Un, Dos, y Juntos: Interpretation, Incommensurability, and Linguistic Evolution in Juana Adcock’s “Thirteen Ways of Inhabiting a Language”
Domínguez, Saussy, and Villanueva have commented that “To think for too long about macaronics and creoles causes one to doubt that languages […] exist. Perhaps between any two languages there is a zone of mutual borrowing, a zone where translation is superfluous or always erroneous” (87). The Wave m...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Catalan |
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Liverpool University Press
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Modern Languages Open |
| Online Access: | https://account.modernlanguagesopen.org/index.php/up-j-mlo/article/view/539 |
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| Summary: | Domínguez, Saussy, and Villanueva have commented that “To think for too long about macaronics and creoles causes one to doubt that languages […] exist. Perhaps between any two languages there is a zone of mutual borrowing, a zone where translation is superfluous or always erroneous” (87). The Wave model of linguistic development proposed by Schuchardt and Schmidt suggests that we should understand languages not as discrete entities evolving through divergence from common ancestors, but as connected points on a spectrum stretching across the world. Like the people who speak them, languages are always in dialogue with each other as they develop through their interactions with the Other. This development through interaction often comes in the form of acts of non-translation as much as translation. We see this in the continuous historical exchange of loan words between languages, which sees a glacial non-translation gradually alter a language as new words and phrases are incorporated. It is partly for this reason that theorists such as Emily Apter have argued that non-translation has an even greater capacity to build bridges between languages, and thus people, than translation, as subjects are forced to engage with the foreign directly rather than experience it after it has been made familiar. This article explores two models for linguistic development (the Tree and Wave models) as well as currents in so-called “non-translation studies” through a close reading of “Thirteen Ways of Inhabiting a Language” (2019) by the Mexican poet-translator Juana Adcock. In particular, I argue that Adcock uses non-translation to demonstrate the extraordinary interconnectedness of languages and the impact this has on the way they develop and relate to one another. Ultimately, I conclude, in agreement with Domínguez et al., that the borders between languages (like many borders) are socially constructed and that embracing the entangled nature of human languages through non-translation can be immensely productive. |
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| ISSN: | 2052-5397 |