Language standardization
- 1. LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION HOW AND WHY Admilson F. S. Silva Luiz de Castro
- 2. STANDARDIZING? Is the process of development of a standard for written and/or oral language It occurs in a specific manner that depends on the community and the social, historical and geographic aspects involved. At a certain point usually there is a prescriptive effort to develop a standard.
- 3. How do varieties become standard? By a series of resources such as: A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary) A recognized grammar A standard pronunciation (educated speech) A linguistic institution defining usage norms, e.g. Académie française, or Real Academia Española Constitutional (legal) status (frequently as an official language) Effective public use (court, legislature, schools) A literary canon Convenience speaking Popularity and acceptance in the community Population Source: Wikipedia
- 4. Why establishing a standard? Desire for national (cultural, political, and social) cohesion
- 5. Sociopolitical issues Nonstandard varieties may be associated to low-prestige and/or unsophisticated and/or poor people (language vs. dialect) In this process, the variety of those who hold the socioeconomic/political power usually prevails as standard.
- 6. Example of spoken standard In Brazil, actors and journalists usually adopt an unofficial, but de facto, spoken standard Portuguese, originally derived from the middle-class dialect of Rio de Janeiro, but that now comprehends educated urban pronunciations from the different speech communities in the southeast
- 7. Brazil (Articles) (11/2006) Portuguese Language Teaching Standardization and Legalization (in Portuguese) (12/2008) The consequences of the standardization of Portuguese Language (in Portuguese) (viewed in 11/2012) The issue of the National language (in Portuguese) (03/2010) The standardization of Portuguese language in Globo TV’s Jornal Nacional (05/2009) The Unification of Portuguese Language
- 8. Other countries (news and articles) 03/2011 - Angola Angola advances towards the standardization of national languages (in Portuguese) 03/2011 - Angola Seeking the standardization of languages (in Portuguese) 9/2009 - Moçambique It is early for language standardization in Moçambique, says professor 06/2011 - Moçambique The implementation of standard spelling in Moçambican languages is urgent 04/2012 – Cape Verde Officialization and standardization of Cape Verdian language explained at Universidade de Santiago (in Portuguese) 08/2004 - USA Hispanic TV wants to standardize language (in Portuguese)
- 9. Reference Material Wikipedia: Standard Language Wikipedia: List of Language Regulators Cape Verde (viewed in 11/2012) Cape Verdian Language (standardization) (in Portuguese) Canadá (08/1993) The Mohawk Language Standardization Project Conference report
- 10. Books Language Standardization and Language Change The dynamics of Cape Dutch By Ana Deumert Monash Universit Language Standardization and Language Change describes the formation of an early standard norm at the Cape around 1900. The processes of variant reduction and sociolinguistic focusing which accompanied the early standardization history of Afrikaans (or ‘Cape Dutch’ as it was then called) are analysed within the broad methodological framework of corpus linguistics and variation analysis. Multivariate statistical techniques (cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling and PCA) are used to model the emergence of linguistic uniformity in the Cape Dutch speech community. The book also examines language contact and creolization in the early settlement, the role of Afrikaner nationalism in shaping language attitudes and linguistic practices, and the influence of English. As a case study in historical sociolinguistics the book calls into question the traditional view of the emergence of an Afrikaans standard norm, and advocates a strongly sociolinguistic, speaker-orientated approach to language history in general, and standardization studies in particular. http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/impact.19/main
- 11. Books Authority in Language Investigating Standard English James Milroy, Lesley Milroy Authority in Language explores the perennially topical and controversial notion of correct and incorrect language.James and Lesley Milroy cover the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in Britain and compare the language ideologies in Britain and the USA, involving a discussion of the English-Only movement and the Ebonics controversy. They consider the historical process of standardisation and its social consequences, in particular discrimination against low-status and ethnic minority groups on the basis of their language traits.This Routledge Linguistics Classic is here reissued with a new foreword and a new afterword in which the authors broaden their earlier concept of language ideology.Authority in Language is indispensable reading for educationalists, teachers and linguists and a long-standing text for courses in sociolinguistics, modern English grammar, history of English and language ideology. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780203124666/
