After all, who invented the airplane? Multilingualism and grassroots knowledge production on Wikipedia

IF 1.3 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2024-09-09 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2024.08.001

{"title":"After all, who invented the airplane? Multilingualism and grassroots knowledge production on Wikipedia","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2024.08.001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The English-language Wikipedia article on the airplane states that Clément Ader ‘attempted to fly’, whereas ‘the Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane’. The French-language Wikipedia, in turn, points to France's pioneering role in aviation – which contrasts with the emphasis placed on Portuguese-speaking aviators in the Portuguese-language entry. Paradoxically, in each language, the airplane has a different inventor. Through online ethnography, this article explores the multilingual landscape of Wikipedia, looking not only at languages, but also at language varieties, and unpacking the intricate connections between language, country, and nationality in grassroots knowledge production online. Advocating for an attention to how multilingualism online involves more than ‘Google Translate-ing’ content, this study challenges conventional views of user-generated content platforms as unproblematically global and multilingual.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530924000491/pdfft?md5=80045b946171ba8f392d79dd427399b3&pid=1-s2.0-S0271530924000491-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language & Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530924000491","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The English-language Wikipedia article on the airplane states that Clément Ader ‘attempted to fly’, whereas ‘the Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane’. The French-language Wikipedia, in turn, points to France's pioneering role in aviation – which contrasts with the emphasis placed on Portuguese-speaking aviators in the Portuguese-language entry. Paradoxically, in each language, the airplane has a different inventor. Through online ethnography, this article explores the multilingual landscape of Wikipedia, looking not only at languages, but also at language varieties, and unpacking the intricate connections between language, country, and nationality in grassroots knowledge production online. Advocating for an attention to how multilingualism online involves more than ‘Google Translate-ing’ content, this study challenges conventional views of user-generated content platforms as unproblematically global and multilingual.

查看原文本刊更多论文

毕竟，是谁发明了飞机？维基百科上的多语言和草根知识生产

维基百科关于飞机的英语条目称克莱芒-阿德 "尝试飞行"，而 "莱特兄弟发明并驾驶了第一架飞机"。法语维基百科则指出法国在航空业中的先驱作用--这与葡萄牙语条目中对葡萄牙语飞行员的强调形成鲜明对比。矛盾的是，在每种语言中，飞机都有不同的发明者。通过在线民族志，本文探索了维基百科的多语言景观，不仅研究了语言，还研究了语言种类，并解读了基层在线知识生产中语言、国家和民族之间错综复杂的联系。本研究主张关注在线多语言化如何不仅仅涉及 "谷歌翻译 "内容，它挑战了将用户生成内容平台视为没有问题的全球和多语言平台的传统观点。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.