Linguistic Justice

Philippe Van Parijs
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Philippe Van Parijs: Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium vanparijs@etes.ucl.ac.be

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2002, vol. 1, issue 1, 59-74

Abstract: The world is full of situations of asymmetric bilingualism: the members of one linguistic group learn the language of another without the latter reciprocating. In such a situation, the cost of learning is borne by one group, whereas the benefit is enjoyed by both. This paper first argues that, in the absence of any cost-sharing device, such situations are unjust. Next, it critically examines four potential criteria of linguistic justice, each of which offers a distinct answer to the question of how to allocate between two linguistic groups the cost of one of them learning a second language. Criteria suggested by Church and King, Jonathan Pool and David Gauthier are spelled out and rejected in favour of a criterion of equal ratios of benefit to cost. Lastly, the paper sketches some policy implications concerning what is owed by English natives to the rest of mankind as a result of English being adopted as a worldwide lingua franca.

Keywords: bilingualism; linguistic diversity; minority rights; public goods; globalization; David Gauthier (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:1:y:2002:i:1:p:59-74

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X02001001003

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