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Multilingualism and Technology: A Review of Developments in Digital Communication from Monolingualism to Idiolingualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2019

Helen Kelly-Holmes Open the ORCID record for Helen Kelly-Holmes [Opens in a new window]
Helen Kelly-Holmes*
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The focus in this article is on the evolution of language and technology in relation to multilingualism, in particular on how multilingual provision has developed in tandem with the development of the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). In trying to understand how multilingualism has evolved, it is also necessary to understand how the technical aspects of digital technology as well as the politico-economic dimensions to that technology have changed. Four distinct periods emerge in the development: monolingualism, multilingualism, hyperlingualism, and idiolingualism. Monolingualism covers the origins of the internet and later the WWW as monolingual spaces. This was followed by a long period that charts the slow but gradual development of increased language provision and what I am terming “partial multilingualism.” Multilingualism expanded substantially, potentially limitlessly, with the development of Web 2.0. This has involved the diversification of online spaces to the point of “hyperlingualism.” I argue that we are still in this hyperlingual phase, but alongside it, a new phase is developing, that of “idiolingualism” as a result of mass linguistic customization. In this article, I discuss these phases, paying attention to both their technical and economic contexts, as well as their implications for linguistic diversity online and in wider society.

Type
Empirical Paper
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 39 , March 2019 , pp. 24 - 39
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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