There are a great many books, conferences, articles, and the like on the topic of “Global English
”. This book, however, is unique in linking the theme of Global English with that of Minimal English as a tool for achieving better intercultural understanding and clearer thinking. Although the idea of Minimal English, that is, an identifiable core of simple, cross-translatable English words, comes from linguists, many of the contributors to this book are not linguists. They are experts and specialists from the fields of diplomacy and international relations, ethics and law, science education, public communication, and medicine, all of whom are entering into an interdisciplinary dialogue with outward-looking linguists. The reader will find a variety of different voices and styles, reflecting different fields and vantage points of the contributors. The chapters, many of them beautifully written, tell us not only about the potential for Minimal English in their respective fields but are richly informative about those fields themselves. Not that these chapters deal in generalities. One of their most appealing aspects is that the authors use concrete case studies.
But what is Minimal English, and how does it relate to ordinary English and to Global English, that is, English as a global lingua franca? The concept of Minimal English was first proposed by Anna Wierzbicka (2014: Ch 14), as a radically reduced “mini English” which can provide “a common auxiliary inter-language for speakers of different languages, and as a global means for clarifying, elucidating, storing and comparing ideas” (p. 194). This idea is taken up in Chap. 2, by Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. Aside from arguing for the benefits of using cross-translatable words
, they stress that Minimal English is intended not to replace or supplant ordinary English, but to add to its effectiveness as a global tool for communication and discourse. The linguistic research and knowledge base underlying it is dealt with in Chap. 3 by Cliff Goddard, “Minimal English: The Science Behind It”. Most of the subsequent chapters include texts written in Minimal English, some of them lengthy.
The next two chapters take us into the world of diplomacy
and international relations
, where communication is often a sensitive and tricky business. William Maley’s Chap. 4 illustrates the pitfalls and complexities of diplomatic communication, particularly in crisis situations, while in Chap. 5 Nicholas Farrelly and Michael Wesley discuss the roles of English in international relations, with a particular focus on ASEAN and on China–US relations. These authors see real value in having an auxiliary form of simple cross-translatable English at hand.
Chapters 6 and 7 are, broadly speaking, about ethics
, values, and law. Anna Wierzbicka proposes a “Charter of Global Ethic” written entirely in Minimal English, and discusses the great advantages of freeing international discourse in this area from Anglocentric orientations that are hiding, often unnoticed, in untranslatable Anglo-English words. In her Chap. 7, Annabelle Mooney uses Minimal English to tease out the core elements of the concepts of “torture
” and “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” in international law.
Minimal English clearly has important potential applications in education. In their respective Chaps. 8 and 9, Anna Wierzbicka and David Christian explore how Minimal English can contribute to science education
and to Big History
. Anna Wierzbicka takes as her case study the story of changing ideas about the universe, from Ptolemy, through Copernicus, Galileo, and into modern times. How can this canonical science story, she asks, be captured and taught to children “through words that children can understand”. In Chap. 9, David Christian, the founder of the Big History movement (which, broadly speaking, seeks to tell the shared history of humanity in the context of the universe), discusses the need for origin stories and the challenge of casting such stories into language which is both precise and accessible.
The final pair of chapters are only loosely connected in terms of subject matter, but both are concerned with in-progress applications of Minimal languages
—not Minimal English as such, but its parallels in other languages, such as Finnish, Italian, and French. Chapter 10, by Ulla Vanhatalo and Juhana Torkki, relates how the authors have popularized in Finland the idea of improving communication using the semantic primes of Finnish, the “65 words” method
. The final chapter, Chap. 11, is about health communication
, specifically, efforts being made in the “narrative medicine
” approach to improve communication between patients and doctors and to give patients a stronger voice. The authors are linguist Bert Peeters and narrative medicine expert Maria Giulia Marini.
Clearly each of the chapters can deal with only a small cross-section of the issues in their respective fields, but cumulatively they show the enormous potential for Minimal English to make a difference in the world.
It goes without saying that there is much which is not included, or even touched on, in this book, including the applications of Minimal English in language teaching
and language learning, in higher education, in linguistic fieldwork, and in counselling, mediation, and therapy. All going well, there will be time and opportunity for these topics in future books, conferences and websites.
Acknowledgements
The ANU Centre for Humanities provided valuable support for 2015 Symposium “Global English, Minimal English”, held at Australian National University.
Reference
Wierzbicka, Anna. 2014. Imprisoned in English: The Hazards of English as a Default Language. New York: Oxford University Press.