international relations,
students, undergraduates and graduate students of universities and other academic
institutions, as well as for anyone who is interested in the contemporary development
of the global community.
© N.V. Kovalevskaia, 2013
Publisher's note
I have to admit that when the draft of this manuscript landed on my desk, as an
international publisher, I had my doubts about the significance of this research not
only for the experts, but also for a wide range of readers.
However, after reading it, I realized that the questions addressed by the author
had been concerning me for a long time. Such topics as the interdependence of
languages and the global community, changes within the cultural and linguistic
dimension in the time of globalization and lingua-economics have become
remarkably relevant for international businesses, amongst others the diversified
Golden Mile GmbH group, which took on the responsibility for publishing this
book.
Despite the fact that I disagree with certain conclusions that Natalia
Kovalevskaia draws throughout her research, I must point out that “thought thrives
on conflict”. These “conflicts of opinions” have helped me recognize the vital
importance of supporting the development of the Russian language and culture.
Several years ago, I founded a Children’s Theater Studio in Berlin. Its main
purpose is to promote the study of Russian language and culture among the
Russian-speaking children. The experience of raising three children in Germany
and twenty years of successful business in this country have proven to me how
difficult it is for the Russian families to preserve their culture and language abroad.
I am convinced that Russian-speaking businesses should bear the responsibility of
promoting Russian cultural and linguistic values outside Russia.
Dear reader! One can say a lot about this book, make it a subject for a debate
or listen to someone’s conclusions, yet forming your own opinion is the best way
to go.
Therefore, I sincerely hope that this book’s message has at least the same
impact on your life as it has had on mine.
Chairman of the board of Directors
of the Golden Mile Gmbh Group
baron Konstantin von bossner
3

introDuCtion
The relevance of the following research is determined by the increasing
value of the linguistic factor in global politics. Various global events,
international relations, activity of international governmental and non-
governmental organizations, interaction and intertwining of diverse global
political actors, national relations and contradictions, regional conflicts and
their settlement or, on the contrary, their escalation are rather dependent
upon the nature of cross-language relations and the institutionalization of
unification processes for countries and peoples who share the same language
and use it to establish global, regional or national language policies. Many
global events implement the ideas of monoculturalism, multilingualism,
linguistic genocide, lingua-political misbalance of public forces, national
interests related to its language and its role in the world, as well as the
presence or absence of lingua-political tension in multilingual countries.
The aforementioned implies that the linguistic factor is multidimensional.
It represents a set of processes formed by the language itself, its status, its
role in the world, the region and the country, the developmental principles
of the national and global language policy, its actual results, linguistic
integration and disintegration trends, language as the foreign policy tool,
language variety, language cooperation, globalization and disappearance
of languages, lingua-political organizations and their activity, linguistic
foundations of political, territorial or administrative state mechanisms,
language rights, linguistic rivalry and other linguistic landmarks of social
development, e.g. education. The global phenomenon of linguaphone
(Francophone, Hispanophone, Lusophone, Finno-Ugric sphere and others)
has to be pointed out as a component of the linguistic factor influencing
global politics. Linguaphone is a linguistic, geographical, human, social,
political and institutional space for state and non-governmental activities.
Linguaphone is defined within the two following aspects: all countries and
groups of people speaking a particular language and various institutions
or organizations that co-ordinate, regulate and defend the interests of
these countries and groups of people in the global community. Thus,
linguaphone is the major structural component of the linguistic dimension
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of global politics. At the same time, its institutions are an integral part of
the transnational environment within global politics.
Hispanophone plays one of the most significant roles among all
linguaphones that match the aforementioned criteria. Hispanophone
possesses appreciable political weight in the world and has substantial
influence on global politics. Its global political potential is significant, yet
not fully implemented. In the near future the Spanish language is likely to
narrow the political and intellectual field of the English language in the USA
to a great extent. The role of Latin America in global politics will further
increase due to its growing political and economic power. Consequentially,
Hispanophone will receive new stimulus for the development and influence
of international relations in the context of globalization, and the formation
of the 21st century world order. Hispanophone will then take an even more
active part in setting the conditions and landmarks for the world order of
the 22nd century.
Hispanophone is integrally intertwined in the formation of the
multipolar world, in the evolution of global political spaces and in the
transformation of the cultural (in the broad meaning) image of the Spanish-
speaking world.
All these circumstances convincingly indicate the importance of
academic research of Hispanophone in the context of global politics.
This research gains even more relevance considering the fact that Latin
America, and especially Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and
Colombia became powerful figures in the global political arena by the end
of the 20th century. Although these countries are in different stages of
development, both ideologically and practically, they are related through
language, geography and history. When reflecting upon his conversations
with the king of Spain in March 2009 in Madrid, the president of the Russian
Federation Dmitry Medvedev noted that “meetings of such level would
support cooperation between Russia and the Spanish-speaking world”1.
This fact once again underlines that independent of the contradictions
between Spain and the Latin American countries, intercontinental political
solidarity with language in the center point remains invariable in most cases.
However, there still exist significant difficulties in studying the interaction,
interference and intertwining of Hispanophone and global politics.
