GLOBALIZATION OF LANGUAGE

During our second week of the course, we were focusing on the globalization and influences of English language as a consequence of mass media. Our main reference for discussion on the subject was Stig Hjavard's (2004) article titled: The Globalization of Language. How the Media Contribute to the Spread of Emergence of Medialects (also available here: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/common/publ_pdf/157_075-089.pdf). The author's emphasis was on three main hypothesis.

The first is saying that »Media are both vehicles of Anglo-Saxon culture and contribute to the anglicization of global culture.« So there is more and more people that know, speak and hear English language because of it's appearance in high percentage of media, for example on television, commercials and especially in the internet. But it is not only influencing the foreign languages, but there is also a contribution to the spread of different English speaking cultures, habits and way of living, that comes along with all the media. There is a paramouncy of English over other principal languages, which have degraded in relation to English in last few decades.

The second hypothesis claims that »Human communication becomes mediatizated and that media-bound varieties of language will arise«. Author named those varieties so called »medialects«, which arise from specific media. For example, there are new medialects developing with the use of internet's chatrooms, e-mails and social networks, which have become an indispensable part of every day life. So in that case the »medialects« don't really have a geographical province, it is more about the type of media people use. One example for this are »emoticons«, which weren't used before the discovery of mobile phones and on-line chatrooms.

The last hypothesis is focusing on the » Linguistic effects of the media that play a part in processes of social and cultural distinction in Danish society and that it is not adequate to view these influences in national terms, as a question of Danish vs other languages«. The author is giving us the example of Danish language, but in general he was trying to emphasize, that there is more and more usage of English language not only because of the media among the domestic population, but has been also used as the company language or in politics to gain recognition internationally. Another example, which support's the hypothesis would be the number of words, that has developed in last 50 years - in Danish culture, there is a high percentage (38%), which have an English connection. Certainly, it is similar in other countries, too. Although, there is a lot of new words, that came with the internet, and we don't translate them, but use them in English, therefore more than half of worlds websites are in English.