Language and context

Abstract

Any living language or dialect and the literature that it creates is an integral part of the society where the language is spoken. It has a national context from which one cannot detach it without shaking its foundation or destroying, if I may say so, its birth certificate. This is true of Literature in the country where it is born. There is also the curious case of a foreign language extensively taught outside the area where it is spoken-and used for social inter-communication, such as, to mention one particular case, Italian and English in Maltese society.