Logophilia, logophobia and the terra mota of personal linguistic experience

Abstract

This article discusses how an integrational approach to teaching linguistics at tertiary education institutions differs from the orthodox approach. Drawing from experience with English in Hong Kong, it is argued that individuals need to become confident and responsible language-users, which, in turn, requires a different understanding of how language relates to one's personal life. A 'science' of linguistics, however, takes for granted that there is a semantically determinate metalanguage which operates independently of time, culture, language, and people; a consequence of this is that students come to think of verbal communication exclusively in reference to languages, i.e. fixed codes that individuals already possess prior to language-use. Mythical thinking about language, however, leads to pathologies identified here as 'logophilia' and 'logophobia', respectively. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.