Linguistic epistemology and the notion of monolingualism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v2i3.441Keywords:
Monolingualism, Comparative Fallacy, Bilingualism, multilingualism, multiple competenceAbstract
This article sets out to understand why monolingualism is taken to be the ‘norm’ in linguistic inquiry, from sociolinguistics to formal linguistic theory. I will take the position that comparing instances of multilingualism to so-called monolingualism is an unfair and inevitably inaccurate comparison since, among other variables, the social environments and access to input of multilinguals compared to monolinguals is most often different (Cruz-Ferreira 2006; Edwards 2004). I will also attempt to demonstrate that even so-called monolinguals have access to a variety of grammars related to different registers of speech and, therefore, are not truly monolingual in the sense that they possess one monolithic grammatical competence. Taken together, the present discussion questions both the default status of monolingualism as well as the functional adequacy of the term ‘monolingualism’.
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