1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Language, Culture and Society
  4. Online First Articles
  5. Online First Article
image of Insider perspectives and ontological curiosity
EPUB
PDF

Abstract

Abstract

In this paper, we engage with the concept of translanguaging, situating it as a transformative approach within linguistics, particularly in contexts where the limitations of monolingual and monoglossic frameworks are not only misaligned with, but also detrimental to, the complex realities of language use. However, while translanguaging challenges these frameworks, it risks becoming another form of universalism if not critically examined, and if unthinkingly applied across all contexts. Instead, we advocate for a conception of language as inherently multiple: a . We propose that language exists in a dynamic, varied array of forms, contingent on its enactment and context. We emphasise the importance of recognising linguistic diversity in its full complexity, moving beyond binaries and attempting to perceive language as it is conceptualised, practiced and performed. This approach calls for a rethinking of linguistic theory, encouraging us towards a more grounded, open and curious understanding of what language is, or .

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25030.gur
2026-01-13
2026-02-17

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25030.gur
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/10.1075/lcs.25030.gur/lcs.25030.gur.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25030.gur&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Bakhtin, M.
    (1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.; M. Holquist, Ed.). University of Texas Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. L.
    (2003) Voices of modernity: Language ideologies and the politics of inequality. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511486647
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486647 [Google Scholar]
  3. Blaser, M.
    (2013) Ontological conflicts and the stories of peoples in spite of Europe: Toward a conversation on political ontology. Current Anthropology, (), –. 10.1086/672270
     https://doi.org/10.1086/672270 [Google Scholar]
  4. (2014) Ontology and indigeneity: On the political ontology of heterogeneous assemblages. Cultural Geographies, (), –. 10.1177/1474474012462534
     https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474012462534 [Google Scholar]
  5. Canagarajah, A. S.
    (2017) Translingual practices and neoliberal policies. Springer. 10.1007/978‑3‑319‑41243‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41243-6 [Google Scholar]
  6. Cohen, S.
    (2018) Mantras and sacred language. InS. Cohen (Ed.), The Upanisads: A complete guide (pp.–). Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Cummins, J.
    (2025) Pedagogical translanguaging: Rescuing a legitimate and useful concept from the echo chamber of evidence-free assertions. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, (), –. 10.1075/lab.24064.cum
     https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.24064.cum [Google Scholar]
  8. Cowley, S. J.
    (2019) The return of languaging: Toward a new ecolinguistics. Chinese Semiotic Studies, (), –. 10.1515/css‑2019‑0027
     https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2019-0027 [Google Scholar]
  9. Cowley, S. J., & Kuhle, A.
    (2020) The rise of languaging. Biosystems, , . 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104264
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104264 [Google Scholar]
  10. Creese, A., & Blackledge, A.
    (2010) Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching?The Modern Language Journal, (), –. 10.1111/j.1540‑4781.2009.00986.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00986.x [Google Scholar]
  11. (2015) Translanguaging and identity in educational settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, , –. 10.1017/S0267190514000233
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000233 [Google Scholar]
  12. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F.
    (1987) A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Continuum.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Demuro, E., & Gurney, L.
    (2018) Mapping language, culture, ideology: Rethinking language in foreign language instruction. Language and Intercultural Communication, (), –. 10.1080/14708477.2018.1444621
     https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2018.1444621 [Google Scholar]
  14. (2021) Languages/languaging as world-making: The ontological bases of language. Language Sciences, . 10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101307
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101307 [Google Scholar]
  15. (2025) Language ontologies and the worlding of language(s)/languaging: does language create the world or does worlding create language?Language Sciences, . 10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101743
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101743 [Google Scholar]
  16. Ennis, G.
    (2020) Linguistic Natures: Method, Media, and Language Reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, (), –. 10.1111/jola.12281
     https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12281 [Google Scholar]
