LINGUIST List 12.2440

Tue Oct 2 2001

Media: Magazine Articles

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Veronika Koller, Business Week, The Economist, Profil, Fortune

Dear Linguistlist administrators, I was pleased to earn about the new
topic "media coverage of linguistic issues". I can think of four
relevant articles off the top of my head, neither of them brandnew but
nevertheless of interest:

Baker, Stephen & Resch, Inka (2001): "The Great English Divide". Business
Week, August 13: n.pag. (cover story European edition). On the growing
importance of English as a quasi lingua franca for doing business in Europe.

Connor, Steve (2000): "Speaking in Fewer Tongues". The Economist special
edition December ("The World in 2001"): 142-143. On language death. 

Meinhart, Edith (2001): "Can You English?". Profil, September 10: 101-106
(cover story). The Austrian "mirror" of the Baker & Resch article,
published in German with the usual delay.

Schrage, Michael (2001): "Beyond Babel: Why the Babble Below Will Matter
Less". Fortune, March 19: n.pag. On the decreasing importance of verbal
communication in the face of technology-driven globalisation. Written in
the characteristic hypercasual Fortune style but raising some interesting
and thought-provoking issues all the same. 

Business Week regularly includes a special e.biz section featuring bits and
pieces on business jargon and language change in that discourse domain.


Regards,
Veronika Koller


Mag.a Veronika Koller
Department of English/Business English
Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration
Augasse 9
A-1090 Vienna