At 7:30 pm on May 12, 2021, Prof. Florian Coulmas, Senior Professor of Japanese Society and Sociolinguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences in Duisburg-Essen University, was invited by the School of Foreign Languages of Southeast University and the Asia-Pacific Language Policy Research Center to hold an online lecture on the theme of “Economic Theory and the Diffusion of Languages”.
Prof. Florian Coulmas is the Associate Editor of International Journal of the Sociology of Language, founding editor of Contemporary Japan, member of editorial board of Language Policy. His publications include 28 monographs, 30 edited works, and about 50 articles. His research activities involve Sociology of Language, Japanese society and culture, and Language economy, planning and policy.
Since Adam Smith, economists have taken an interest in various aspects of language. In this lecture, Professor Florian Coulmas reviewed some of the resulting models and explores whether economic theories can be used to explain language transmission. Professor Coulmas showed that in the course of the last half century, language has become the object of economic interest in various fields, with particularly hot topics including political economy, decolonization and migration development, globalization and trade, commercialization of human capital, and language as a means of exchange. Professor Coulmas discussed the principles and ways of supporting minority languages and described the challenges and new approaches that currently exist in this area. Finally, Professor Coulmas patiently answered the questions raised.
The impressive lecture lasted for an hour and a half. Through Professor Coulmas’ clear, logical and detailed explanation, participants were greatly inspired. They actively exchanged ideas with him during the Q&A session and benefited a lot.
Text/Yawen Han