  17. Gal, S.
    (2006) Contradictions of standard language in Europe: Implications for the study of practices and publics. Social Anthropology, (), –. 10.1017/S0964028206002515
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0964028206002515 [Google Scholar]
  18. García, O.
    (2007) Foreword: Intervening discourses, representations and conceptualizations of language. InS. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp.–). Multilingual Matters.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. (2009) Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. InTove Skutnabb-Kangas, Robert Phillipson, Ajit K. Mohanty, & M. Panda (Eds.), Social justice through multilingual education (pp.–). Multilingual Matters. 10.2307/jj.30945682.12
     https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.30945682.12 [Google Scholar]
  20. García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A.
    (2020) Translanguaging and literacies. Reading Research Quarterly, (), –. 10.1002/rrq.286
     https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.286 [Google Scholar]
  21. García, O., & Li, W.
    (2014) Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
  22. García, O., & Lin, A. M.
    (2016) Translanguaging in bilingual education. InO. García, A. Lin, & S. May (Eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education: Encyclopedia of language and education. Springer. 10.1007/978‑3‑319‑02324‑3_9‑1
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_9-1 [Google Scholar]
  23. García, O., & Wei, L.
    (2014) Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave MacMillan. 10.1057/9781137385765
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765 [Google Scholar]
  24. Gramling, D.
    (2021) The invention of multilingualism. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108780667
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108780667 [Google Scholar]
  25. Grin, F.
    (2018) On some fashionable terms in multilingualism research: Critical assessment and implications for language policy. InP. A. Kraus and F. Grin (Eds.), The Politics of Multilingualism: Europeanisation, Globalization and Linguistic Governance (pp.–). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Gurney, L., & Demuro, E.
    (2022) Beyond coloniality and monolingualism: Decolonial reflections on languages education / Mas allá de la colonialidad y el monolingüismo: reflexiones decoloniales sobre la enseñanza de lenguas. Teaching in Higher Education, (), –. 10.1080/13562517.2022.2035350
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2035350 [Google Scholar]
  27. (2023) Simultaneous multiplicity: new materialist ontologies and the apprehension of language as assemblage and phenomenon. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, (), –. 10.1080/15427587.2022.2102011
     https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2022.2102011 [Google Scholar]
  28. Harkness, N.
    (2017) Glossolalia and cacophony in South Korea: Cultural semiosis at the limits of language. American Ethnologist, (), –. 10.1111/amet.12523
     https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12523 [Google Scholar]
  29. Jaspers, J.
    (2018) The transformative limits of translanguaging. Language & Communication, , –. 10.1016/j.langcom.2017.12.001
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2017.12.001 [Google Scholar]
  30. Jørgensen, J. N.
    (2008) Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism, (), –. 10.1080/14790710802387562
     https://doi.org/10.1080/14790710802387562 [Google Scholar]
  31. Khubchandani, L. M.
    (1997) Revisualizing Boundaries: A Plurilingual Ethos. Sage.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Krause-Alzaidi, L.-S.
    (2024) Relanguaging: Sorting things out and bringing things together in Khayelitshan English classrooms. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, (), –. 10.1080/01434632.2022.2152035
     https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2152035 [Google Scholar]
  33. Kubota, R.
    (2014) The multi/plural turn, postcolonial theory, and neoliberal multiculturalism: Complicities and implications for applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics, (), –. 10.1093/applin/amu045
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu045 [Google Scholar]
  34. Latour, B.
    (1993) We have never been modern (C. Porter, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Lewis, G., Jones, B., & Baker, C.
    (2012) Translanguaging: Developing its conceptualisation and contextualisation. Educational Research and Evaluation, (), –. 10.1080/13803611.2012.718490
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.718490 [Google Scholar]
  36. Li, W.
    (2018) Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, (), –. 10.1093/applin/amx039
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039 [Google Scholar]
  37. Liyanage, I., & Canagarajah, A. S.
    (2024) Lessons for Decolonization from Pre-Colonial Translingualism. InC. McKinney, P. Makoe, & V. Zavala (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism (pp.–). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003214908‑2
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003214908-2 [Google Scholar]
  38. Love, N.
