Introduction – heritage as a broad context of interpretation

Our discussion will merge three related frameworks: 1) studies on languages in contact (loanwords, hybridisation); 2) studies on cultural and national heritage, where heritage is perceived by the author as a sui generis pragmatic context indispensable in an interpretation of all kinds of texts of culture; and 3) studies on linguistic landscape (LL) and multimodal communication, which leads to the emergence of semiotic landscape (SL), constructed out of verbal and non-verbal components situated in a specific space. As such, the article positions itself at the crossroads of linguistics proper, sociolinguistics, social semiotics and transcultural studies.

The ponderings on the impact of the English language on two selected Asian languages and cultures – Nepali and Malay – will provide the material that oversteps the limits of purely linguistic considerations and is pertinent to the question what really is understood by the term cultural heritage and to what extent we are prepared to defend it in the age of globalisation/ glocalisation. Heritage is a complex phenomenon, not infrequently understood in an emotional way, burdened with political and/or religious connotations, with a sometimes uncritically accepted historical and cultural setting. David Lowenthal has a word of warning in this respect:

In what follows, I intend to treat heritage in an objective way, as a very broadly conceived pragmatic factor, in fact a cluster of national, historical, religious, cultural, socio-economic and political/ideological ideas and values, indispensable in imparting meaning to all kinds of semiotic texts – verbal, non-verbal and mixed (cf. Chrzanowska-Kluczewska 2018). Lowenthal (1998: 3) completes the aforementioned list by pointing out that: “History, tradition, memory, myth, and memoir variously join us with what has passed, with forebears, with our own earlier selves”.

Vernacular languages, albeit not explicitly mentioned, constitute a substantial part of heritage, thus equally deserving protection, yet in a reasonable manner, compatible with specific national, social and economic interests.