Posthumanist linguistic environmentalism : A legitimate concern in the era of digitalized translation and language production?
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | The current boom in the use of MT and AI, in terms of (a) volumes, (b) diverse and nuanced modalities of use (including background or hidden uses), (c) degrees of integration within larger technology-related and other processes, and (d) varieties of users with varieties of immediate goals, is a major factor which may add to the already existing factors in the tradosphere and bring about irreversible or hard-to-reverse changes; Besides what has already been argued by others about the dangers the globalized translation economy poses to language (and thought) diversity, what may be particularly vulnerable to these changes is the until now rather exclusive link between human cognition and language, with implications for human cognition in general and/or possibly widening of the gap in access to opportunities for language-dependent development of thinking. In navigating this complex reality and possible scenarios of development, applying the metaphor of environment to verbal language as a significant layer of environment in which human lives, actions and interactions are taking place seems appropriate and useful. In this respect, frames of reference to engage (although not as a literal analogy) and inspiration can be drawn from environmental psychology and approaches to natural environment protection. |
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