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Abstract
This article introduces and defines the notion lingua receptiva (LaRa) as a mode of multilingual communication in which interactants employ a language and/or a language variety different from their partner's and still understand each other without the help of any additional lingua franca. The quintessence of lingua receptiva is discussed in terms of pragmatic, psycholinguistic and language psychology approaches to multilingualism. Moreover, the occurrence of this mode is documented across various language families throughout time and in various discursive intercultures which it creates. Furthermore, three central characteristics are discussed, namely ideological barriers resulting in asymmetry, 'inference-making' mechanisms and the function of idiomatic expressions. Finally, lingua receptiva is compared to other multilingual modes, especially with English as lingua franca.
Keywords
intelligibility of closely related languages, intercomprehension, receptive multilingualism, semicommunication
1 Defining 'lingua receptiva'
Receptive multilingualism is a mode of multilingual communication in which interactants employ a language and/or a language variety different from their partner's and still understand each other without the help of any additional lingua franca. Their mutual understanding is established while both recipients use their 'passive' knowledge of the language and/or variety of their interlocutor(s). The field was already established in 1952 when Voegelin and Harris distinguished intelligibility among dialects due to close genetic relationship, and stated that 'an informant's comprehension of another dialect could provide an index of dialect distance ...' (Casad, 1974, p. 52). In later studies, this phenomenon has been conceptualized as 'intelligibility of closely related languages' (Casad, 1974, 2005; Ethnologue, n.d.; Wolff, 1964), 'semicommunication' (Haugen, 1981; Zeevaert, 2007) or 'intercompréhension' (Grin, 2008). This mode has also been described as 'receptive multilingualism' (Braunmüller, 2007; ten Thije & Zeevaert, 2007).
In contrast to previous approaches, we will elaborate especially on the receptive component, which is crucial in grasping the notions of understanding and misunderstanding. In actual fact, we operationalize these specific receptive mechanisms and, in order to do so, we introduce a new notion, namely lingua receptiva (abbreviated LaRa). By definition, lingua receptiva is the ensemble of those linguistic, mental, interactional as well as intercultural competencies which are creatively activated when interlocutors listen to linguistic actions in their 'passive' language or variety. The essential point is that speakers apply additional competencies in order to monitor the way in which...