Abstract:
In this paper we argue that although the problematic nature of language
construction has been acknowledged by a number of skeptical authors, including
the recent claim in this journal (Reagan, 2004) that there is no such
thing as English or any other language, this critical approach to language
still needs to develop a broader understanding of the processes of invention.
A central part of our argument, therefore, is that it is not enough to acknowledge
that languages have been invented, nor that linguistic metalanguage
constructs the world in particular ways; rather, we need to understand
the interrelationships among metadiscursive regimes, language inventions,
colonial history, language effects, alternative ways of understanding
language, and strategies of dis invention and reconstitution. Any critical
(applied) linguistic project that aims to deal with language in the contemporary
world, however estimable its political intent may be, must also have
ways of understanding the detrimental language effects it may engender
unless it confronts the need for linguistic disinvention and reconstitution.
