Will the inhabitants of planet Earth finally manage to understand each other at the dawn of the third Millenium? How will mankind face up to the growing globalisation of contacts between human beings? If the tools of communication are each day more numerous and powerful, can the communicative capacities of mankind keep pace with the high standards of technical possibilities ?
These questions are at the core of the concerns of those conducting research in the field of linguistics, whether fundamental or applied. These questions also signal the importance and the difficulty of highly specialised professions such as translation, film dubbing and conference interpretation. They also underline last but not least the prominent role of language trainers.