SEMINAR: Linguistics Seminar Series

It has become commonplace to state that language and culture are intimately interwoven, and that therefore losing one’s language – as it happens in situations of colonization for instance – implies losing one’s culture. However, few scientific studies have tackled the consequences of language shift in this respect. What difference does communicating in another code make to what speakers can express and how they describe the world? Does using a new language necessarily alter one’s world-views? This presentation will address this question through an empirical comparison of Kriol, an English-based creole widely spoken in the north of Australia, with Dalabon, one of the Australian Aboriginal languages that is being replaced by Kriol. Focusing on the expression of emotions (Ponsonnet 2014), I will show which linguistic tools remain, which do not; which meanings get replaced, and which are missing. The results of this study highlight the tensions between linguistic pressures that may impact the way people describe and construe the world; and the remarkable plasticity by which languages allow their speakers to say whatever they want to say. The case study also suggests some practical options that may appeal to communities who have adopted a new language and wish to retain their cultural identity at the same time.