ABSTRACT
Why do we speak different languages? Are they tantamount to instruments conveying the same universal meanings or rather expressive phenomena in and through which our identities are formed? This chapter takes a journey through some all-time notions of language in Western philosophy, from the classical paradigm to deconstruction, before arriving at the notion of “lingua franca” commonly associated with English in multilingual settings today. How do the World Englishes and the English as a lingua franca paradigms in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics conceptualise these international or global uses of English outside inner- and outer-circle nations? Drawing insights from postmodern theory and particularly deconstruction, this chapter shows how an essentialist, Platonic, Lockean and often logocentric notion of language undergirds the concept of English as a neutral lingua franca, a mere instrument for communication with no political or ideological implications. It posits that différance – the term coined by Jacques Derrida to convey both difference and deferment – respects no language boundaries, and that language choice is ineluctably tied to such issues as ideology and identity.
