17.719, Review: Socioling/Germanic Lang: Langer & Davies (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-719. Wed Mar 08 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.719, Review: Socioling/Germanic Lang: Langer & Davies (2005)

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1)
Date: 04-Mar-2006
From: Marc Pierce < mpierc at mail.utexas. >
Subject: Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:41:05
From: Marc Pierce < mpierc at mail.utexas. >
Subject: Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages 
 

EDITORS: Langer, Nils; Davies, Winifred V. 
TITLE: Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages
SERIES: Studia Linguistica Germanica 75
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1336.html 

Marc Pierce, University of Texas at Austin

SYNOPSIS

As the editors note in the introduction to this book, linguistic purism is 
an increasingly popular subject of scholarly study.  This book provides 
a Germanic perspective on the topic (one paper on a non-Germanic 
language, an article by Zoë Boughton on French, has been included 
for comparative purposes), and consists of papers originally 
presented at a conference held at the University of Bristol in April 
2003.  

The volume opens with an essay titled ''An Introduction to Linguistic 
Purism'' (1-17), written by the editors.  This chapter offers a useful 
survey of some of the relevant issues (e.g., a definition of linguistic 
purism and the relationship between purism and standardization), 
before outlining the contents of the rest of the volume.

The first section, ''Historical Prescriptivism and Purism,'' contains five 
papers.  It begins with ''Language norm and language reality.  
Effectiveness and limits of prescriptivism in New High German'' (20-
45), by Stephan Elspaß.  Here Elspaß notes that prescriptivist ideals 
have successfully eliminated a number of constructions from standard 
German, e.g., double negatives and past participles without the ge- 
prefix, but have been unable to remove others, e.g., the use of dative 
case with supposedly genitive prepositions like wegen 'because of'.  
He suggests that three main factors can contribute to this process: 
the ''regional distribution of a certain figure, its functionality and the 
intensity of its stigmatization'' (42).  Thus, to take up two of the factors, 
double negatives are mainly restricted to the south and are intensely 
stigmatized, while the use of dative case with wegen is much more 
widespread, and most speakers of German seem happy to accept it.  

The next paper, ''Taming thistles and weeds amidst the wheat: 
language gardening in nineteenth-century Flanders,'' by Wim 
Vandenbussche, Roland Willemyns, Jetje De Groof, and Eline 
Vanhecke (46-61), picks up the metaphor of language as a garden 
(see Burridge 2002, 2005 for recent applications of this metaphor to 
English) and applies it to nineteenth-century Belgium, where there 
were in fact two major language conflicts: French vs. Dutch, as well as 
one within Dutch (perhaps better phrased as Flemish vs. Dutch).  
Topics discussed here include integrationist purism in contrast to 
particularist purism, the abuse of purism, and its effects.  

Next, Maria Barbara Lange discusses ''Bad language in Germany's 
past - the birth of linguistic norms in the seventeenth century'' (62-
85).  This article can be divided into two main sections.  The first 
section looks at handbooks of the history of German (e.g. Wells 
1985), with special attention to their discussion and assessment of 
seventeenth-century grammarians, while the second section turns to 
the primary sources themselves (e.g. works by Christof Arnold and 
Justus Schottelius), with an eye to the negative value judgments about 
the German language expressed therein.  

Joachim Scharloth then discusses ''The revolutionary argumentative 
pattern in puristic discourse: The Swabian dialect in the debate about 
the standardization of German in the eighteenth century'' (86-96).  
Scharloth draws two main conclusions: puristic discourse tends to 
treat dialects in one of two ways, either as varieties deserving criticism 
or as varieties that can be ''purer'' than the standard language; and 
that there are two patterns normally found in puristic discourse, one 
conservative and one revolutionary.  

The final paper in this section is ''A comparative study of linguistic 
purism in the history of England and Germany'' (97-108), by Maria 
Geers.  After a brief terminological discussion, Geers offers an 
effective discussion of different trends in linguistic purism manifested 
in England and Germany.

The second section, ''Nationhood and Purism,'' contains four papers.  
It opens with ''Linguistic purism in German-speaking Switzerland and 
the Deutschschweizerischer Sprachverein 1904-1942'' (110-113), by 
Felicity Rash.  The main topics discussed here are the protection of 
standard German in Switzerland (from foreign languages and the 
Swiss German dialects) and the protection of the Swiss German 
dialects (from foreign languages, standard German, and each other), 
with an emphasis on the role of the DSSV.  

The next paper is ''Language nationalism in the Schiller 
commemoration addresses of 1859'' (124-143), by Evelyn Ziegler, and 
deals with ''the construction of a national language ideology [for 
Germany] by studying the ritual of civic festivities during which 
Germans collectively represented their formation as a cultural entity'' 
(124); the specific ''civic festivities'' discussed here are the 
celebrations of the centennial of the birth of the well-known German 
author Friedrich Schiller.  Based on an examination of addresses 
given at these celebrations, Ziegler concludes, among other things, 
that Schiller's use of language is idealized, and that his ''Germanness'' 
is also heavily emphasized, thus contributing to the formation of a 
specifically German language ideology.  

