Standardisation

Question 1

Milroy + Milroy (1999)

Answer 1

• Suggests process of standardisation is ‘an idea in the mind rather than reality’.
• Many linguists suggest there is an ideology (public perception) that believes in need for unchanging, protected language that provides a
  benchmark against which all other language forms can be measured/valued. (Linguists don’t believe this ideology.)
• Change is driven by ideological + practical needs (i.e. susceptible to change under social conditions).

Question 2

Why is language standardised?

Answer 2

• Printing allowed convention of spelling + grammar to evolve
• Desire to stabilise, fix + codify- grammar books
• Political + social reasons
• Technological advances- codify + create rules
• Attitudes + values (i.e. prescriptivism)

Question 3

Who is responsible for language being standardised?

Answer 3

• Teaching + educational standards, decided by government
• Media + politics concerned with literacy standards
• Notion of fixing language to rules of past

Question 4

Einar Haugen

Answer 4

Model of the process of standardisation
* Selection: a variety of language to be selected.
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* Codification: dictionaries + grammar refer to uniform lexical + grammatical features which informs a standard language
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* Elaboration: standard is applied to a range of functions which allow it to be used more widely.
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* Implementation: standard is imposed + variations of the standard are removed or ascribed low prestige.

Question 5

Elaboration (Haugen’s Model)

Answer 5

• Users of the standard language may need to create + extend new lexical + grammatical constructions to suit different, emerging contexts
• Renaissance (15th to 17th c.): some English authors favoured an increase in the lexicon of English to replace Latin- previously considered the language of literature.
• English adopted as the literary language
• Prestigious badge of national identity
• Expansion of polysemy to ensure that English could provide sufficient words to describe every idea.
• 1500-1700 estimated that 30,000 new words or
  neologisms added.

Question 6

Emerging Standardisation

Answer 6

• Gradual over centuries, enabled by print technology
• Establishing particular dialect (SE) for printed text
• Assisted by lang change in Early Modern English + Renaissance (mid 14th c. to 17th c. - inspired by classical age)
• 18th c. - start of Late Modern English
• No double negatives
• Not ending with preposition

Question 7

19th Century Standardisation

Answer 7

• Mass education forced ‘ideal’ standards in written English
• Focus on standardising written English
• Distance between spoken + written
• Constant conflict between desire for stability + purity, + the reality of the present world.

Question 8

Shakespeare

Answer 8

• Turned nouns into verbs
• Imposed language change
• Changed verbs into adjectives
• Hyphenated compounds
• Added prefixes + suffixes to effect semantic shifted
• E.g. prefix ‘un’ transformed new meaning to verb ‘friended’ (King Lear describes his daughter, Cordelia).
• Technology has afforded a parallel elaboration (‘unfriended’ on social media).