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Various definitions of the term world language have been proposed; there is no general consensus about which one to use. [4] [5]One definition proffered by Congolese linguist Salikoko Mufwene is "languages spoken as vernaculars or as lingua francas outside their homelands and by populations other than those ethnically or nationally associated with them".
The study of how the meaning of linguistic expressions changes depending on context is called pragmatics. Deixis is an important part of the way that we use language to point out entities in the world. [104] Pragmatics is concerned with the ways in which language use is patterned and how these patterns contribute to meaning.
For greater detail, see Distribution of languages in the world. This is a list of languages by total number of speakers. It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Arabic is sometimes considered a single language centred on Modern Standard Arabic, other authors consider its mutually ...
Portuguese is the only unofficial language to have its day (May 5) proclaimed as "World Day". [5] See also: Official languages of the United Nations. Universal Postal Union (UPU) French (official) and English (working). Other languages translated: Arabic, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish World Bank (WB)
Researchers accept that there are multiple categories of language, even as they often disagree on the explicit number of those categories. De Swaan's analysis of the world language system, which is arguably the most common analysis, distinguishes between five different types of languages, one of which is "English as global lingua franca. [2]"
Languages have a market value and a non-market value. A language has market value if said language can be used for monetary gain, or if the language can be assigned a price. [6] For example, if someone speaks language X, they have easier access to the economic and social well-being in the X-speaking communities, which in turn may lead to their ...
English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication" [1] [2] [full citation needed] and can be understood as "any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice and often the only option".
Language can be an expression of symbolic power. [7] However, changes in the linguistic map of the world show that these are also powerful linked to economic developments in the world. Assigning an economic value to a certain language in the linguistic market place means vesting it with some of the privileges and power related to that language. [8]