37.1493, Confs: Language, Norm, and Society: The Prague Linguistic Circle (1926-2026) in the Face of Contemporary Challenges (France)

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Subject: 37.1493, Confs: Language, Norm, and Society:  The Prague Linguistic Circle (1926-2026)  in the Face of Contemporary Challenges (France)

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Date: 17-Apr-2026
From: Ilona Sinzelle Poňavičová [clp.inalco2026 at gmail.com]
Subject: Language, Norm, and Society: The Prague Linguistic Circle (1926-2026)  in the Face of Contemporary Challenges


Language, Norm, and Society:  The Prague Linguistic Circle (1926-2026)
in the Face of Contemporary Challenges

Date: 10-Dec-2026 - 11-Dec-2026
Location: Paris, France
Contact: Ilona Sinzelle Poňavičová
Contact Email: clp.inalco2026 at gmail.com
Meeting URL:
https://www.inalco.fr/recherche/appels-communication/langue-norme-et-societe-le-cercle-linguistique-de-prague-1926-2026

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories;
Sociolinguistics

Submission Deadline: 01-Jun-2026

To celebrate the centenary of the Prague Linguistic Circle, an
international conference is being held at INALCO (Institut national
des langues et civilisations orientales). Focusing on the
relationships between language, norm and society, the conference will
build on the Prague theoretical tradition while engaging with
contemporary research in sociolinguistics, glottopolitics, language
teaching, language contact, variation and typology. The aim is to
examine how these notions have evolved since their initial
formulation, and to evaluate their continued relevance in the context
of contemporary linguistic studies.
Although the Prague Linguistic Circle is well known for its
contributions to phonology, sign theory and poetics, its sustained
attention to the relationships between language and society, and more
specifically to the mechanisms of norm, standardisation, evaluation of
correctness and language cultivation, has received less attention in
international accounts (CLP; Havránek & Weingart, eds., 1932; Horálek
& Scharnhorst, eds., 1976–82; Garvin, 1983, 1993a; Nebeská, 2003;
Daneš, 2008; Raynaud, 2014; Vuković, 2015; Pešek, 2016).
During the interwar period, the Prague Linguistic Circle developed a
set of concepts and theoretical tools aimed at understanding how a
community shapes its language and how a language, conceived as a
functional system, contributes to the organisation of cultural,
political, educational and administrative life. This approach emerged
at a time when Prague linguistics did not view itself merely as a
descriptive science, but also as a form of interventionist
linguistics. The focus was on the hierarchisation, stabilisation,
transmission, correction and legitimisation of language use, and on
how linguistic knowledge could shed light on these processes and
participate in them (Havránek, 1929a; Havránek, 1929b; CLP, 1929a;
CLP, 1929b; CLP; Havránek & Weingart, eds., 1932; Havránek, 1936;
Havránek, 1938; Havránek, 1942; Jakobson, 1937; Mathesius 1933, 1935,
1941, 1942, Vočadlo, 1939; etc.). These orientations encourage us to
reconsider the scope and limits of this interventionist stance and the
changes it has undergone in subsequent linguistic traditions.
Within this framework, the Prague Linguistic Circle assigns a central
role to a specific variety of Czech, taken as the basis of these
reflections. This variety is referred to in Czech as spisovný jazyk,
and is translated into English as either standard language or literary
language. More recently, the term adopted here is literary standard
language. The Circle emphasises the specific status of literary
standard language as a codified and cultivated language defined
primarily by its functions. It is intended to express cultural and
intellectual life (scientific, philosophical and religious), as well
as legal, administrative, political and social life within a given
linguistic community. The aim is to achieve the highest possible
degree of precision and functional universality, understood as the
ability to operate across diverse domains.
However, this linguistic variety is not conceived as a homogeneous
entity; rather, it is embedded within a broader theory of language as
a system of variants structured by functions. The Prague Linguistic
Circle thus distinguishes between functional languages, which are
defined by the general purpose of a set of normative linguistic means,
and functional styles, which are defined by the specific purpose of an
utterance and its mode of expression. This distinction has direct
consequences for the notion of correctness: it is impossible to
establish a single variety or linguistic instrument as a universal
model of correctness for all others since the relevant criterion is
adequacy to purpose. This raises the question of how this functional
conception of norm has been adopted, adapted, or debated in
contemporary discussions on linguistic pluralism.
>From this perspective, the norm is not merely a survival of tradition;
it is the result of a process involving cultivated usage, shared
implicit norms, collective refinement and codification in reference
works. The Prague Linguistic Circle thus provides a framework for
understanding standardisation as not only a top-down imposition, but
also a socially constructed process articulated with practices and
conscious intervention conceptualised as language cultivation. The
evolution of this notion, its adaptations in different political
contexts, and its possible reformulations in a context shaped by
globalisation and digitalisation also constitute avenues for current
reflection.
Another essential contribution of the Prague Linguistic Circle to
discussions on 'language and society' concerns relations between
languages. The Circle explores the tension between genetic
relationships and structural similarities, developing a theory of
linguistic affinities and associations, particularly in the works of
Jakobson and Trubetzkoy. The central idea is that structural
convergences may be independent of historical lineage, arising from
proximity, coexistence or internal developmental tendencies. This
