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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 104

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Microlinguistics and language planning

Authors: Davies, Winifred Vaughan; Ziegler, Evelyn
Submitted by: Davies, Winifred Vaughan (Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom)

Context

Earlier studies of language planning and of standardisation have tended to study macro processes, e.g. educational policies or campaigns for making a language or a variety official. Recently however there have been significant attempts to bridge the gap between the macro and the micro levels, by examining the interaction between the two and trying to ascertain to what extent and in what way the macro level influences the micro level and how micro-level processes contribute to the creation and maintenance of macro-level objectives and processes. That is the context in which this thematic session is set.

Rationale

Cameron (1995: 14-15) writes, referring to standard varieties of language, that the processes whereby norms ‘get into’ or are ‘taken up by language users are little studied in linguistics. Hundt (2009: 117), too, suggests that language users have tended to be marginalised in theoretical models of linguistic norms (e.g. in Ammon’s (1995) model). One of the aims of this panel will be to look at the role of various users in order to try to throw light on the ways in which users ‘take up’ sociolinguistic norms. In this context we will be looking at the interplay between macro processes of standardisation and micro processes of language management, i.e. the metalinguistic activities that take place to manage the concrete production and reception of discourse (cf. Nekvapil 2006).

Discussion questions

Amongst the questions to be addressed are: how relevant is the macro level in actual interactions when concrete decisions have to be taken and problems or potential problems resolved? How are macro policies implemented at the micro level? To what extent do the ideologies which drive macro-level policies (e.g. as regards the language or variety to be used in school) influence the way in which speakers acquire and/or transmit and/or reproduce sociolinguistic norms in everyday interaction? On the other hand, we will investigate too how the micro level (usage) influences language policy (cf. Shohamy 2006).

Individual papers

We hope to include papers covering a range of different sociolinguistic constellations, in Europe and beyond, involving dominant and ‘minority’ languages, standard and non-standard varieties, monocentric and pluricentric varieties, old and new ‘languages’, written and spoken realisations:

References

Ammon, U. 1995. Die Deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. De Gruyter.

Cameron, Deborah. 1995. Verbal Hygiene. Routledge.

Hundt, Markus. 2009. Normverletzungen und neue Normen. In Konopka, Marek / Strecker, Bruno (eds) Deutsche Grammatik – Regeln, Normen, Sprachgebrauch. De Gruyter. 117-140.

Nekvapil, Jiři. 2006. 'From language planning to language management.' Sociolinguistica 20: 92-104.

Shohamy, Elana. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge.