Overview

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.

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9781283867504

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