approach offers a renewed perspective on contact, transfer and
convergence (and thus, in contemporary terms, on the reconfiguration
of norms and legitimations in multilingual contexts). These proposals
can now be placed in dialogue with contemporary theories of language
contact, areal convergence, and multilingual dynamics.
These reflections ultimately connect to a broader comparative
dimension: the Prague perspective does not treat synchrony as a static
snapshot, but rather mobilises it as the basis for characterology — a
hierarchical identification of a language's structural features —
which may lead to a linguistic typology. This approach aims to compare
languages regardless of genetic relationship in order to identify the
principles that govern the functioning of linguistic systems, and to
understand how analogous needs can result in similar structural
solutions (Mathesius, 1927; Mathesius, 1928; Skalička, 1951). From
this perspective, one can examine the continuities and shifts between
this framework and current approaches to linguistic typology.
The theoretical elements put forward by the Prague Linguistic Circle
did not remain confined to the scholarly domain. Some of these
elements, particularly the approaches to convergence and affinities
between languages, took root somewhat paradoxically in the
identity-based reflections of Eurasianism. This is an intellectual and
political movement that seeks to conceptualise the Russo-Soviet space
as a distinct supranational entity in opposition to the West (see
Sériot, 1999). Conversely, the Prague Linguistic Circle adopted these
concepts to take strong positions in two significant areas of public
life in interwar Czechoslovakia: pedagogy, particularly the teaching
of the mother tongue in schools, and debates about the legitimacy and
characteristics of standard (or cultural) language. These debates
unfolded within a context of ethnosocial reconfigurations and
rivalries between Czech- and German-speaking populations. This was
against the backdrop of purist controversies within the Czech
philological community and the radicalisation of nationalism in
certain German-speaking circles, which was particularly pronounced in
the 1930s (see Sinzelle Poňavičová, 2022).
These configurations encourage us to consider the issues at stake from
a broader perspective, including current debates on language and
norms. Depending on the situation in a given country, language is
either the subject of visible controversies and explicit public
debates, particularly in contexts of enduring multilingualism where
the standardised koine does not command sufficiently broad adherence,
or it functions as a practical given and an institutional 'normality'.
It forms part of the mechanisms continuously in place with which
societies must contend, such as in education, administration, access
to rights, evaluation of competencies, practices of correction,
construction of hierarchies between varieties and the distribution of
communicative legitimacy.
However, precisely because these mechanisms often remain implicit,
they are no less decisive: they structure forms of belonging, produce
security or exclusion, and shape the everyday linguistic experience of
speakers. Returning to the Prague Linguistic Circle therefore means
re-examining a tradition that sought to consider issues holistically.
(1) language as a structured and dynamic system; (2) internal
plurality of usage (varieties/styles); (3) convergences between
languages (affinities); (4) typological comparison; and (5) modes of
transmission (schooling, codification and language culture).
Thematic Areas:
Axis 1 – Norms, standardisation and codification – rethinking the
'literary standard language'
 - The standard language as a social and functional construct
 - The usage–norm–codification process and the role of reference works
 - 'Language culture': institutions, experts, schools, literature and
the media
 - Reception, transformations and critiques of the model (Central
Europe, the Eastern Bloc, etc.)
Axis 2 – Linguistic correction, purism and legitimacy
 - Purism versus functional correction: criteria, debates and
rationales
 - Correction as an instrument of social distinction, control and
integration
 - Linguistics and prescription: tensions between description and
intervention
 - Linguistic authority, 'good usage' and ideologies of the standard
Axis 3 – Functional languages, functional styles and variation
 - Language as a system of functionally oriented variants
 - Functional styles and the hierarchy of uses
 - Evaluation of usage based on adequacy to purpose (rather than a
single model)
Axis 4 – Language and education
 - Standardisation and teaching the mother tongue
 - Gradual progression in learning and the articulation between
'natural' competence and school norms.
 - Functional stylistics and the development of writing and public
speaking practices.
Axis 5 – Languages in Contact, Affinities and Language Groupings
 - Language contact and structural convergences
 - Contiguous languages vs. genetic relationships; dynamics of
adaptation
 - Dialogue with contemporary theories of contact, convergence and
change.
Axis 6 – Prague Linguistic Cercle, political crisis and public uses of
theory
 - Functional linguistics and discourse on the collective
 - Prague School responses to linguistic nationalism
 - Linguistics and 'self-determination': languages of science in the
public sphere
Axis 7 – Circulations, Appropriations, Decenterings: 'Bottom-up'
intellectual transfers
 - Peripheral readings, partial appropriations or local
reinterpretations
 - Reception in non-European or non-Indo-European traditions
 - PLP and universities: translations, mediations and 'blind spots'
Submission Guidelines:
Proposals (in French or English) should include the following:
 - Title
 - An abstract of 300–500 words
 - Five keywords
 - A short bio (100–150 words)
 - Affiliation and email address
Format: 20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion
Dates:
Submission deadline: 1 June 2026
 - Notification: 15 July 2026
 - Conference: 10-11 December 2026, Inalco
Indicative Bibliography:
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