Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Österreich
Sprachwissenschaftliches Projektseminar
The Globalisation of English, Language Attitudes and Language Contact

English, the lingua franca, as a global language
and the decline of German as an international language of science

by:
Silvia Eibel

WS 2005/06

Table of Content

1. Introduction ... 3

2. The Globalisation of English ... 4
Definition of the term global language ... 4
English is the global language – Why?  ... 5

3. English as a lingua franca ... 7
Definitions of the term lingua franca ...7
History of the term lingua franca ... 7

4. Languages of science ... 9
English as a lingua franca of science ... 10
Reasons for and against English as a lingua franca of science ... 12
German as an international language of science ... 12
Definition of the term international language ... 12
German, a former international language of science: a review ... 14
Displacement of German as an international language of science by English ... 14
Present status of English and German as languages of Science ... 17

5. Future perspectives of English ... 19
Do we need a global language?  ... 19
Dangers of a global language ... 19

6. Closing remarks ... 21

Bibliography ... 22

1. Introduction

This paper deals with the topic of English as a lingua franca as well as the past and current status of German as a language of science.

One issue which is discussed throughout this paper is English as a global language. The questions that arise regarding this topic are: Why did English become so important in the last century? Why do we speak of English as a global language? How could English reach such widespread acceptance? What are dangers of a global language and could anything stop globalisation? In this paper many facets of English will be presented and discussed.

The second important topic this paper covers is the decline of German as an international language of science. German used to be an important language of science in the 19th century until World War I. But what happened at that point and why did German lose its international character? Which circumstances are responsible for the decline of German? What is the present status of German in science and what are the future perspectives?

All these questions and assumptions will be discussed in the following term paper and the closing remarks will summarise the findings.

2. English as a global language
2.1. Definition of the term “global language”

According to David Crystal (1997),

"a language achieves a global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. This might seem like stating the obvious, but it is not, for the notion of ‘special role’ has many facets" (Crystal 1997: 3).

To achieve the status of a global language it is necessary to have a mother tongue as well as a lot of native speakers in one or more countries. Crystal (1997) argues that there are two ways in which a global language is built. A language can be made the official language of a country which means that the language is used as a medium of communication (second language) or a language can be adopted as a foreign language in the educational system. In this case the language has no official status (cf. Crystal 1997: 3).

To understand what Chrystal means by his definition of a global language it is necessary to define some other terms: When we speak of language we mean a system of lexemes. A foreign language is a language which is not spoken by the indigenous people of a certain place. In contrast to that a second language is any language, other than the first or native language. It is typically used because of geographical or social reasons. By speaking of an official language we mean a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states and other territories – typically the language used in a nation’s legislative bodies. (Wikipedia 2005)

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