Abstract:Written in a speculative spirit, this paper is an attempt to take a peek into what the future might hold for the study of language. It takes into account the phenomenal changes that the world has undergone since the days when modern linguistics constituted itself as an academic discipline. It is argued that these changes call for a radical rethinking of some of the fundamental assumptions about language that have hardly ever been questioned until now.
“…Irrespective of whether it turns out be one or the other, I propose to plunge into it in the paragraphs that follow. I do this because the prospects I see strike me as at once mind-boggling and exciting (Rajagopalan, 2019). And, to tell you the truth, frankly agreeableto my taste at least.…”
Section: A Cautionary Note To Start Off Withmentioning
In this text, I propose to let my imagination run riot about what the future has in store regarding language(s). I undertake this admittedly risky task on the basis of an educated guess and already available clues from what is actually going on. Starting from the premise that what we call language(s) are semiotic reflexes and their by-products of historically given geopolitical configurations, I claim that the fast-changing geopolitics as well as the sweeping changes under way in the way the world is currently configured and constantly being reconfigured must give us cause for pause and reason to opt for a major rethink. It must give us a foretaste of what awaits us down the line in regard to what language, in a not-too-distant future, seems destined to look like. Such speculative flights of imagination have, as I shall argue, the capacity to free up our minds and get them prepared to deal with radical changes, many of which as yet far beyond our wildest dreams that I feel are just around the corner language-wise.
“…Irrespective of whether it turns out be one or the other, I propose to plunge into it in the paragraphs that follow. I do this because the prospects I see strike me as at once mind-boggling and exciting (Rajagopalan, 2019). And, to tell you the truth, frankly agreeableto my taste at least.…”
Section: A Cautionary Note To Start Off Withmentioning
In this text, I propose to let my imagination run riot about what the future has in store regarding language(s). I undertake this admittedly risky task on the basis of an educated guess and already available clues from what is actually going on. Starting from the premise that what we call language(s) are semiotic reflexes and their by-products of historically given geopolitical configurations, I claim that the fast-changing geopolitics as well as the sweeping changes under way in the way the world is currently configured and constantly being reconfigured must give us cause for pause and reason to opt for a major rethink. It must give us a foretaste of what awaits us down the line in regard to what language, in a not-too-distant future, seems destined to look like. Such speculative flights of imagination have, as I shall argue, the capacity to free up our minds and get them prepared to deal with radical changes, many of which as yet far beyond our wildest dreams that I feel are just around the corner language-wise.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.