I write literary books and scientific articles and for expression of more details I prefer my native language because I think it is more complex and has a wider vocabulary. On the other hand, English expresses well many things with less words. When I translate scientific papers to English, I prefer the latter because it makes things clear with less words. (And with this amount of words normally it is more clear than with more words in my language). I think it is a good language for science.
Dear Dr. Sanchez Peralta,
This is a very interesting question which I wish I had more formal qualifications to answer (I just have a minor in anthropology). I certainly support this type of discussion -- contrary to the one ResearchGate 'downvote' that I see, I gave it an 'upvote'. I would pose the question does 'Western Language' in general - English, or for example French, have an influence science? I have wanted to know -- if a 'British English', 'American English', or even if an 'International English' are in use?
Cheers, Jack.
It is recommendable to use an international scientific English. In medicine, for example, exist corrects terms more than others. Normally are more international. The difficulty is a handicap in a international language. German, Chinese, Russian, are complex, but this make they very reach in ideas and combinations. Latin letters are used in all America, West Europa, Mediterranean countries, in many different languages. This can enrich Latin. German, I think, is the more complex Latin language. But simplicity is appreciated in a scientific communication.
Dear Ana
The English language is the main language not just for science but for all communications. The language is easy to learn, practical, flexible and based on few simple rules that are relatively easy to master.
With so many languages to choose from to learn, people want to pick the one that will be most useful. English is used as a communicating language.
The majority of scientific and technical information is available in English. 80% of the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English [Source: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.] In many parts of the world (where lesser-known languages are spoken), the only way to read famous pieces of literature is to read them in English (Shakespeare, etc…).
Apart from the colonization of many countries by the British, English has become popular worldwide because it has easily adopted words from every language in the world over many centuries and gradually enriched itself .
English is a universal language meaning whichever country you go to, you can communicate to people in by speaking English. That is why it is very important to be competent in this language.
English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
In view of all the above, English is not only a good language for science but is also a necessary language for sicence.The English language now is a necessity not a choice.
Dear Jack
The fact that you have shown interest in the question is good enough for me.This is the main qualification that you require.
Dear Dr. Sinjab,
Thanks for your kind support . I do agree with what you presented above. That being said, I think that the disappearance of native dialectics and uncommon or rare languages is something to be concerned about, as the world becomes more globalized.
I have personal experience and anecdotal evidence that suggests in electronic information systems, databases, e-resources, and the internet, (International) English is the preferred and most common language. I think most database search engines are built using English as the primary language and have English incorporated into the search framework / architecture. Although I don't have concrete evidence for this, I can't think of ever seeing a Boolean Search syntax (i.e. AND, OR) in a non English language. You did provide some quantitative evidence for this idea though -- "80% of the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English [Source: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.]"
I do think that the bias of a language should always be taken into account when reading or interpreting academic papers and research, science or otherwise.
Cheers, Jack.
I very much doubt that Spanish has a greater vocabulary than English. English has more words than many other languages, including my native German. According to this source, English has about 4 times more words than Spanish: http://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/1508/comparing-number-of-words-in-spanish-and-english. I have been living and working in the US for several years, and have observed interesting things happening, for example that I prefer to communicate in English rather than in German, while I have trouble finding the words in my native language. I now perceive German as cumbersome, awkward and unnecessarily complicated. As far as the question of whether it is good for science is concerned, I think it's a moot point - because English IS the language of science, and I doubt that will ever change.
In Spanish we need more words to define anything, but normally it is more definite, or concrete. For that we need more explanation. But with less words (in English) is more clear.
That's a good point. When I learned Spanish, i remember that it appeared very logical to me, much more so than English.
Dear Dr Maria Peralta
Just think about this famous phrase;Language and Thought.I will comment more about this fact as soon as possible.
Hello
I will write briefly: English is important worldwide. Just think of traveling. Which language will you use to communicate? English, right? So to share your ideas or read about Science, English is a necessary and good language.
Angela from Mauritius
1. The question is more personal than it might seem at first.
English is to that degree suitable for scientific purposes to which the scientist is able to use it suitably.
2. Different sciences might require different "language skills" - physics different from psychology, anthropology different from economics.
3. Shorter sentences are not always clearer, more complicated grammatical constructions are not always more precise.
Well, it's not just a universal language for Science right now but non native English spoken needs to understand how this culture works out. I mean, this culture is more functional and pragmatically than mine (Spanish). In English the passive tense is more used than in Spanish. When I have read a paper in Spanish or Latino (Spanish from America), that`s no sound so clear to me as English written, especially in Latino. Latino use a lot of the words for explaining the same thing in comparison with English.