    (2004) Cognition and the language myth. Language Sciences, (), –. 10.1016/j.langsci.2004.09.003
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2004.09.003 [Google Scholar]
  39. Lu, C., Gu, M. M., & Lee, J. C. K.
    (2023) A systematic review of research on translanguaging in EMI and CLIL classrooms. International Journal of Multilingualism, –. 10.1080/14790718.2023.2256775
     https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2023.2256775 [Google Scholar]
  40. MacSwan, J.
    (2020) Translanguaging, language ontology, and civil rights. World Englishes, (), –. 10.1111/weng.12464
     https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12464 [Google Scholar]
  41. MacSwan, J., & Rolstad, K.
    (2024) (Un) grounded language ideologies: A brief history of translanguaging theory. International Journal of Bilingualism, (), –. 10.1177/13670069241236703
     https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069241236703 [Google Scholar]
  42. Makoni, S., & Pennycook, A.
    (2007) Disinventing and reconstituting languages. InS. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp.–). Multilingual Matters.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. McKinney, C., & Tyler, R.
    (2024) (Trans)languaging-for-learning: A perspective from the South. Reading & Writing, (). 10.4102/rw.v15i1.508
     https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v15i1.508 [Google Scholar]
  44. Mol, A.
    (1999) Ontological Politics. A Word and Some Questions. The Sociological Review, (), –. 10.1111/j.1467‑954X.1999.tb03483.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1999.tb03483.x [Google Scholar]
  45. (2013) Mind your plate! The ontonorms of Dutch dieting. Social Studies of Science, (), –. 10.1177/0306312712456948
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312712456948 [Google Scholar]
  46. Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W.
    (2015) Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, (), –. 10.1515/applirev‑2015‑0014
     https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014 [Google Scholar]
  47. Pennycook, A.
    (2017) Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages. International Journal of Multilingualism, (), –. 10.1080/14790718.2017.1315810
     https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1315810 [Google Scholar]
  48. (2024a) Language assemblages. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781009348638
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009348638 [Google Scholar]
  49. (2024b) Language, deconstructivism, and the Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, –. 10.1080/15427587.2024.2400095
     https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2024.2400095 [Google Scholar]
  50. Prinsloo, M.
    (2024) Fixity and fluidity in language and language education. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, (), –. 10.1080/01434632.2023.2173215
     https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2173215 [Google Scholar]
  51. Rosa, J., & Flores, N.
    (2017) Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, (), –. 10.1017/S0047404517000562
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404517000562 [Google Scholar]
  52. Sutton, P.
    (1997) Materialism, sacred myth and pluralism: Competing theories of the origin of Australian languages. InScholar and sceptic: Australian Aboriginal studies in Honour of LR Hiatt (pp.–). Aboriginal Studies Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Treffers-Daller, J.
    (2025) Translanguaging: What is it besides smoke and mirrors?Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, (), –. 10.1075/lab.24015.tre
     https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.24015.tre [Google Scholar]
  54. Turner, M., & Lin, A. M. Y.
    (2024) Translanguaging and Trans-Semiotizing. InC. McKinney, P. Makoe, & V. Zavala (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism (pp.–). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003214908‑9
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003214908-9 [Google Scholar]
  55. Wee, L.
    (2021) Posthumanist world Englishes. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108990615
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108990615 [Google Scholar]
  56. Li, W., & García, O.
    (2022) Not a first language but one repertoire: Translanguaging as a decolonizing project. RELC Journal, (), –. 10.1177/00336882221092841
     https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882221092841 [Google Scholar]
  57. Yelle, R. A.
    (2006) Ritual and religious language. InEncyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Second ed., Vol., pp.–). Elsevier. 10.1016/B0‑08‑044854‑2/03042‑X
     https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/03042-X [Google Scholar]
  58. (2022) On mantras and other ‘untranslatable’ forms of religious language. InH. Israel (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of translation and religion (pp.–). Routledge. 10.4324/9781315443485‑14
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315443485-14 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25030.gur
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: translanguaging ; language ideology ; multilingualism ; language ontologies

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error