- 12. Standard English and the Politics of Language By Professor Tony Crowley The 'Standard English' question has featured in linguistic, educational and cultural debates for decades. At critical points in British history the language became a symbol and focus, with particular varieties of the language acquiring ideological importance. In this careful and balanced account, Tony Crowley draws on theoretical insights from Bakhtin, Foucault and Volosinov in a study of representations of the English language from the eighteenth century onwards, on the development of different concepts of the 'Standard Language' and the value attached within the wider society to varieties of spoken and written English. Placing the 'Standard English' question within its historical perspective he explores the educational consequences of these debates, bringing the reader up to date in this second edition with an analysis of the effect on English language teaching of Conservative educational policies of the 1980s and 90s and the implications of the National Curriculum. Students and researchers of English language, cultural theory, and language education will find this treatment comprehensive, carefully researched and lively reading. The first edition of this book appeared outside North America with the title The Discourse of Politics. http://www.ebooks.com/257978/standard-english-and-the-politics-of- language/crowley-professor-tony/
- 13. Books Nation, State, and Economy Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time By: Ludwig Von Mises, Bettina Bien Greaves (Editor), Leland B. Yeager (Translated by) Introduction; NATION AND STATE -- Nation and Nationality; The Nation as a Speech Community; Dialect and Standard Language; National Changes; The Nationality Principle in Politics; Liberal or Pacifistic Nationalism; Militant or Imperialistic Nationalism; The Nationality Question in Territories with Mixed Populations; The Migration Problem and Nationalism; The Roots of Imperialism; Pacifism; On the History of German Democracy. WAR AND THE ECONOMY -- The Economic Position of the Central; Powers in the War; War Socialism; Autarky and Stockpiling; The Economy's War Costs and the Inflation; Covering the State's War Costs; War Socialism and True Socialism. SOCIALISM AND IMPERIALISM -- Socialism and Its Opponents; Socialism and Utopia; Centralist and Syndicalist Socialism; Socialist Imperialism. Concluding Observations; Index. http://www.booktopia.com.au/nation-state-and-economy-ludwig-von- mises/prod9780865976412.html http://library.mises.org/books/Ludwig%20von%20Mises/Nation,%20State,%20and %20Economy.pdf
- 14. Scientific Papers A conceptual framework for the study of language standardization Paul L. Garvin Standard Languages Taxonomies and histories Ana Deumert and Wim Vandenbussche Monash University, Australia Vrije Universiteit Brussel/ FWO-Vlaanderen, Belgium
- 15. Scientific paper (1980) Linguistic and cultural standardization caused by mass communication means (especially TV) (in Portuguese) By Maria Tereza Camargo Biderman ABSTRACT: In contemporary Brazil, the mass communication media, in particular television, are performing a very important role in the process of cultural integration and homogenization of language. As this is a country with enormous territorial dimensions and a considerable number of illiterate people (25% of the total population), the television performs a fundamental integrating function, especially as a result of the large technological advances of this vehicle and the wide audience is has throughout the country, even among indigenous people. Television such as the other vehicles are democratizing knowledge, information and entertainment. Among printed media, comics have the largest public. They spread the cult colloquial register, with slight permissions to "mistakes" that are typical to oral code. The mass media, particularly the printed one, may collaborate towards a health uniformization of Portuguese language in Brazil.
- 16. Scientific paper (2001) Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization By James Milroy ABSTRACT: This paper explores the effects of the standard language ideology on attitudes to language of nonlinguists and of language specialists, and considers how far linguists themselves have been affected by - and have contributed to - this ideology. The primary definition of standardization is taken to be the imposition of uniformity upon a class of objects. Attitudes to language within standard language cultures are then reviewed and contrasted with unstandardized situations, in which the boundaries of languages are indeterminate. It is therefore suggested that determinate languages, such as English, may be defined more by ideologies than by their internal structures. Some effects of standardization on the work of linguists are then reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of the process of legitimization in contributing to the standard language culture, and of the contribution of language specialists themselves to this process. Finally, certain matters arising are reviewed.
- 17. Scientific paper (2010) Standardization and contextualization: A study of language and leadership across 17 countries By Lena Zander, Audra Mockaitis, Anne-Wil Harzing, & Country collaborators Abstract. With multinational corporations increasingly adopting English as a corporate language, the issue of language management and the pros and cons of language standardization have been widely debated in the literature. Our 17-country study considers whether the use of English as a common corporate language may cause difficulties, by empirically examining whether managerial reactions to specific leadership scenario- based situations change as a consequence of the language they use. Our results show that the choice of language (native or English) does not matter much for the studied leadership scenarios. Instead, leadership decisions and reactions depend more on cultural and situational context.
- 18. Video FIM Words of the World – Standard Language (University of Nottingham) Linguist Nicola McLelland discusses standard languages, with particular interest in German and English.
- 19. Thank you!