Interlingvistiko retrospektive kaj prospektive: Panoramo pri la originala kontribuo de Fabrizio Pennacchietti al la disciplino

Abstract

Interlinguistics is one of the oldest branches of Linguistics; nonetheless, its definition and area of application struggles to be accepted by the academe, since its beginning, because it breaks a seldom admitted taboo of linguists, i.e. the fact that even if the capability of languages is natural in the sense that human beings are biologically programmed to learn languages, the languages they are learning are defined by the societies they happen to live in. Therefore, ultimately, all human languages should not be defined as ‘natural’ but as ‘ethnic’, ‘national’, in case they are consciously planned – in the sense of language planning – by ethnic or national groups, or ‘ethic’, ‘international’, or other adjectives, if defined and shaped by communities of practice that are not identifiable with an ethnic or national group, such as, for example, the Esperantists. This contribution illustrates the consequences of this epistemological and ethical standpoint, elicited from the vast rather often neglected literature in interlinguistics that Fabrizio Pennacchietti published in his long and fruitful academic career.