Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн

18 страница из 69

We also looked up “bilingualism” in the same 11 dictionaries. Surprisingly, three of them (Oxford Advanced Learner’s, American Heritage, and Longman) did not have an entry for the word. Three of the eight that did underlined the ability to speak two languages, two of them adding equally well (e.g., Cambridge English: “the fact of being able to use two languages equally well”). This is proportionally less than for the meaning of “bilingual.” And five definitions mentioned language use. Two of these mentioned use by itself (e.g., Macmillan: “the use of two languages by a person or a group”); two mentioned ability and use (e.g., Merriam-Webster: “the ability to speak two languages,” as well as, “the frequent use… of two languages”); and one, Google dictionary, indicated the one or the other possibility: “fluency in or use of two languages.” Again, none indicated two or more languages, and none added dialects to languages. In sum, the definitions of “bilingualism” put much less emphasis on language fluency and made more room for language use. But overall, dictionary definitions follow the lay persons’ view of what “bilingual” and “bilingualism” mean. We can now turn to experts who study bilingualism.