Language Description, Language Prescription and Language Planning

Abstract

This paper considers the apparent paradox underlying the aims of linguists who attempt to influence, deliberately and systematically, the linguistic behavior of a community, while trying to avoid charges of prescriptivism. The strongly normative nature of traditional grammar is compared to the linguistic relativism that has characterized much recent sociolinguistic work, and a compromise is seen as unavoidable because language planning cannot and should not be value-free. The need for rapid modernization in emerging nations requires that linguistic behavior not be left entirely to natural forces. Descriptivist linguists have a role to play in this process provided they do not associate with morally reprehensible governmental projects. A balance must and can be achieved between promoting viable economic units and preserving linguistic diversity. In collaboration with social scientists and government authorities, linguists are uniquely qualified for carrying out the language planning task successfully.

A pesquisa em política linguística: histórico, desenvolvimento e pressupostos epistemológicos

“…O que se observa nas publicações desse período de "crise" (ou de críticas) é um esforço por parte dos dois grupos de pesquisadores no sentido de desenvolver modelos conceituais e tipologias para a área 10 . Contudo, enquanto Tollefson, schiffman, entre outros, procuravam desenvolver uma abordagem que contemplasse as implicações sociais dos aspectos não-planejados e/ou não-explícitos dos processos de política linguística, a maioria dos pesquisadores dedicava-se a tornar o "modelo 10 Conferir, por exemplo, Tollefson (1981Tollefson ( , 1988Tollefson ( , 1991, Nahir (1984), Bamgbose (1989), Holden (1989), Cooper (1989), Bruthiaux (1992), Baudauf Jr. (1994), schiffman (1996), donnacha (2000), entre outros.…”

Language Planning and the British Empire: Comparing Pakistan, Malaysia and Kenya

“…Kelman (1971: Language as an aid and a barrier to involvement in the national system, cited in Bruthiaux, 1992) sees people as sentimentally attached to systems they feel represent themselves, but instrumentally attached to those that help them achieve their ends. Influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's work on how educational systems reproduce social inequalities, more recent debate has focused less on conscious motivation and more on the complex material, social and psychological investments people make in acquiring and using a language, thus combining the integrative and the instrumental.…”

[...] você vai ter que aprender inglês de qualquer jeito, querendo ou não!

“…38 Conferir, por exemplo, Tollefson (1981Tollefson ( , 1988Tollefson ( , 1991, Nahir (1984), Bamgbose (1989), Holden (1989), Cooper (1989), Bruthiaux (1992), Baudauf Jr. (1994, Schiffman (1996), Donnacha (2000), entre outros. [o]rientations are basic to language planning in that they delimit the ways we talk about language and language issues, they determine the basic questions we ask, the conclusions we draw from the data, and even the data themselves.…”