Standard Language Ideology

Regional Dialect Levelling and Language Standards: Changes in the Hønefoss Dialect

by Nanna Haug Hilton

This is a sociolinguistic investigation of regional dialect levelling and the role that standardised language plays... more This is a sociolinguistic investigation of regional dialect levelling and the role that standardised language plays for this particular type of dialect change. This study combines a quantitative variationist investigation of linguistic variation and change in East Norwegian cities Hønefoss and Oslo with experimental and qualitative studies of attitudinal data in Hønefoss. The aim of the study is to shed light on the role that standard language ideologies play for loss of localised dialects. Varieties of East Norwegian spoken in the small city Hønefoss and the capital city Oslo are becoming increasingly alike. Oslo speech is an influential factor in the loss in Hønefoss of local linguistic variants in variables 3pl personal pronouns and <rd>. The force behind the regional dialect levelling is not the Oslo dialect only, however. Overt and covert attitudinal data show that the influence is twofold and that the codified written variety of Norwegian, Bokmål, largely influences speakers’ usage of local variants for linguistic variables stress in loanwords and plural definite article suffixes. The investigation considers linguistic ideals that speakers link to codification of language (correctness), education or the capital city and attest that language that can be linked to all these ideals is becoming more widely used in the East Norway region. Speech that can be linked to the codified variety Bokmål is an overt as well as a covert ideal to speakers in Hønefoss. Covert positive attitudes towards speech from Oslo are also found. This study shows that the social and political context of language must be taken into account in the study of loss of linguistic features. The social meaning of language is crucial in informing us about the social mechanisms behind dialect change.

Module_3c_Milroy_Milroy_1999_Prescription_and_standardisaton_B290

by ayfer halil

Standard global English: Use, usage, and identity

by Faiz Sathi Abdullah

Abdullah, F. S. (2011). Global standard English: Use, usage and identity. In F. S. Abdullah, Z. M. Kasim & M. Y. Chan (Eds.), Recent Research Topics in Malaysian English Language Studies (pp. 4-42). Serdang: UPM Press.

Malaysians of various ethnic origins have used standard British English (SBrE) in both its spoken and written variants... more Malaysians of various ethnic origins have used standard British English (SBrE) in both its spoken and written variants in the postcolonial era but current globalisation discourses appear to be increasingly colonised by American English, including in ESL/EFL settings, perhaps powered largely by the “mcdonaldisation” of the world’s economy and the attendant shifts in geopolitical balance of power. Hence, despite the putative universals of academia in terms of its normative values and conventions, discourse communities both at the centre and the periphery may be said to be “divided by one language” with respect to the British and American standards. Assuming that there is an emergent trend towards the appropriation of extant linguistic norms into a “glocal” variety of English as Lingua Franca (ELF), which of the two dominant varieties do Malaysian academic users prefer, in what contexts of their academic discourse practice, and with what outcomes in terms of global/local identity construction? The study reported here drew on recent questionnaire survey data pertaining to selected spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary/grammar items, as well as identity construction vis-à-vis geopolitical entities and aspects of potential multilingual competence to find the expected preferences for British English for sustained use in various areas of academic activity amongst the university faculty in question. However, it also found alternative lexical forms enjoying currency with the standard British/American English standards in selected situations. Further, while there was only limited support for significant correlates in identity formation orientated towards British/American cultures as well as geopolitical entities other than the local/regional but with a possibly expedient orientation towards acquiring multilingual competence. The study concluded that the findings were consistent with a World Englishes perspective on the continuing development of a local Malaysian English standard, and another on a global standard that is subject to local/regional variation but which is evolving in the periphery as a strategic albeit resistant variety in the ELF mould. Perspectives on further research are considered.

Standard Language and Linguistic Purism

by Endre Brunstad

Språknormer som forskingsobjekt

by Endre Brunstad

Dialect Literature and English in the USA: Standardization and National Linguistic Identity

by Lisa Minnick

In Varieties in Writing in English: The Written Word as Linguistic Evidence, ed. Raymond Hickey. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010.

This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and... more This chapter analyzes the role of literary dialect in attempts to establish a distinctly American language and especially to authorize and enforce a preferred standard. The roles of gender, race, and linguistic diversity are key considerations to the analysis in light of popular nineteenth-century assumptions that conflated ideas about a preferred national language variety with developing ideologies about national identity. This chapter outlines the ways that these assumptions found voice in the national discourse, including via the deployment of literary dialect, which both documented and participated in that discourse.

RESEARCH PLAN: A School Ethnography: Documenting the process of Standard Language Ideology construction in the classroom and teachers’ values regarding linguistic diversity pedagogy.

by Rebecca Campbell

Lo standard tedesco in Alto Adige

by Simone Ciccolone

Ciccolone, Simone (2010), Lo standard tedesco in Alto Adige. L’orientamento alla norma dei tedescofoni sudtirolesi – LED, Milano.

Uno dei nodi centrali della questione dello standard tedesco in Alto Adige riguarda l'individuazione della varietà di... more Uno dei nodi centrali della questione dello standard tedesco in Alto Adige riguarda l'individuazione della varietà di riferimento per la comunità linguistica: dal secondo dopoguerra, infatti, si assiste ad un netto riorientamento dei responsabili della pianificazione dal tedesco austriaco verso il tedesco di Germania, con riflessi sempre maggiori nella comunità dei parlanti.
Questo volume intende analizzare gli effetti di tale cambiamento, tramite l'osservazione degli atteggiamenti linguistici e del comportamento correttivo attuato dai tedescofoni sudtirolesi, al fine di offrire elementi di riflessione sulle scelte di pianificazione linguistica attuate nell'area.

The Ideology of Teaching English Prepositions

by Heather Marie Kosur

unpublished draft

A language ideology is defined as a systematic scheme of ideas related to language and regarded as justifying actions... more A language ideology is defined as a systematic scheme of ideas related to language and regarded as justifying actions about language. The purpose of this essay is to examine the teaching of prepositions in five English grammar books in comparison to two polarized language ideologies—the Standard Language Ideology and the Descriptive Linguistics Ideology—and to determine the reason for any differences in the teaching of prepositions across the five grammar books.