Humphrey Tonkin

LANGUAGE AND THE INGENUITY GAP IN SCIENCE

Over the centuries, first Latin and then French, German, and Russian have receded in perceived importance as languages of science. Other powerful languages with extensive internal scientific discourse, such as Japanese and Chinese, have always been largely excluded. The dominance of English has elevated the reputation of English-language universities and advantaged native speakers of English by creating a self-reinforcing loop of language flow. Abstracting services insist on English-language abstracts; citation indexes often include only English-language citations; thus English appears to dominate scientific discourse, and English-speaking universities invariably head the lists of leading scientific institutions. The inexact assumption appears to be that, with enough pressure, others will be forced to learn English in order to compete. Thus scientific advancement circumscribed by the English language is erroneously equated with scientific advancement in general. If this discriminatory situation is to change, the advantaged must acknowledge their advantage and explore ways of redressing the imbalance.

Navigating and Expanding the MLA International Bibliography

From an annual printed volume, the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association has gradually developed into a multi-volume printed edition and a vast online database (as of 2009, the print edition will be discontinued). Traditionally compiled from a master list of periodicals, it has given birth to a hybrid classification system, part language-based and part geographybased, which does not easily accommodate peripatetic or multilingual writers, changing definitions of national literatures, or consistency of indexing over time. It is best suited to the English-speaking reader dealing with print materials relating to major European literatures and languages. Efforts are underway to address Web-based materials more effectively, but the bibliography could be made more serviceable to a wider range of users with a translatable indexing system and with criteria better adapted to the needs of smaller languages, literatures, and cultures. It could be supplemented by a bibliographic wiki, separate from the bibliography but useable as a source for materials and commentary.