Polylanguaging, integrational linguistics and contemporary sociolinguistic theory: a commentary on Ritzau

Abstract

© 2015 Taylor & Francis In this article, we take up and expand upon a number of issues of linguistic theory raised in Ursula Ritzau's recent article ‘Learner language and polylanguaging: how language students’ ideologies relate to their written language use’ published in the Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The present critique is informed by an integrational linguistic approach, from which perspective polylanguaging was recently discussed by one of the present authors. In the first part of this commentary we pinpoint and offer a critical analysis of some of the claims raised in Ritzau's article, providing a rationale for these claims from the perspective of the polylanguaging theorist and discussing its implications. In the second part we embark on a more general critique of polylanguaging and related branches of modern sociolinguistics by making explicit reference to an integrational semiology, showing that the linguistic philosophy of the former rests on the same mythical assumptions as the founding school they criticise (i.e. Saussurean structuralism). We also respond to some of the – in our view, inadequately grounded – criticisms that Ritzau raises in respect of integrational linguistics.