The text of a presidential address delivered at University College London on March 16, 2001 to the Modern Humanities Research Association is presented. The use of the phrases 'mother tongue' and 'native speaker' are discussed.
'Native speaker' and 'mother tongue' are two symmetrical and converse notions. They seem to refer to the same reality from two opposite viewpoints. Native speakers, by definition, speak their mother tongue, and a mother tongue is the language of a native speaker, ...