Dear Dr.
It is obvious that language creates thought.It was the time for human being that Greece and Arabic languages dominated in bringing thought.It is about few centuries that English language is the main language for scientific subjects,If language should be thought then watching its creators is a vital point of view.Searching how many inventions were invented according in which language is a new field of study.In my belief Indian language is the language of sense and expressing emotional factors just look at Indian movies.Persian language is language of poem as Hafiz ,Sadiee and Molavi poems.Arabic language is the language of speech as Imam Ali's speech in book of Nahjol-balaqe.Nowadays English language is the language of expressing science because its political point of view.How many counties were UK colonies? .If you think that there are some gaps in expressing scientific concepts through English language, it is an acceptable inquiry because you know that you can express scientific concepts through your own language more easier than English or other languages.Here I can say the language which is dominated all over the world is assigned by POWER.Greece , Arabic, Indian ,Persian, German , Spanish,French OR English?Which one?
It is an extensive language but is easy too. This help to be used for everyone. It is also convenient to science.
Spanish is extensive but a little more difficult I think.
I think there are pros and cons to publish in English (or in your own language). For instance, as you've pointed out - Spanish allows you to use a wide variety of words - can be both a pro and a con. I think that in Portuguese we have the same problem. Sometimes I need to make a long description of an English concept because there isn't a proper word for it in Portuguese (or the other way around, even if its less likely to happen).
On the other hand, thinking on disseminating your research, I think there are more pros to using English - that means that your research is "immediately" available to the world, since English is becoming an universal language.
At an earlier point in history Greek and Latin were the languages of scholarly discourse. That has changed. For a period in the nineteenth century French had substantial influence in some fields. Today the most influential publications are published in English and English has the widest readership. Today the American Institute of Physics, which publishes much of the major scholarly articles in Physics, receives more paper submissions from China than from any other country, but their facility with English often makes their papers of poorer quality. Still, it may be that in the future Chinese will be the language of Choice. Languages of Choice require facility in writing and a substantial audience. It makes no difference if a specific language is more precise, if few or no practitioners read that language. Today English is the preferred language for communication in science, but that has more to do with the predominance of English use in the scientific community than it does with the languages specific facility for transmitting knowledge. Now I am far better using English, my native language, than I am using any of my secondary languages. I miss many of the nuances of those languages in the process of translating to English, so I presume those who have other native languages will also be forced to deal with losing nuances in the process of translation. The reasons for using English have more to do with world politics arising out of the late 18th and 19th century British world empire than any inherent scientific facility of the language. Whether we like it or not, non scientific issues will predominate in any future changes to the language of choice. English appears to have separated its use from the dominant political forces driving it to use in global discourse. But if other global forces come to the fore, for which other languages are driving factors, they will be used whether or not they have scientific facility. The real question, it seems to me, is to what degree has the use of Latin, now English, in scientific communications, changed or limited the nature of science being communicated.
Which then? Latin again? Esperanto? Maths? Languages are alive, so they are evoluting
The pass of time decides these things. I am looking now, with face-book, twitter, etc, that the people talk from all parts of world with their own translate in English and this make many variants.
Well, I agree that the main reason for its success is that is actually the "universal language", due more to development of politics and societies than to any criteria of quality. As is always has been, with, as said, latin and french, and others. So, the main criteria for a language to be used as a common communication platform is how many people know it, and certainly not how many people are native in it. And for sure it will be replaced, as always. Maybe the next "consolidated" as "lingua franca" will be Spanish, or Mandarin, or Japanese, who knows. Centuries will tell. Myself I prefer German, although I am native bilingual (Spanish and German), when I want to be more exact, its possibilities (of agglutinate nouns and derivate them in one only word without building a cryptic neologism) are of great help when trying to define philosophical ideas - but this is valid just for me, and just for certain cases, not for others (like for describing feelings I prefer Spanish). As far I know, also Sanskrit and to a certain extend Quechua can do it, and I am sure a lot of other languages can. There are thousands and thousands of languages on this world, each with its own pros and cons, each with its untranslatable own way of thinking and perceiving our world, and with its own beauty. It is frustrating we can just learn to know so little of them. To claim one better than another one would be simply quite ….. absurd.
But English with less words can said a complete idea in medicine for example. But different languages enriching variability ways of seeing things.
Thank you all.