The questions addressed in the monograph have been insufficiently
studied and theoretically not interpreted until present. Many of them have
not been researched at all. Furthermore, certain fundamental problems
remain debatable. There are no comprehensive, competent and detailed
monographic works that address Hispanophone in the context of global
political processes, and the science that some academics propose to name
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“glottopolitics2. There has been no large-scale theoretical work in the
field of the linguistic dimension of global politics that could substantiate
conceptual ideas and state the academic foundations in this line of research.
The only exception is I.V. Chernov's summary that points out the influence
of language on global politics3. In the context of the linguistic dimension, the
author of this monograph addresses Francophone and its political institute
The International Organization of La Francophonie that was founded in
order to unite the French-speaking countries and peoples, guided by the
French culture, French humanistic values and the French perspective of the
world in the context of global politics and mutual influence.
Unfortunately, the Hispanophonic component of global politics is
poorly studied at present. Only certain aspects of it are being researched
by a variety of scholars (T.L. Kalentyeva, S.M. Istman, O.A. Kornilov,
A.A. Leontyev, O.A. Leontovich, M. Lepretre, A.Y. Musorin, L.M.
Muharyamova, I.M. Tatarovskaya, N.N. Troshina, M. Fettes and A. Fill)4,
mainly from the perspective of sociolinguistics, ecolinguistics and other
linguistic disciplines. At the same time one should agree with the statement
that “linguistics moves towards the study of international relations through
the development of sociolinguistics and other interdisciplinary areas”.
However, it will be more precise to speak about sociolinguistics moving
parallel to the study of global politics or at the very least, towards the
current state of international relations and global politics5. It is necessary to
take into consideration the viewpoint of foreign researchers Birgit Donker,
S. Baker, S. Johns and G. Lakoff6 that language is politics. Therefore, its
increasing role in global politics possesses high potential.
An example of an academic article with no global political approach
towards Hispanophone is M.S. Puig's “Spanish language and languages of
Spain”7. Worth mentioning is the statement of a famous Latin American
author Carlos Fuentes that, “having laid aside nonsenses and stories of
genocide, it has to be admitted that Spain has given us our treasure: the
Spanish language”8. Juan Carlos, the king of Spain replied: “I believe
that we have given something even more important: our blood. Unlike
Anglo-Saxons, Spaniards have mixed their blood with the blood of all
Latin American nations”9. His point of view echoes with the formula of
civilization, based on the “language and culture” principle. The research
results of Russian and Spanish scholars V.M. Davydov, B.Y. Subichus,
Y.G. Shemyakin, V.Y. Yakovets, Numberto Morales, V. Pérez-Díaz, and
Isidro Sepúlveda10 draw us to the conclusion that the borders of human
civilizations follow language and lifestyle “habitats”. Back in 1999 V.S.
Yagya11 stated in his course of lectures on “Geography and Global Politics”
that the future world order will consist of interacting and intertwining
7
worlds. These worlds were conventionally named the Russian world,
including all countries where Russian is widely used, the Euro-Atlantic
world with the prevalence of the English language, the Ibero-American
world with the dominating Spanish language, the Chinese world, the Arab
world, the Japanese world and others. According to V.S. Yagya, they will
primarily arise from the language communities in the context of integration
processes, where linguistic geography will coincide with culture, which
includes language. Similarly, S. Huntington uses a geolinguistic approach
and states that “the global language propagation has always reflected the
spread of authority in the world throughout history”12. Despite the poly-
structural and multi-actoral nature of global politics, states will long remain
its main driving forces, figurants, players, participants or, using the more
common term, actors. This, however, should not lower the status of other
actors in global politics (transnational corporations, non-governmental
organizations, etc.) Language ranks high in the activities of the states and
other figurants in the global arena. Relations established by native speakers
intertwine with global political processes and make the universal political
environment more complex. It is not coincidental that S. Huntington, O.A.
Leontovich, A.Y. Musorin and H.M. Blekua13 define language as one of the
main elements of any civilization.
S. Huntington's monograph “Who are we? The Challenges to America's
National Identity”14 helps cover the topic of the present research. One of its
chapters addresses the same subjects as in this thesis, but just applicable
to the USA. However, the title of this chapter already speaks for itself:
“Mexican immigration and Hispanicization”. This American scholar
makes three indicative conclusions regarding the situation in the USA after
an immigration wave from Mexico and other Latin American countries:
1. The USA underwent certain changes at the end of the twentieth century
that have potential, if not stopped, to split America into an English-Spanish
society with two official languages. 2. Mexican immigration leads to
demographic “Reconquista” of the areas captured by the United States
in the 1830-1840s. 3. “Mexicanization, including immigration from other
Latin American countries, causes the spread of the Spanish language and
the formation of typical Hispanic social, cultural and linguistic practices in
the USA. Finally, Huntington does not even exclude the linguistic collapse
of the USA (Graham Fuller, Robert Kaplan, Morris Janowitz particularly
address this problem in their works)15. Other Russian and foreign scholars
who cover these topics in their writings are V.M. Davydov, N.F. Mikheyeva,
V.P. Narumov, V.L. Hayt, Y.G. Shemyakin, M. Blanco and V.Pérez-Díaz16.
