Consideraţii privind aspectul valoric al limbii

Abstract

This study is a component of the relatively new concept of the economics of language and aims at analysing the interconnection between language and economy in society. The paper attempts to apply the notions of value and capital to appreciate the economic value of language as human capital. From this perspective, this work points out the sociolinguistic variables (the share of the population speaking a certain language, the fields/areas of a language use, etc.) and the economic variables (language learning costs, the increase in income level depending on the command of a certain language, etc.) in conjunction with the interdependence of these variables. The study of the incidence of sociolinguistic variables on economic variables, on the one hand, and the effect of economic variables on sociolinguistic variables, on the other hand, might be of certain interest to decision-makers in language policy and language planning. JEL: A – 23.