What is really precious is to dispose of ONE universal language for science, regardless of our respective mother tongue. It is so great sitting around a table with experts from different continents and have the possibility to understand each other and exchange meaningfully. At different times in human history the language of Science was Greek, Latin, or Arabic (until the 15th century, medicine was taught in Arabic in southern France). Now English plays that role. Who will be surprised if iit becomes the turn of Chinese in 100 years or less? That will not matter. What will matter is for researchers to keep the ability to understand each other.
As is discussed in most answers here, what has made English the language of science is not its clarity or other features compared with other languages. It may be considered a better language for expressing scientific issues compared with some languages but obviously not with all. The international language could have been a much more complex one, had politics gone in another direction.
I think things about language can not be forced a lot. Politic, historic moment, etc. can influence but people make most practical in every moment. All influence in it but language is movable. The history make the prevalence of the language of all, and science normally need to make this.
yes in my opinion English is a good language for science. widely/universly acceptable language.
I fell its yes. Because science should be presented in a language which can be understandable by maximum number of researcher or people around the world. So English being the language spoken by maximum number of people, its the best for science
Thnx
Sudhanshu
As long as most websites will have English version, as long as English will be one of the easiest to learn languages (of course that's more subjective), at last as long as English will be recognized internationally as a language of science, I think it's the best for writing scientific papers. Also it depends on the audience you want to reach to.
There are many computer languages. The best language to use for a domain of application is most often related to the quality of the developing tool and extension of the language in the form of library of objects. Since English is THE language of science now, all the new concepts are immediately given english names that become extension of the language. The basic amount of vocabulary in French for ordinary conversation is much greater than English basic package. But in specialized science the extended English package is much greater.
Well, it is the language of sciences due to most of researchers are used english for reading or writing and communication for example in conferences or meetings. Most of the hot papers and, or articles are published in engish and to translate it takes time and may mislead. Most of the science centers are using english.So, it is hard to have another language for science communication.
From antiquity to the renaissance in Europe, the languages of science was Greek and Latin which were not the languages spoken by most people in their daily life. Most philosophical books were written in these two languages. Although European nations were fighting each other over territorial and cultural boundaries, science was an international culture. Today there is only one global scientific culture, the republic of science, and it is normal that there is one language in the same manner than empire and nation or religion had their national language or religious language. Speaking together is thinking together.
Hi Ana.
‘A good language for science’? Well, this depends on your criteria.
1. Ease of use: There are probably languages that are easier to learn.
2. Domain of vocabulary: This is probably evolving much more rapidly due to:
3. Diversity and breadth of participation in scientific dialogue through English and hence,
4. Availability of resources: Yes.
Back in the early 70s, two major video tape formats were introduced to the market, VHS and Sony’s Beta Max. The beta max format had a higher quality and a smaller form factor. However, within a short period, VHS introduced a lot more films which were more readily available than for Beta Max. As such, the superior technology lost out to greater accessibility.
A similar thing happened in the early 80s with IBM PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. The Apple was more user-friendly and used a superior chipset and had a better operating system. However, due to a miscalculation by IBM, non-proprietary PCs were mass produced cheaply in the Far East and the proprietary Macs could not compete, so once again, greater accessibility won over superior technology.
So, to answer the question, in my humble opinion, English is a good language for scientific communication because of the four reasons I gave above, but I cannot say whether it is the best language, because to do that, I would need to compare like with like, and at the moment, I can’t because there isn’t a language with the same level of accessibility for me to compare it with. What I can say is that there is always room for improvement and I have no doubt that looking carefully at the relative strengths of other languages could give us good insights.
Thanks for the question.
English is the best language for science because it is the most widely spoken interlanguage, but if we were going to design an ideal interlanguage, it would not be much like English ;-)
Howard, many times I think, engineering, physics and pure mathematics need different keyboard to speak in their language.
And about art, I prefer my language (Spanish) to write. I think it have more details.
(But I cannot write English artistically).
Robin, I don´t know. In my research I look that in English is more clear with less words than in Spanish. And I think this is good for science.
Thank you all.
Dear, The Language is a comfort to express. It is not the language which supports knowledge but it is knowledge which needs to be expressed and better to express the language of your country/mothertongue. Germans, Russians, Japanese, Mandarin (China), Korean etc. All had developed there education and science in their language only. And they all are so advanced.
The Oldest Civilisation (India) had it's Great and Oldest Science millions of years back till now. but that time the science was in SANSKRIT and Later in Devanagri, these languages and Script are found most computer freindly. German Scientist and USA or European Scientist are getting theories from the old Sanskrit books. The Aeronautic Science, Mathematics, Trignometry, Geology and Astronomy all were developed in India and in Sanskrit only.
