How (in)coherent can standard languages be?: A perceptual perspective on co-variation

• Stefan Grondelaers ^[1] ; Hout, Roeland van ^[1]
  1. [1] Radboud University Nijmegen

     Radboud University Nijmegen

     Países Bajos

     
• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Nº 172-173, 2016, págs. 62-71
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In this paper, we propose that the coherence of standard language varieties is as much, if not more, a matter of language perception and evaluation as of language production. We will show, first, that the co-occurrence of standard and non-standard variants in present-day Belgian Standard Dutch is to a large extent determined by the prestige of these variants, be that overt prestige (related to status and dominance) which motivates the use of standard forms, or covert prestige (related to dynamism and media cool) which increasingly motivates the use of non-standard forms. But prestige (whether overt and conservative, or covert and modern) is not the only force that shapes and maintains coherence in Europe's standard languages. We will argue, second, that the increasing occurrence of zero prestige variants in standard language contexts suggests the existence of a “perceptual harmony” criterion, i.e. a tacit agreement between speaker and hearer on how much socially meaningful variability a specific context may implicate or allow.