What would Bakhtin Do?

Abstract

Originally delivered as a lecture at the symposium Multilingual, 2.0? in Tucson (13 April 2012), this essay by Holquist—the eminent Slavic scholar, comparatist, and translator of Mikhail Bakhtin—explores the ontological instability of any distinction among multilingual, monolingual, and bilingual phenomena and practices. Drawing on Wilhelm von Humboldt, Noam Chomsky, and recently re-discovered writings of Ferdinand de Saussure, the essay deepens Holquist’s career-long exploration of the dialogical nature and grounding of linguistic practice, as well its implications for future theory-making in multilingualism studies.