This book is an empirical and normative study on the influence of Brexit on the status of English and other languages in the UK and the EU. After providing an empirical overview of language policies in the UK and the EU (Chapter 1), the authors consider how Brexit influences the status of English and other languages in the UK (Chapter 2). Finally, they make a normative case for English as a lingua franca in the EU (Chapter 3). Among them, the discussions in Chapter 3 will be particularly interesting for political theorists. Relying on the theoretical framework of Van Parijs’s influential book, Linguistic Justice (Oxford, 2011), the authors discuss whether the injustice entailed in English as a lingua franca will be reduced in the post-Brexit EU. According to them, linguistic injustice is reduced in all three of Van Parijs’s criteria: (1) costs and benefits, (2) parity of esteem and (3) equality of opportunity. Thus, ‘Brexit will reduce all of them, thus enhancing the moral justification for adopting English as the sole or main lingua franca of the EU’ (p. 53); Brexit ‘strengthens the argument in favor of English as a lingua franca in a post-Brexit EU’ (p. 76).
I have read their discussions with excitement. However, I wonder if political theorists rely on the theoretical framework of Van Parijs. Plainly speaking, Linguistic Justice is an ideology, which ‘legitimates linguistic dominance rather than linguistic justice’ (Robert Phillipson, ‘Languages, Genocide, and Justice in the European Integration Process’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 20 (3), 2012, p. 380). It is true that the authors employ an ‘if, ... then’ approach (See p. 55, p. 75). This means that they do not necessarily commit to the ideology of Van Parijs. However, if the authors employ the ‘if, ... then’ approach, they have to run the risk of reinforcing the ideology.
If so, political theorists should adopt more neutral criteria for linguistic justice: neutrality and simplicity, which are the two ideals of Esperanto. If the post-Brexit EU uses English as a lingua franca, Brexit does enhance the neutrality of English within the EU. However, it is not clear how much it promotes the neutralisation of English outside the EU. We have to be careful about what Brexit brings about. (I have no answer for now.) As for simplicity, Brexit will not necessarily promote the simplification of English, which is required for a lingua franca in the age of democracy. Except for Esperanto, only simplified English will be able to mitigate the disparities between nations as well as between classes. If we are to defend English as a democratic lingua franca, we have to make the grammar ‘more simple’ and limit the vocabularies for daily use.
In any case, this book is a highly provocative one that will stimulate one to think over linguistic justice in the post-Brexit context. (OKAZAKI Seiki)
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