In India many scientist are never read English but they have many patents on their Name. A youth at Jodhpur have 200 Patents Knows Hindi only. Mansukhbhai in Gujrat had more than 200 inventions but never read English.
Believe it that Creativity and Understanding can be better developed in mothertongue and National Language but WE INDIANS HAD BEEN RUINED BY THE BRITISHERS AND NOW OUR OWN PARLIAMENTARIAN, POLICY MAKERS and SO Called BLACK BRITISHERS. WHO LOST THEIR OWN Language COnfidence, Patriotism, Nationalism.
One should be let develop in their own language. Don't see the language as a knowledge it is just a means. The better is the means in which a common man can understand and his/her creativity develops.
VINOD KUMAr MISHRA
"English is now used almost exclusively as the language of science. The adoption of a de facto universal language of science has had an extraordinary effect on scientific communication: by learning a single language, scientists around the world gain access to the vast scientific literature and can communicate with other scientists anywhere in the world."
http://www.molbiolcell.org/content/23/8/1399.full
Vinod,
My language is French and for a while this language was the language and philosophy in Europe. It is a beautiful language but history has move on and now English is this international language of science and technology. I always been interested into the philosophy of India and because some of this philosophy has been translated into English, it is now possible for me and the whole world to realized the depth of this philosopphy. Obviously you will have the best access to it in the original language.
I think that different languages give differents points of view in the search of an issue, and this is good for science. But to can speak all kind of people with all kind of languages together is fantastic.
The only thing that bothers me about publishing in English language is that it has no readers in my own country.
Considering it has become the global language, the answer is absolute yes. Come to think of it. Why is English the global language. Its perhaps the simplest language in the world (I am not an expert on languages, but I really think its easy to learn English compared to other languages).
Actual circumstances and easy learn, contribute in this, I think.
Use any other language and the number of your audience decreases. A score of numbers may be sensible here. But English language is a Science too!
Natural selection in the language has had better impact than artificial selection as Esperanto. People are moved by need, not by imposition, it seems.
We live in a global village and this village's language is English. A language is a living entity. It is transformed by those who use it. If someone speak a language where there is a word expressing an abstract concept. When that person realizes that there is no word in English for expressing this concept then this word can be included into English. So gradually English get transformed by all other languages into a richer language.
Not all the readers in the world have a knowledge of local languages. For a research to be accessible to all, it should be in a language which is understood globally and accepted by the scientific community as a whole. I am sure English is such a language. Many journals publishing research in local languages like german or chinese etc. also publish English issues of the same. Others prefer to be bilingual also. This is all because English is universally accepted and easily understood by all.
So I will definitely vote up for English as a language for Science.
There is an issue with language, as a "native" language taxpayer, is funding research being published in "English". Translation and dissemination of science in "native" language does not count (as far as i know) as scientific activity.
Luiz,
Even if one day asia represent 90% of the economy , English will remain the language of the village. Imagine having to learn Mandarin writing. Our type of alphabet with 26 letters is a subset of the Egyptian character set. The Phoenicia who were busy business man did not have the luxury to spend so much time learning thousand of Hieroglyphs.
Buen punto. Buenos para la redacción científica, pero cuántos están a ese nivel? cuántos pueden entender el inglés siquiera? Deberíamos siempre rescatar el idioma nativo y trasladar aquello que se encuentre en inglés también para aquellos que aún estamos en proceso de aprendizaje del idioma.
We should not feel threatened by the changes of language needs.
Changes are gradual and natural.
(Ya nadie habla el arameo, y no duele. (art)).
We have not a universal language, thus English is a good language for science ...
I think English comes under one of oldest language for science. English language is well recognised as well as high validation in the field of science and other part of the study. So English should be good language tool for science and every person who want to attach with science soul, know english.
i agree with Mr Vinay Kumar that science has no language brier but the fact that for the SCIENCE to flourish in the world openly , we need a common platform(language) , and as the present scenario reveals ENGLISH has become that common language in all.
so English is a good language for science.
I read many points of view, but still a few stick to the communication issue per se (you see, that's Latin!).
We are forgetting that many terms in scientific language can properly be expressed only in English, the language they were first expressed in, and they do even when science is taught to pupils.
In a few languages they try to translate technical terms, but results are seldom appaling or hilarious.