The scene then changes to South Africa for the next paper, ''Standard 
Afrikaans and the different faces of 'Pure Afrikaans' in the twentieth 
century'' (144-165), by Ria van den Berg, which traces the phases of 
development of Standard Afrikaans, from its origins as ''Kitchen Dutch'' 
to its emergence as a fully-fledged standardized language.  This 
development was cyclical, as Afrikaans was originally a stigmatized 
variety of Dutch, became an accepted standard language, was then 
restigmatized because of apartheid, and now seems to be being 
destigmatized following the end of apartheid.  

The last paper in this section is ''Reimagining the nation: Discourses of 
language purism in Luxembourg'' (166-185), by Kristine Horner.  This 
paper analyzes the ongoing debate about the changing language 
situation in Luxembourg, with regard to three main issues: the 
politicization Luxembourgish (and why it is happening at this particular 
time), the major figures in this development, and the links between 
manifestations of linguistic purism and Luxembourgish national identity.

The next section, ''Modern Society and Purism,'' opens with Dieter 
Stein's ''On the role of language ideologies in linguistic theory and 
practice: purism and beyond'' (188-203).  This paper deals with a wide 
range of issues, including the definition of ''ideology'' and the notion 
of ''segregationalism'' (cf. Harris 1996).  

The next paper, ''Elements of traditional and 'reverse' purism in 
relation to computer-mediated communication'' (204-220), by Peter 
Hohenhaus, concentrates on ''reverse purism,'' by which he means a 
type of purism whose characteristics are the exact opposite of those 
of traditional purism, in several genres of computer-mediated 
communication.  Hohenhaus outlines the characteristics of traditional 
purism and ''reverse purism'' (see also Crystal 2001 on this issue), 
describes the types of computer-mediated communication he will focus 
on, then presents his analysis, focusing on English, and closes with a 
brief section on two aspects of computer-mediated communication in 
German (the use of formal vs. informal forms of address and the use 
of Anglicisms).  

Patrick Stevenson offers a paper titled ''Once an Ossi, always an Ossi: 
language ideologies and social division in contemporary Germany'' 
(221-237), which fits nicely into the growing body of research on this 
topic (see, for instance, Dailey-O'Cain [2000], Stevenson [2002], and 
the various papers collected in Reiher and Baumann [2000] and 
Reiher and Laezer [1993)]).  Stevenson argues convincingly 
that ''language ideologies may provide an interpretative frame for 
understanding the role of (perceptions of) language in use in 
sustaining social division in Germany since 1990'' (233).

The fourth section, ''Folk linguistics and purism,'' opens with '''The 
Grand Daddy of English': US, UK, New Zealand and Australian 
students' attitudes toward varieties of English'' (241-251), by Betsy 
Evans.  The data discussed here represents the results of a 
questionnaire distributed to university students in the four countries 
mentioned in the title, and suggests, among other things, that UK 
English is given a high status, while US English is generally viewed 
negatively.  Australian and New Zealand English both inspired mixed 
reactions.  

Nancy Niedzielski then discusses ''Linguistic Purism from several 
perspectives: views from the 'secure' and 'insecure''' (252-262).  This 
paper first looks at groups of what Niedzielski calls ''linguistically 
secure'' speakers (a term apparently coined by Labov 1966), i.e. 
speakers who have ''demonstrated high degrees [of] confidence in the 
correctness of their own variety'' (253), in this case speakers from 
Michigan and California, and then contrasts this with the results 
obtained from investigating groups of linguistically insecure speakers, 
in this case speakers from Texas and New Zealand.  The results of 
the investigation are intriguing - among other items of interest, the 
data from the linguistically secure speakers exhibits certain features 
that are seen as non-standard, even by these speakers themselves.  

The next paper is ''Dialect and written language: Change in dialect 
norms in the history of the German language'' (263-282), by Klaus J. 
Mattheier.  In this paper, Mattheier points out that certain varieties of 
German have been favored since at least the Middle Ages, and then 
briefly traces some of the changes that have occurred in this area, 
with the most space being devoted to the nineteenth and early 
twentieth centuries.  

The final paper in the section is Zoë Boughton's 
contribution, ''Investigating puristic attitudes in France: Folk 
perceptions of variation in standard French'' (282-299).  Here 
Boughton reports on a study investigating folk perceptions of the 
variety of French spoken in Nancy (a city in northeastern France), and 
then compares the results and methods of her work with the earlier 
study of Kuiper (1999).