M.S. Puig's aforementioned article17 does not approach Hispanophone
from the global political perspective, yet plays an important role in the
8
understanding of the linguistic situation. The opinions on the constitutional
position of the official languages in Spain (Spanish - official language,
Catalan - regional language in the autonomous community Catalonia,
Galician language in Galicia, and Basque language in the Basque
communities) are accurately traced in the article. Puig also distinguishes
the challenges of the cross-language relations that have developed in Spain.
In fact, we consider that the bilingualism in the Spanish autonomies,
primarily in the Basque Communities and Catalonia, where the regional
languages are clearly dominant, must hinder the expansion of the political
and cultural propagation of the Spanish language. Apparently, the same
principles apply in Bolivian schools where obligatory American Indian
language courses have been introduced. The actual situation here depends
on the authorities and their success in achieving cross-language political
cooperation and the balance of the lingua-political interests of political
forces inside and outside the country. N.E. Gronskaya, K. Korolev, A.
Chervontsev, I.V. Chernov, D. Crystal, R. Morin, R. Phillipson, D.
Rothkopf and A. Watson address the problem of language propagation
and status18.
The role of aforementioned article by Dário Moreira de Castro Alves is
also very significant. Even though its subject is Lusophone, it can be useful
in the perspective of the lingua-political cooperation between Romance
countries in counteraction to English as a global language that dismisses
all other languages from the “global language club“. The editorial article
in the “Label France” magazine suggests a slightly different interpretation
of the integration process among various lingua-political movements.
“Francophone should assist in developing a society based on the polar
balance and diversity of authority and academic thought. The execution
of this task has to include other large cultural formations that unite all
Spanish-, Arabic-, Portuguese- and (why not) English-speaking peoples”.
This unification implies open-mindedness towards other cultures, instead
of a culture wrapped in itself. It is not a question of erecting walls around
the besieged fortress, but taking part in the building of the future”19.
The aforementioned statement leads to I.V. Chernova's conclusion that
“the hypothetical formation of the “civilization block” directed against
the Anglo-Saxon domination in world politics can hardly occur in the
foreseeable future while taking into consideration the opposite interests
of the participants”20. It is important to mention that the author pays great
attention to various theoretical aspects of the formation of the transnational
environment in global politics in general. These aspects are covered in the
writings of M.M. Lebedeva, A.Y. Melvil, N.I. Marchuk, E.B. Pavlova, I.L.
Prohorenko and M. Ortega21.
9
Theoretical, academic and practical studies of the language situation
in various countries conducted by V.M. Alpatov, I.G. Ilishev, K. Korolev,
A.M. Molodkin, V.P. Nevroznak, N. Chomsky, F. Dominges, J. Fishman and
N.L. Morales22 were used for the analysis of the close relationship between
Hispanophone and global politics. Various interpretations of linguistic
environment in the works of L.A. Garcia, S. Mar-Molinero, J. Peak, Ruis
Himenes and U. Pedroso23 provide a deeper understanding of the Spanish-
speaking world, the language relations within it and the influence of the
Spanish language and the whole multistructural Hispanophone on global
politics. The works of S.K. Arredondo, H.M. Blekua, H.H. Echevarria,
L.A. Garcia, N.L. Morales and J. Peak24 provide a substantial value for
researching complex questions regarding territorial and global political
aspects of Hispanophone.
It must be noted that extensive linguistic and sociolinguistic research
of language related situations in Russia started as early as the 1960-70s.
The book “Sociolinguistic Problems of the Developing Countries”25 has to
be mentioned at this point, since it contains interesting articles regarding
the national-linguistic activity in Cambodia, India, West Africa, Uganda,
Afghanistan and other Afro-Asian countries. V.G. Kostomarov's article
on “global language” published in this book is also of academic interest.
According to Kostomarov, “the extralinguistic aspect of the global language
formation processes is closely connected with political, economic and
cultural factors of social development”26. One can only agree with his theory
that the concept of the “global language” is based on a variety of diverse,
yet interacting indicators. A distinctive role is given to the geographical
language propagation both inside and outside the national territory27.
The works of V.S. Yagya28 deal with various theoretical questions
regarding the interrelation of language and society in the context of
global politics. The academic conference “Language and globalization”
(St.-Petersburg, May 20, 2008) has made a significant contribution to the
development of the linguistic dimension of global politics. Lord Alan
Watson29 and Professor K.K. Hudoley30 have played important roles in the
conference and in the summarization of the outcomes. The linguaphonic
characteristics of international relations developed by the forum
participants and revealed during this scientific forum for the first time,
have promoted the author's deeper understanding of the experience, the
mission and the future of international lingua-political organizations and
their role in global politics. The theoretical aspects of the functioning of
international governmental and non-governmental organizations are also
presented in the works of G.A. Drobot, E.G. Ermolyeva, M. Lepretre, A.-
M. Majlof, Puch Pao, G. Aretio, A. Pozo, and M. Vallejo31. It is important
10