Now, IMHO the problem must be split in two: scientific communication among specialists (and there is no reason at the present time to switch from English, unless one wants to be completely neglected by the community) and science teaching, where the accent must be put on the learning students and on shaping concepts in their minds.
But there is also another issue, to my advice completely neglected in the mainstream educational systems: the dichotomy between language and science teaching. Humanities and science are currently usually taught as two separate worlds, thus also separating students in those good at science/maths and those good at literature/arts.
Being from Italy, I can definitely draw a separation line between my professors at university, who had literary studies up to their bachelors if they wanted to do good, and my colleagues (and me) who came even from professional institutes. The lack of proper expression, comprehension, wording, translates into poor comprehension, as concepts shape in more fuzzy ways in our minds.
We still forget that language is mainly a communication protocol between humans, i.e. thought communication. As a sort of magic, I try to transfer concepts I have in my mind to others' minds. Accent must be put on making the trick work, and if I have an international audience English is the language, no question there.
But I also believe that part of the problem is in trying to translate words from one language to the other, which is completely wrong: that is the poor job Google Translate does (and we all know the results). As I was telling before, what we are trying to communicate is what we think, not words, well translated perhaps, but deprived of a sensible meaning.
The key to do a good job? Thinking directly in the language one is using. Then you express the concepts, not the words.
I know, that is difficult, but I don't see any other way around it.
I think English is one of the worst languages for sciences because privileges 'paratactic construction' (many phrases one after the other reiterating the same concept with small use of subordinate construction like 'because of'') instead of a 'syntactic consecutio-temporum' structure with a clear hierarchy of the causal links between statements allowing to understand the logic behind the discourse.
Latin should be perfect, but we are forced to use English for historical reasons, so we cannot reasonably do anything against this use, but we should not encourage the pervasive use of English inside the courses in the different countries universities.
I think English is one of the most widely spoken languages and science research is all about giving visibility to new findings in order to improve the cause of humanity. It is the nexus that compels more than half of the world population, including the Chinese people to learn English.
I would say that English is the most appropriate language for teaching Science as most of the references that students may need to use later at the tertiary level can be found in the English language. Thus, starting them young at elementary school through the English language would be beneficial in the long run.
I would suggest use of regional languages for imparting knowledge to local masses but for international communication any language which is commonly understood can be used. Although mathematically sanskrit is the best due to its vast varnas i.e greater number of permutations and combinations available for more better and clear expression but then again it is the question what is common?
I suppose anybody would prise his/her native language. Why not make a step further and begin using a common language that to nobody is native language, e.g. ESPERANTO or IDO or like ... Then everybody will have to make some effort to learn it and nobody will be privileged to speak in his mother tongue. At least - it sounds fair to me. Besides, as far as I know Esperanto is relatively simple and can be developed further due to its simple rules ...
If I may sound a contrarian note here, I find Esperanto rather awful, in a slightly slapstick sort of way. I started learning it years ago and stopped, appalled by its paucity, its total lack of palpable, built-in human experience, of shadings of thought, its spur-of-the-moment, hoked-up feel, its nonsensical made up rules, its lack of near synonyms, its arbitrariness etc.
Inasmuch as English contains within its huge lexicon all of the rootwords of three different Indo-European subfamilies (Germanic, Latin, and Greek) it is a rather good choice for a lingua franca (besides, it's politically neutral - an assistant is an assistant irrespective of the assistant's gender, which is not the case in, say, German or French.
Why in this modern world should irrelevant details such as the gender of a job applicant be mandated by grammar? )
English is also hospitable to words and concepts from the whole world - not only Indo-European - partly because it spans the world. It was also forged and trialed by real humans toiling away and living their lives - not by some bored postal employee somewhere.
I feel all languages are good to express your thoughts; it can be science philosophy, poetry etc. But if you want to spread your ideas to all over the world there should be a common language. As English is widely used, now we can say English can be the language for explaining science. But, problem with all language is the "language inside language". You can explain in simple English as well as tough English ( for persons who's first language is not English!!!). In my opinion Language is a way to share our ideas and not to express our vocabulary!!!. Use simple words as you can tell everything in science like a small story to your grandma, mummy and children.!!!
The point is not to change English with some other language or deciding what is best or worst in geenral, it is obvious that our mother tongue is linked with strong ties with our specific way of thinking and our peculiar and deep soul, under this respect there is no point, any language is good for express our tougths and this is way ultra-rationalistic illuminist nightmares like Esperanto end up into horrible failures.
