[lg policy] New book: Standardization, Ideology and Linguistics

[Harold Schiffman]

Nigel Armstrong and Ian Mackenzie, Standardization, Ideology and
Linguistics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, xii + 253 pp, 978 0 230
29675 6.

This book explores some of the ways in which standardization, ideology and
linguistics are connected, by examining the central role that ideology
plays both in linguistic analysis and in language variation and change.
Standardization is driven by an elitist ideology which puts pressure on
ordinary speakers to strive for the 'best' language. This causes anxiety,
and in the effort to produce good language speakers sometimes produce forms
that are 'hypercorrect' - so correct that they are wrong, paradoxically.
This topic, as well as the very notion of grammatical correctness, is
examined in depth. But standardization influences linguists as well as
non-specialists, and another theme considered here is how one idealized
aspect of standard languages - their invariance - has led to the
construction of false problems such as the so-called paradox of change. A
third, related, theme is linguistic levelling, which results in fewer
differences between social and regional accents and diminishes the prestige
of the standard language. This is examined here as the counterpart of the
elitist ideology behind standardization.

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

-------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20121215/97a91a43/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list