Representation and Power

摘要

In 1492 Elio Antonio de Nebrija approached Queen Isabella of Spain to ask for her support for the first grammar of the Castilian language. Ivan Illich tells the story: "But unlike the request of Columbus, who wanted resources to establish a new route to the China of Marco Polo, [the request] of Nebrija urges the Queen to invade a new domain at home. He offers Isabella a tool to colonize the language spoken by her own subjects; he wants her to replace the people's speech by the imposition of the queen's lengua—her language, her tongue." Nebrija's argument went thus: "My illustrious Queen. Whenever I ponder over the tokens of the past that have been preserved in writing, I am forced to the very same conclusion. Language has always been the consort of empire, and forever shall remain its mate. Together, they come into being, together they grow and flower, and together they decline." Without a grammar, Nebrija continued, the people's unbound and ungoverned speech was a challenge to the crown. Grammar would impose rules on speech and writing and thus help bring the people's thoughts under the control of central authority.