Studying standard language dynamics in Europe

Ghyselen, Anne-Sophie; Delarue, Steven; Lybaert, Chloé

doi:10.5117/tet2016.2.ghys

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Yet, there are studies listing a number of ‘stable’ non-standard features that are either shared by most regional manifestations of tussentaal or expanding their use into regions in which they do not occur in the local dialects, and which allegedly constitute the heart of a homogenizing tendency (Rys and Taeldeman, 2007 ; Taeldeman, 2008 ; De Decker and Vandekerckhove, 2012 ). This homogenization, along with the observed functional elaboration of tussentaal at the expense of both standard language and dialect, is often interpreted as indicating changing (speech) norms in Flanders, which are analyzed in different ways (Ghyselen et al, 2016 ). Grondelaers et al ( 2011 ) conclude from a speaker evaluation experiment that VRT Dutch is a virtual norm, and neither accented Dutch nor tussentaal function as prestige norms, which they interpret as a sign of destandardization .…”

Section: A Flemish Case-studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking Systematicity in Variation: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations on the “Variety” Concept

Ghyselen

Vogelaer

2018

Front. Psychol.

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One centennial discussion in linguistics concerns whether languages, or linguistic systems, are, essentially, homogeneous or rather show “structured heterogeneity.” In this contribution, the question is addressed whether and how sociolinguistically defined systems (or ‘varieties’) are to be distinguished in a heterogeneous linguistic landscape: to what extent can structure be found in the myriads of language variants heard in everyday language use? We first elaborate on the theoretical importance of this ‘variety question’ by relating it to current approaches from, among others, generative linguistics (competing grammars), sociolinguistics (style-shifting, polylanguaging), and cognitive linguistics (prototype theory). Possible criteria for defining and detecting varieties are introduced, which are subsequently tested empirically, using a self-compiled corpus of spoken Dutch in West Flanders (Belgium). This empirical study demonstrates that the speech repertoire of the studied West Flemish speakers consists of four varieties, viz. a fairly stable dialect variety, a more or less virtual standard Dutch variety, and two intermediate varieties, which we will label ‘cleaned-up dialect’ and ‘substandard.’ On the methodological level, this case-study underscores the importance of speech corpora comprising both inter- and intra-speaker variation on the one hand, and the merits of triangulating qualitative and quantitative approaches on the other.

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Section: A Flemish Case-studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking Systematicity in Variation: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations on the “Variety” Concept

Ghyselen

Vogelaer

2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Daarin staat de vraag centraal wat de taalkundige effecten zijn van door sociologen geobserveerde tendensen als toenemende informalisering, democratisering en globalisering (Coupland & Kristiansen 2011: 27). Twee hoofdeffecten worden daarbij onderscheiden: destandaardisatie en demotisering (Coupland & Kristiansen 2011: 28-30;Kristiansen 2016;Ghyselen et al 2016). Destandaardisatie is het meest radicale effect: het verwijst naar situaties waarin de standaardtaalideologie (Lippi-Green 2012), die vanaf de tweede helft van de achttiende eeuw het sociolinguïstische landschap heeft gedomineerd (Rutten 2019), onder druk komt te staan en uiteindelijk verdwijnt.…”

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Het einde van het Poldernederlands?*

Vriesendorp¹,

Rutten²

2019

Nederlandse Taalkunde

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The end of Polder Dutch? De perception of /εi/ and /ai/ in Standard Dutch in the Netherlands.While most early research on so-called Poldernederlands ‘Polder Dutch’ (Van Bezooijen 1999; Van Bezooijen & Van den Berg 2001) finds differences in perceptions between this supposedly substandard variety and Standard Dutch, this paper aims to demonstrate that present-day language users do not distinguish between the two varieties (anymore). Two combined matched-guise experiments show that non-linguists are unable to name the variety and that they do not score them differently on a large number of evaluative scales. The results suggest the end of Polder Dutch as a perceptually separate variety, and the absorption of its most marked feature, viz. the lowering of /εi/ to /ai/ into Standard Dutch.

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Language standards, standardisation and standard ideologies in multilingual contexts

McLelland

2020

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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This essaywhich also serves as an introduction to the six other articles in this special issueexamines the development of the field of language standardisation studies in recent decades. First, it notes the change in focus occasioned by drawing on the notion of language ideologies, especially standard language ideology. That ideological awakening has, in turn, revealed that standardisation studies have, until recently, been largely ideologically monolingualist. I argue that we must consider multilingualism (broadly conceived) in at least five ways when we study language standardisation: to recognise diaglossia within a single named language; to understand the nature of polycentric standards; to analyse language purism; to appreciate the key role of (foreign/ second) language learning in codification; and to trace the transmission of ideologies across languages and cultures. The paper gives examples of the ways in which our research can be unwittingly monolingualist in its concepts and methods, and examines the role of the concepts of heteroglossia and translanguaging in challenging that monolingualism. It concludes by setting an agenda for third-wave standardisation studies, with a call for standardisation studies that are enriched both by the ideological turn and by attending to multilingualism.

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Studying standard language dynamics in Europe

Cited by 5 publications

References 3 publications

Seeking Systematicity in Variation: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations on the “Variety” Concept

Seeking Systematicity in Variation: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations on the “Variety” Concept

Het einde van het Poldernederlands?*

Language standards, standardisation and standard ideologies in multilingual contexts

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