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Forschungsentwicklung/-politik
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cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that the
European cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.
I will add here that these perceptions are expressed not
only in theory but also find practical application. For example,
in the 7th Framework Programme of the European
Commission, in the working program for 2009 in the program
Cooperation, Theme 8. Socio-economic sciences and
Humanities (SSH-2009)) (ECC 2008), Activity 8.5 The Citizen
in the European Union, Area 8.5.2 Diversity and commonalities
in Europe, topic 8.5.2.1. Vehicular languages in
Europe in an era of globalization: history, policy, practice
we read: “Europe has a vast diversity of languages with very
differing numbers of speakers. In the past, several languages
have fulfilled the function of vehicles for communication
between members of different language communities
in Europe. The aim of the research topic is to determine
the effects of the use of a vehicular language has had on social,
economic, cultural diversity and cultural life, and to examine
the potential and limitations as well as the advantages
and disadvantages of the use of a lingua franca for communication
in Europe in an era of globalization. Research
should address the implications of the use at present, of a
given language as a tool for communication in multilingual
societies, and could investigate such phenomena as power
and identity. It should look at the effects of the use of a
common language on different fields of life (politics, economics,
culture, society, education, media and science), and
examine to what extent processes such as advances in communication
technology, and globalization favor the use of a
lingua franca. It should consider the desirability or otherwise
of the introduction of new language policies, and their
compatibility with the promotion of multilingualism in Europe.
Comparative research examining linguistically diverse
communities outside Europe where monolingual communication
practices are common would be welcomed.”
On the grounds of these insights, I would like here to explain
my viewpoint on the use of lingua franca in publications
in the field of Humanities, and on the use of the "lesser
used" local languages in them. I can summarize my
viewpoint briefly in the following two points:
1. The publications in the field of humanities in Europe
should be printed in the lingua franca, which should not
necessarily be the English language.
2. They should also be printed in the local languages, which
are the official languages in the European countries.
This position is based on the following arguments:
I. It is necessary to publish in the international languages,
because:
1. This makes our research better visible to scholars working
in the Humanities in Europe and the world at large, as
local official languages of different countries are not accessible
to all experts in the Humanities working in relevant
topic in Europe and the world. This makes the results
of all our research better available to the community
of scholars all over Europe and the world.
2. A number of our investigations concern the range of problems
that are linked with the sources from the respective
regions. Because of that, it would be a positive development
for experts from related disciplines in Europe
to receive timely information on the results achieved by
scholars in that respect not only in their own country but
also in other countries and in other languages.
3. The English language as a lingua franca should be used in
the publication of theoretical research in the humanities,
since it is the English language that is the most widespread
international language within Europe. This will
allow the new methods and theories to become available
much faster throughout the whole European research
area.
4. As far as all other types of studies on lingua franca are
concerned, all European languages considered to be international
such as English, French, German may be
used, and also Russian language with regard to research
on Slavistics. These languages have established themselves
in the historical development of Europe as international
languages due to the fact that it is in their respective
countries that the research on humanities originated
and developed most actively and successfully during the
19th and 20th centuries, and it is in these languages that
the largest amount of scientific literature on Humanities
has been accumulated. Which of these languages will be
used in each specific case depends on many circumstances.
Here, what usually plays a role are the requirements
of the respective editorial boards and publishers,
the research tradition on any specific problem, the circle
of scholars interested in it today, but also - the preferences
of individual scientists and their capabilities and
knowledge of these languages.
II. It is necessary to publish in the local official languages of
the member states of the EU, because:
1. The subject of our research is closely linked with the millennium-old
history of the respective European nations
in all its dimensions and with its national identity. That is
why what we have achieved ought to be accessible not
only to the foreign scholars who know the international
languages, but also to a wild circle of scholars, who are
experts in a great variety of fields in the Humanities and
also in other areas and who use them in their research in
the respective country. It ought to be accessible also to
all citizens that are interested in them and that in principle
do not know and cannot know all international languages.
Already Constantine-Cyril, who created the Slavonic
alphabet, wrote (on the basis of the First epistle of
St. Paul to the Corinthians – 14:19) in the middle of the
9th century in his remarkable work “Prologue to the Gospel”,
which accompanied his first translation from the
Greek (a translation of the Gospel): “I would rather speak
five words that can be understood, in order to teach
others, than speak thousands of words in strange tongues”.
2. Because of the specific character of our research, our
works use a terminology that has been created and developed
in the course of almost a century in every European
country. That makes it very difficult to translate its
terms into other languages exactly and often that is not
possible at all as each of these languages has its own terminology
based on different principles. That creates difficulties
in understanding these materials and in many
cases it may lead to an inexact and untrue idea of the
content of our research works.
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Fo 3+4/2009