I think the interest of the question is in this kind of formulation 'Given each language has embedded a way of thinking or, probably better, a peculiar style, does the English style provokes some unexpected effect on science ? Or better in talking and writing about science ?' (see attached file).
Discovering such effects could be of interest to ameliorate some side effects and idiosyncracies of science writing...my point is that the incredible easiness of English to produce new words collapsing into a single word entire phrases (eg. Bladerunner stays for 'he who runs on a blade' that in Italian can be only translated as 'Quello che corre su una lama' with no possibility to condensate...)
is fantastic for movies and rock songs but very dangerous for science given it crystallizes an entire interpretation of reality that, becoming a noun, it is no more submitted to enquiry, so 'housekeeping genes' becomes a truism even if the discovery of network dynamics of genomes makes an 'housekeeping gene' a false concept because it implies a 'Maxwell-demon' magic view of gene regulation with some genes that take the house clean and some other that play the role of fighting for the good of community, similar problems arise from the preferred paratactic construction of phrases (many statements put together one aside the other without any hierarchical organization linked by 'because of' or in any case causal lnks that can be controlled). this creates problems, Italian had create some others, French still others and so German, but we use English and it is important that, when different cultures collapse to a unique language and they discover some aporetic points talk about this and try to solve...
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11245-011-9097-4
Languages are not really separated entities. If you look at the words in the French language related to cooking, most of them are italian words. When I look at an English dictionary a large proportion of the words that I see there are French words and those word are latin, greek etc. Most of the languages are related to each other. Some language because of history have become richer than most other in certain areas. But before even that oral languages were invented, humans probably communicated with body movements expressing concepts in theatrical ways. All language is probably internally process on the same visual metaphorical ways. When we use Indy, English, Italian, Mandarin we enact this common visual theatrical/metaphoric language of our imagination.
Clearly this is the case given we have an intermingled history but it is not a matter of single words, but the way the discourse is organized what for centuries was called 'consecutio temporum' i.e. the way we organize our argomentation thus what is important to consider is not the common basis of the languages that comes from the common basis of human nature but the peculiarities arising from specific historical heritages that , as a very acute French historian Renè Braudel calls the 'saecular trends' suppoeting history, so in Italian we call knowledge 'sapienza' that has the same root of 'sapore' that means 'taste' and this comes from the fact Latins were shepards and the specific 'taste' of a piece of cheese cming from one specific shepard was the distinctive sign of a a good artisan that put 'his signature'. This is not without consequences, a 'sapiente' is not only someone who have read a lot of books but somenone that is able to put its personal touch in what he says.
Nothing similar is in English where the word 'wisdom' has a completely different sense...but as I said before the point is in the way we put our arguments, I had many problems with the scientific articles I wrote because they are considered too verbose ( Italian, thanks to the incredibly acute Venetian diplomats was for centuries the language of diplomacy) and what for me appears a step-by-step and thus accurate description is very often impossible to follow for an English speaking reader.
I think the real question is: How can we best use English for scientific exchange? Because it's here to stay, at least for a while. Compared to many languages, it's quite easy to learn, and the good thing about English is that simple sentences stack, one on the other, to create complex meaning. Even a minimal grasp on English grammar (subject+active verb+object) gives a learner the ability to concretely state methods and results. Although it's true that English lacks richness of case and its articles are of limited use in identifying who is doing what to whom in contrast to, say, German, it's got a good set of tenses and a tremendous vocabulary, so it's capable of great precision in certain important areas. The problem lies mostly in the quality of writing that scientific authors produce, rather than in the innate capacity of the language for scientific expression, but I think that's true of writing in any tongue.
Dear Kali, English is easier than others for writing, but for speaking? Phonetic is the key, but writing is a very good language for Science. I miss a lot reading in Psychology Journal to French psychologist. There are awesome theorist and researcher in France, but they are not interested in English because they prefer French rather than English
J'entends toujours dire que l'anglais est une langue facile, cependant l'immense majorité de ceux qui ne le parlent pas de façon 'maternelle', et en particulier ceux qui affirment bien haut, parfois sur un ton supérieur irritant, que l'anglais est facile, font des erreurs invraisemblables à pratiquement chaque phrase. Je connais des étrangers qui ont passé des années dans des pays de langue anglaise et qui font encore des erreurs fréquentes et, étonnamment, relativement élémentaires - et qui d'ailleurs lisent encore des romans d'auteurs anglophones en traduction, parce que ça ne les intéresse pas de faire l'effort d'apprendre plus en profondeur. Le mauvais anglais - une langue nulle - est la langue la plus facile et la plus répandue du monde, mais cependant l'anglais correct, voire élégant - une langue fascinante et expressive que j'adore - n'est ni facile ni répandu.
