M. Teresa Cabré Castellví was appointed president of the Philological Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) in July 2014, becoming the first woman to hold the position in question in the century-old institution. At UPF, she will be coordinating the Pompeu Fabra chair project.

-What role does the IEC's Philological Section play?

The Philological Section is the Catalan language academy, in that it produces prescriptive works on the language. When the IEC was founded, back in the days of Prat de la Riba, the idea was to create an institution that would cover all areas of knowledge, one that would therefore not only regulate Catalan but also promote research in the different fields of science and technology. That was the backdrop against which the Philological Section came into being. Unlike the IEC's other sections, it has a dual role. On the one hand, it carries out linguistic research. On the other, it establishes the Catalan language's rules, which are approved and disseminated by the IEC as a whole.

-What projects is the Philological Section currently working on?

There are our main projects - those related to regulating the language - and then there are our scientific projects, owing to our dual responsibility. One of our regulatory projects is a grammar, which ought to be ready in 2015. It'll be very flexible and should give rise to another one, mainly aimed at teachers and pupils, which will be much more specific and precise. We're also designing a new prescriptive dictionary, the first that won't be based on its predecessors. It'll be newly written and will look at the language's uses in great depth. Our other regulatory projects include the lexis of the oral standard; a new edition of the orthographic rules, incorporating new aspects from recent years; and developing Catalan Sign Language. Our research projects notably include a linguistic atlas and updating the written corpus of the Catalan language.

-What does the last project you mentioned involve?

A text corpus is a structured collection of real oral or written texts. The IEC already has a text corpus, but its most recent content is from 1990 and the language has changed considerably since then. It's very important to bring the language in the corpus up to date to provide a basis for our prescriptive documents. You could hardly produce a prescriptive dictionary based on real uses without sufficiently reliable material on them. Those uses will inform the decisions that'll subsequently shape the rules.

How important is knowledge of Catalan in the education arena?

Many people don't realize that thought is structured through language. Failure to master our languages, whether Catalan or Spanish, is a serious shortcoming, one that can have major repercussions if it's present from an early age.

-Has Catalan lost ground in the last 25 years?

There's no comparison between the situation in the 1980s and the way things are today, due to the surge in immigration, which has overwhelmed us all, and globalization, among other factors. There are now fewer people who say that their first language is Catalan, while the number of people who consider themselves bilingual has risen. Catalan hasn't lost any of its prestige, but it has lost out where some areas of use are concerned. In the past, children who were taught in Catalan used the language in their social life, but it seems they no longer do so in many cases. There's a kind of divide between Catalan as a language of schooling and education and as a social language. That's serious and needs to be looked at.

-How do you see Catalan's future?

The most important thing is for Catalan to remain a linguistic reference point for our society, or a sizeable part of society, and retain its prestige. If it can do so, there's very little chance of it faltering, no matter how much interference there may be.

-Given your position in the IEC, will you still be carrying out research at UPF?

I've taken a step back from the front line at UPF, but I'm still closely connected to the University. I'll always have ties with my research group. I'm still working on a project on neologisms with the OBNEO, the Neology Observatory. It revolves around the difference between neologisms that arise in specialized discourse and those that appear in the press in general. When a new word is first used in scientific discourse, it can be a sign that new knowledge is emerging.

-What's your opinion of the research performed at the IULA, the University Institute for Applied Linguistics?

The IULA is an institute that, in terms of subject matter, has become a model in Spain and some other countries. It has inspired the creation of two other institutes in Spain. It enjoys a great deal of international renown, especially in Europe and Latin America. What really appeals about the IULA is that it focuses on applied linguistics, geared to a particular idea, to a particular purpose or to resolving a particular situation related to information or communication, rather than on abstract linguistics or linguistic theory. I actually joined UPF from the University of Barcelona in 1994 to set up the IULA and I'm very satisfied with it.

-What does the Pompeu Fabra chair project entail?

It's a proposal that Jaume Casals, the rector, included in his election campaign. Its aim is to raise the profile, both internally and in society, of UPF's Commitment to the Catalan language, culture and identity. With the cooperation of the IEC and the Catalan government's Ministry of Culture, it should be a means of presenting UPF's ideas on, knowledge of and research into Catalan outside the University and, if possible, of offering all that to society as a service.

LIKES...

A COMPOSER

Mahler.

A BOOK

I can't pick just one... Let me give you a few names. As far as Catalan writers are concerned, Maria Àngels Anglada, Jaume Cabré and Maria Barbal. Among non-Catalans, Magda Szabó and Agota Kristof, both of whom are Hungarian.

A PRINCIPLE

Loyalty, without a shadow of a doubt.

DISLIKES...

Opaqueness and irrational points of view.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Academic career highlights

She has been a professor of Catalan Philology since 1989, and lectured at the University of Barcelona until 1994, the year in which she joined UPF.

At UPF she has been vice-rector for Research (1996-1999), director of the IULA (1994-2005) and leader of the IULATERM research group (since 1994).

She has been a member of the IEC since 1990, and directed its Lexicography Department (1992-1995).

She participated in the creation of the Catalan Language Terminology Centre (TERMCAT) and was its first director (1985-1988).

She coordinated the work involved in producing the first edition of the IEC's Dictionary of the Catalan Language (1990-1995).

She has received the Narcís Monturiol Medal for scientific merit and the Eugen Wüster International Terminology Award, and is a doctor honoris causa of Ricardo Palma University in Lima.

FREDERIC CAMALLONGA