ABSTRACT
Social scientists have long debated how to conceptualise the role of multilingualism in contemporary societies, including national language policy choices. Several, often conflicting, ideologies underpin attempts by the state to regulate the ‘linguistic market’, as termed by Bourdieu (1991), and reinforce the position of the official language in the society. According to Bourdieu (1991, p. 57), ‘the official language is bound up with the state, both in its genesis and in its social uses’, and integration into a single ‘linguistic community… is a product of… political domination’. The position and hierarchy of languages and the value of multilingualism in society can also be explained from the liberal stance, where knowledge of the official language functions ‘as linguistic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1991, p. 55) and is (re)translated into social and economic returns, including access to education and better jobs. Within this paradigm, societal multilingualism, sustainability of a ‘linguistic market’ and demand for the official language are self-reinforcing in terms of social and economic returns.