Immer wieder kriege ich zu hören, Englisch sei irgendwie eine einfache Sprache, usw.
Wieso dann, muß ich aber fragen, sprechen die meisten Ausländer die Sprache so ulkig schlecht, machen routinemäßig so viele (einschließlich grobe) Fehler, und drücken sie sich immer wieder mit den falschen Wörtern aus? Ich kenne Ausländer, die sich absolut einwandfrei auf Deutsch oder bzw. Französisch ausdrücken können, auf Englisch jedoch gar keine. Der Ruf der Sprache, einfach zu sein, ist einfach völliger Unsinn. Versuchen sie mal, als Nichtmuttersprachler z.B. den jüngsten Bestseller 'The Road' von Cormac McCarthy ohne weiteres zu lesen ....
For fun - let's parse the above text:
Dear Kali, English is easier than others (WRONG - it should read "than other tongues" - "than others" means than other people) . for writing, but for speaking? Phonetic (WRONG Phonetics) is the key, but writing is a very good language for Science (Wrong - "writing" is not 'a very good language' the whole sentence must be rebuilt, e.g. 'for the purposes of writing science it is a good language') . I miss a lot reading in Psychology Journal to French psychologist (Apologies, I do not even quite understand what is meant here - please specify ?). There are awesome theorist (should be in the plural) and researcher (should be in the plural) in France, but they are not interested in (word missing: learning ) English because they prefer French rather than (Wrong - prefer French over English) English.
Incidentally, preferring something over something else without knowledge of the something else seems to be the very definition of narrow-minded prejudice ('Voreingenommenheit')
ശാസ്ത്രം അനന്തമാണ്. അത് ഭാഷകള്ക്കും അതീതമാണ്. അതിനെ അറിയുക മനസിലാക്കുക. അതിനാണ് നമ്മുക്ക് ഒരു പൊതുവായ ഭാഷ വേണ്ടത്.
Dear all, I am from Kerala, India. This is my mother tongue, Malayalam. I love it, personally, I like to speak science also in this language. But, I can not, because it is not a universal language. So I would prefer to use English as it is common now everywhere. I know most of you could not read even what I wrote. This happens to me when you write french or German languages.
That's the best explanation I have seen for this question, WITH EXAMPLE. I hope everybody will agree with this.
Every body knows that English is the language for science.All new technologies are published via English.So it is suggested to learn English language prior to any other languages.
I have a somewhat different opinion here: Some fields of studies seem to be easier to be investigated in certain special languages. As an example, I would like to mention philosophy: Here, the German language is in my view superior to many other languages, due to its grammar and also, due to the availability of certain words that allow to make fine distinctions in certain descriptions (this is vague, intentionally). Probably, the situation is similar to advantages of using Inuit languages in glaciology. The point here is: The structure and the vocabulary of a language can be superior to other languages, as regards certain scientific topics.
As a second point, I think that using the the mother tongue offers the most vivid associations. Also, a large variety of languages may lead to new insights due to certain language-specific associations that are more easily found by a Chinese researcher, say, when he is considering a problem in his thoughts in Chinese, than a European researcher who can tackle the same problem "only" in his own language. Lessons to be learned for me are the following:
* try to learn as many other languages as you can handle
* if you find it difficult to use the "main stream" scientific language from the scratch, write the drafts of your articles in your own language, and then, seek help for translating them
* in discussions, it is helpful, if every participant makes his statements in his own language, provided that the other participants understand that
* many misunderstandings at conferences etc. are due to insufficient command of the language of the conference.
* think about your own research in your own language
* try to read the relevant articles in the original language because every translations may be erroneous
Unfortunately, there has to be a common language of science in order to ensure a certain intersubjective communicability of the results of research. "Broken English is (nowadays) the language of science".
But here, also with respect to my own certainly non-perfect English, I would like to ask native speakers to be friendly to us non-native ones, and to smile about erroneous wordings and grammar, but not to condemn us. :)
I try to do the same when I listen to non-native speakers of German, I promise ;)
[ My worst error was most laughter-provoking. During my second visit to England, I tried to translate the German "kurz und prägnant" as "short and pregnant" ... But to be on the safe side, please note, that there are indeed several meanings of the English pregnant, as I learned later :smile: try "pregnant" at dict.leo.org ]
Best regards
Herbert
Herbert,
I quite agree with your entreaty for lenience towards non-native speakers, what is especially grating however is the not so rare situation when non native speakers smugly (worse than smugly - 'süffisant' in German) put down English, well-nigh scornfully dismiss it as an 'easy' language (thereby blithely hinting that the hundreds of millions who speak English as their mother tongue speak a primitive language) and then proceed to speak it horribly, riddled with the most elementary mistakes and with an appalling paucity of vocabulary. Believe me - it's sorely riling.
