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GATE 2024 XH2 (English) – Question 60

Comparative and World Literatures in English Translation · Multilingualism, translation studies and the politics of language in literary production · 2 marks · Multiple select

“What if, in order to save some humans lost in their language, in order to deliver the humans themselves, at the expense of their language, it was better to renounce the language, at least to renounce the best conditions for survival ‘at all costs’ for the idiom? And what if some humans were more worth saving than their language, under circumstances where, alas, one needed to choose between them? For we are living in a period in which the question at times arises. Today, on this earth of humans, certain people must yield to the homo-hegemony of dominant languages. They must learn the language of the masters, of capital and machines; they must lose their idiom in order to survive or live better.”
On the basis of this passage, which of the following options is/are correct? The writer of this passage is:

  1. Advocating that all colonized people should renounce their native languages to succeed in a globalized world.
  2. Lamenting that in our contemporary world, some groups of people are forced to choose between immersion in their own language and economic survival.
  3. Implicitly expressing despair about the hegemony of dominant languages.
  4. Suggesting that there should be only one language in the world.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (B) Lamenting that in our contemporary world, some groups of people are forced to choose between immersion in their own language and economic survival.; (C) Implicitly expressing despair about the hegemony of dominant languages.

Explanation

Derrida asks a painful question and says that some people “must” give up their idiom to survive, which is a lament over a forced choice (B) and a mood of despair about hegemonic languages (C). He does not advocate renouncing languages or a single language.