Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life

Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life PDF

Author: Janus Mortensen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-03-21

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1501511890

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Sociolinguistics and the social sciences more generally tend to take an interest in norms as central to social life. The importance of norms is easily discernible in the sociolinguistic canon, for instance in Labov’s definition of the speech community as ‘participation in a set of shared norms’ and Hymes’ concepts of ‘norms of interaction’ and ‘norms of interpretation’. Yet, while the notion of norms may play a central role in sociolinguistic theory, there is little explicit theoretical work around the notion of norms itself within the discipline. Instead, norms tend to be treated as conceptual primes – convenient building blocks, ready-made for sociolinguistic theorizing – rather than theoretical constructs in need of reflexive attention. The aim of this book is to assess and advance current understandings of norms as a theoretical construct and empirical object of research in the study of language in social life. The contributors approach the topic from a range of complementary disciplinary perspectives, including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, EM/CA, socio-cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, to provide a multifaceted view of norms as a central concept in the study of language in social life.

Standards and Norms in the English Language

Standards and Norms in the English Language PDF

Author: Miriam A. Locher

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-27

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 3110206986

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The theme of this collection is a discussion of the notions of 'norms' and 'standards', which are studied from various different angles, but always in relation to the English language. These terms are to be understood in a very wide sense, allowing discussions of topics such as the norms we orient to in social interaction, the benchmark employed in teaching, or the development of English dialects and varieties over time and space and their relation to the standard language. The collection is organized into three parts, each of which covers an important research field for the study of norms and standards. Part 1 is entitled "English over time and space" and is further divided into three thematic subgroups: standard and non-standard features in English varieties and dialects; research on English standardization processes; and issues of standards and norms in oral production. Part 2 deals with "English usage in non-native contexts," and Part 3 is dedicated to "Issues on politeness and impoliteness." The notions of standards and norms are equally important concepts for historical linguists, sociolinguists with a variationist background, applied linguists, pragmaticians, and discourse analysts.

Native Speakers and Native Users

Native Speakers and Native Users PDF

Author: Alan Davies

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-08

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 0521119278

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'Native speakers' and 'native users' are playing the same game, sharing, as they do, the model of the Standard Language.

Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900

Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900 PDF

Author: Gijsbert Rutten

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2014-11-18

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9027268797

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Historical sociolinguistics has successfully challenged the traditional focus on standardization in linguistic historiography. Extensive research on newly uncovered textual resources has shown the widespread variation in the written language of the past that was previously hidden or neglected. The time has come to integrate both perspectives, and to reassess the importance of language norms, standardization and prescription on the basis of sound empirical studies of large corpora of texts. The chapters in this volume discuss the interplay of language norms and language use in the history of Dutch, English, French and German between 1600 and 1900. Written by leading experts in the field, each chapter focuses on one language and one century. A substantial introductory chapter puts the twelve research chapters into a comparative perspective. The book is of interest to a wide readership, ranging from scholars of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology and social history to (advanced) graduate and postgraduate students in courses on language variation and change.

Studies on Language Norms in Context

Studies on Language Norms in Context PDF

Author: Elena Maria Pandolfi

Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783631670361

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The book treats different aspects of language norms. One focus is on standardization and language policy. Other contributions investigate the construction of L2 norms by learners and norms in classroom interaction. Discourse norms are theorized and the way language users make them relevant and explicit is examined in various communicative contexts.

Lexical Analysis

Lexical Analysis PDF

Author: Patrick Hanks

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-01-25

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 0262312867

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A lexically based, corpus-driven theoretical approach to meaning in language that distinguishes between patterns of normal use and creative exploitations of norms. In Lexical Analysis, Patrick Hanks offers a wide-ranging empirical investigation of word use and meaning in language. The book fills the need for a lexically based, corpus-driven theoretical approach that will help people understand how words go together in collocational patterns and constructions to make meanings. Such an approach is now possible, Hanks writes, because of the availability of new forms of evidence (corpora, the Internet) and the development of new methods of statistical analysis and inferencing. Hanks offers a new theory of language, the Theory of Norms and Exploitations (TNE), which makes a systematic distinction between normal and abnormal usage—between rules for using words normally and rules for exploiting such norms in metaphor and other creative use of language. Using hundreds of carefully chosen citations from corpora and other texts, he shows how matching each use of a word against established contextual patterns plays a large part in determining the meaning of an utterance. His goal is to develop a coherent and practical lexically driven theory of language that takes into account the immense variability of everyday usage and that shows that this variability is rule governed rather than random. Such a theory will complement other theoretical approaches to language, including cognitive linguistics, construction grammar, generative lexicon theory, priming theory, and pattern grammar.

Normativity in Language and Linguistics

Normativity in Language and Linguistics PDF

Author: Aleksi Mäkilähde

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2019-12-15

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9027262160

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This volume sets out to discuss the role of norms and normativity in both language and linguistics from a multiplicity of perspectives. These concepts are centrally important to the philosophy and methodology of linguistics, and their role and nature need to be investigated in detail. The chapters address a range of issues from general questions about ontology, epistemology and methodology to aspects of particular subfields (such as semantics and historical linguistics) or phenomena (such as construal and code-switching). The volume aims to further our understanding of language and linguistics as well as to encourage further discussion on the metatheory of linguistics. Due to the fundamental nature of the issues under discussion, this volume will be of interest to all linguists regardless of their background or fields of expertise and to philosophers concerned with language or other normative domains.

The Languages of Nation

The Languages of Nation PDF

Author: Carol Percy

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2012-07-25

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1847697801

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This collection brings together research on linguistic prescriptivism and social identities, in specific contemporary and historical contexts of cross-cultural contact and awareness. Providing multilingual and multidisciplinary perspectives from language studies, lexicography, literature, and cultural studies, our contributors relate language norms to frameworks of identity beyond monolingual citizenship - nativeness, ethnicity, politics, religion, empire. Some chapters focus on traditional instruments of prescriptivism: language academies in Europe; government language planners in southeast Asia; dictionaries and grammars from Early Modern and imperial Britain, republican America, the postcolonial Caribbean, and modern Germany. Other chapters consider the roles of scholars in prescriptivism, as well as the more informal and populist mechanisms of enforcement expressed in newspapers. With a thematic introduction articulating links between its breadth of perspectives, this accessible book should engage everyone concerned with language norms.

Multilingual Norms

Multilingual Norms PDF

Author: Madalena Cruz-Ferreira

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 9783631596371

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Multilinguals are not multiple monolinguals. Yet multilingual assessment proceeds through monolingual norms, as if fair conclusions were possible in the absence of fair comparison. In addition, multilingualism concerns what people do with language, not what languages do to people. Yet research focus remains on multilinguals' languages, as if languages existed despite their users. This book redresses these paradoxes. Multilingual scholars, teachers and speech-language clinicians from Europe, Asia, Australia and the US contribute the first studies dedicated to multilingual norms, those found in real-life multilingual development, assessment and use. Readership includes educators, clinicians, decision-makers and researchers interested in multilingualism.