ABSTRACT
It is extremely useful to strip the debate about language attitudes, choices and practices back to bare essentials. In doing this, professor van Parijs gives us an insightful analysis of current concerns which cuts through much of the obfuscation that habitually cloaks language issues and masks group interests and rivalries. There is, however, one element in the mix, which he does not examine forensically, and that is language itself. In my response to his book, I would thus like to concentrate on this aspect and deconstruct what we mean by language. I am going to argue that it is essential to define our understanding of the nature of language before we pass to a discussion of how to encourage justice in the linguistic domain.