On another note - I would tend to disagree with your 'try to learn as many languages as you can handle' - speaking many languages requires a huge amount of maintenance - you have to practice, to read in those languages, etc. virtually every day.
I find that beyond 4 or 5 languages spoken perfectly, the requisite effort to maintain your fluency at transparent levels is just too much and becomes unmanageably time-consuming. At least as far as I'm concerned, if I tried to acquire a further language I would be doomed to speak it badly and inelegantly, so frankly, out of respect for the speakers of that language, I'd rather speak English with them than butcher their language.....
Herbert,
If someone has something to say that is valuable in philosophy today , even though it might be more difficult to express this in English than in her/his language, it has to be done otherwise it will not be accessible to the global village as it should be.
English is now the most common language of science. Because it is such a universal language, it has a profound influence in helping scientists to communicate with each other and gain access to huge amount of scientific literature. This has accelerated scientific advancement and understanding.
In this era of the global village, all language (except) English is a local language of the tribe.
I believe that probably almost everything has been said by others (I did not have time to go thorugh all notes) therefore I summarize very briefly my view. I am fairly convinced that a simplified Latin or Esperanto would be better for everyone because latin languages allow a more precise expression of rleations (that's why theyused to be the languages of law and diplomacy) it would not provide advantage to anyone being his or her native tongue. But precisely this is the reason why it not so, because the actual "lingua franca" (which interestingly comes from the fact that French was used as an international languege in the Ottoman navy!) always expresses the preponderance of that nation or nations who happen to dominate the policitcal and economic spheres. It is they who press their language onto the others - directly or indirectly. It is my personal luck that I am very well off with the anglo-saxon culture and way of thinking (at least with some of its main attributes) - but this is not necessarily so with everyone.
English is not my native language like most of us, but today almost every one in the scientific domain understands it. In my view question should be: wether English in its present form is a good language for science... I think there are many ways to make it simpler.
I would like to stress that English grammar is fairly simple, and when writing/reading we basically meet with this aspect of a language, not with fonetics/speech.
From this point of view, I believe it is really difficult to make English simpler than it already is without losing in expressive power.
Moreover, the experience with all "artificial" languages (and Esperanto is only one of those) is that they reflect the intimate way of thinking of their creator(s), and not everybody may think the same way.
That said, I don't find any advantage in using a simplified (stripped down, artificially) version of an existing, simple language, instead of its full-power, natural version, qualified by evolution and use by millions of individuals.
but ... Does exist an alternative to the English for scientific writing??
Although English is de facto the language of the village, it would be a cultural disaster if we would find no place for the use of our local language. Our local language is a an implicit way to relate to the world which might provide significant insight for our scientific creative process. Global communication require English but does not require an English only world.
I Agree You, Science has no Language but only basic English is required , not mastery over ENGLISH .. Science Requires easy words 2 understand the things
Sunil, I know that in a painting the frame is not important, and in a book you don't read the cover, but a proper frame is needed to hang the painting, and a proper cover is needed to keep the book pages together.
English should not be the only scientific language available. World wide communication is a good thing in itself but each language conveys a specific mental frame and some ideas are not easily translated. Being both french and english, I notice that I do not have exactly the same ideas in both languages. In one I would stress details I would not in the other! For instance Germanic languages differ from romanic languages in their expression of time (see Saussure). Compared to English French is a much more subtle when you wish to refer to the past or when you wish to make a difference between a full statement on some thing that effectively happened or will effectively happen or a more limited one. it is the difference between the indicative mode and the subjective mode that has nearly entirely disappeared in English, or between the passé simple and the imparfait that simply does not exist in germanic languages. French use more extensively than the British logical conjunctions. On the other side, English has a much larger vocabulary. each has its pros and cons. It would be stifling if we had to think in one word/world frame only.
At present, English is the language of science. It's also the language of the internet, which supports science as well as other things. It's not that other languages don't express scientific concepts well, but English is entrenched as the technical language. Try teaching a basic high school science language in a language other than English and see how many English terms you need to use. English may lose it dominant status in the future, just as Latin has, but for now it's the best medium there is.
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