The final section of the volume, ''Linguists and purism,'' contains three 
papers.  It opens with '''Vorsicht ist nicht immer der bessere Teil der 
Tapferkeit' - Purism in the historiography of the German language'' 
(302-323), by Katja Leyhausen.  After some remarks on the nature of 
historiography, Leyhausen discusses purist statements found in some 
histories of the German language (e.g. Grimm 1848 and Stahlmann 
1940).  

The next paper is ''Some effects of purist ideologies on historical 
descriptions of English'' (324-342), by James Milroy.  Milroy notes 
that ''it is generally assumed that purist beliefs about language are 
held only by members of the general public ... and not by professional 
language scholars'' (324), and goes on to argue that this is in fact not 
the case, and that scholarly knowledge of the history of English has 
been shaped by the purist beliefs held by some linguists.  For 
example, a number of histories of English (e.g. Wyld 1927) focus 
exclusively on the development of the standard language, thus 
excluding nonstandard varieties from the discussion.  

The final paper of the book is ''Usefulness and uselessness of the 
term Fremdwort'' (343-360), by Oskar Reichmann.  Here the old 
distinction between Fremdwort ('foreign word') and Lehnwort ('loan 
word') is taken up, and its usefulness in discussions of semantics, 
the ''formal expression of lexical units'' (353), and word formation is 
reviewed.  Reichmann concludes that the term Fremdwort has its 
uses, but can sometimes be problematic.  He further suggests that this 
question is also relevant to discussions of dialectology and linguistic 
purism, among other areas of linguistics.

EVALUATION

This is a stimulating book.  The papers are generally of high quality, 
and some of them are absolutely first rate.  Many of the papers would 
also be of excellent use in various courses on Germanic linguistics; I 
have already used the papers by Elspass and Stevenson as 
supplemental reading in a course on variation in German for 
advanced undergraduates, and they were both very well-received.  

The volume itself is the usual high quality that one expects from this 
publisher.  Typographical errors are few and generally self-correcting 
(the most serious glitch that I noticed was in the introduction, where 
some of the bibliographical references are not in the correct 
alphabetical order, and capitalization is sometimes inconsistent).  
Some authors are inconsistent when dealing with quotations from 
languages other than English; for example, in her article, Lange gives 
English translations of German quotations in the body of the text, but 
does not give the German originals in footnotes.  Moreover, Lange 
generally does not translate German quotations given in footnotes, 
and also fails to translate Early New High German quotes.  A personal 
preference is for a unified set of references, as that would have 
eliminated repetition and thus saved some space.

However, such problems are minor when compared with the 
substantial merits of this work.  The high price of the volume will no 
doubt keep it out of many hands, but it is to be hoped that it finds 
the wide reception that it certainly deserves.

REFERENCES

Burridge, Kate.  2002.  Blooming English: Observations on the roots, 
cultivation and hybrids of the English language.  Sydney: ABC Books.

Burridge, Kate.  2005.  Weeds in the garden of words.  Further 
observations on the tangled history of the English language.  
Cambridge: CUP. 

Crystal, David.  2001.  Language and the internet.  Cambridge: CUP.

Dailey-O'Cain, Jennifer.  2000.  Competing language ideologies in 
post-unification Germany: When East meets West. In: Relocating 
Germanness. Discursive disunity in unified Germany.  Edited by 
Patrick Stevenson and John Theobald.  Basingstoke: Macmillan.  Pp. 
248-266.

Grimm, Jacob.  1848.  Geschichte der deutschen Sprache.  Leipzig: 
Weidmann.

Harris, Roy.  1996.  Signs, language and communication: Integrational 
and segregational approaches.  London: Routledge.

Kuiper, Lawrence.  1999.  Variation and the norm: Parisian 
perceptions of regional French.  In: Handbook of perceptual 
dialectology, volume 1.  Edited by Dennis Preston.  Amsterdam: John 
Benjamins.  Pp. 243-262.

Labov, William.  1966.  The social stratification of English in New York 
City.  Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Reiher, Ruth and Antje Baumann (editors).  2000.  Mit gespaltener 
Zunge?  Die deutsche Sprach nach dem Fall der Mauer.  Berlin: 
Aufbau.

Reiher, Ruth and Rüdiger Läzer (editors).  1993.  Wer spricht das 
wahre Deutsch?  Erkundungen zur Sprache im vereinten 
Deutschland.  Berlin: Aufbau.

Stahlmann, Hans.  1940.  Vom Werden und Wandel der 
Muttersprache.  Ein Hilfsbuch für Studierende, Lehrer und Freunde 
unserer Muttersprache.  Leipzig: Brandstetter.

Stevenson, Patrick.  Language and German disunity.  Oxford: OUP.

Wells, Christopher J.  1985.  German: A linguistic history to 1945.  
Oxford: OUP.

Wyld, Henry C.  1927.  A short history of English.  3rd edition.  
London: John Murray. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Marc Pierce is a visiting assistant professor of German at the 
University of Texas at Austin.  His main research interests are 
historical linguistics, Germanic linguistics, phonology, and the history 
of linguistics.





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