Do Not Leave Your Language Alone: The Hidden Status Agendas Within Corpus Planning in Language Policy

171 Pages·2006·2.27 MB·English

by  Joshua A. Fishman

DO NOT
Leave Your
Language Alone
The Hidden Status Agendas Within
Corpus Planning in Language Policy
Joshua A. Fishman
DO NOT
Leave Your Language Alone
The Hidden Status Agendas
Within Corpus Planning
in Language Policy

DO NOT
Leave Your Language Alone
The Hidden Status Agendas
Within Corpus Planning
in Language Policy
Joshua A. Fishman
Stanford University, California
New York University
Yeshiva University, New York
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London
Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,
byphotostat,microform,retrievalsystem,oranyothermeans,without
prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
www.erlbaum.com
Cover design by Tomai Maridou
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fishman, Joshua A.
Donotleaveyourlanguagealone:thehiddenstatusagendaswithincorpus
planning in language policy / by Joshua A. Fishman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-5023-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8058-5024-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Language planning. 2. Language policy. I. Title.
P40.5.L35F57 2006
306.44'9—dc22 2005054160
CIP
BookspublishedbyLawrenceErlbaumAssociatesareprintedonacid-free
paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For three guardian angels, Gella (first and foremost for well
over half a century), Guadalupe and Chris, all of whom were
available at the drop of a hat and without whose help this
volume could simply not have been completed.
“Peace unto you, oh guardian angels!”
For Elissa, whom I love so dearly and who knows full well that
the most important care of all, for children as for languages, is
offered by those who love them unconditionally.

Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction to Language Planning: Some 1
Preliminaries
2 Corpus Planning and Status Planning: Separates, 11
Opposites, or Siamese Twins
3 The Directions and Dimensions of Corpus Planning 19
4 Purity Versus Vernacularity: Does “Folksiness” 25
Come Before or After “Cleanliness”?
5 The Bipolar Dimension of Uniqueness Versus 41
Westernization
6 The Classicization Versus “Panification” Bipolar 63
Dimension
7 The Ausbau Versus Einbau Bipolar Dimension 89
(or, Must the Lamb Look Unlike the Wolf in Order
Not to be Mistaken for the Wolf?)
vii
viii CONTENTS
8 The Interdependence and Independence 107
Dimensional Clusters
9 Can Opposites and Incommensurables 113
be Combined?
10 Epilogue: Some Things OLD and Some Things NEW, 119
and Some Things BORROWED on Which to Chew
Appendix 1: Questions For In-Class Discussion 127
or Written Assignment
Appendix 2: A Terminology Committee at Work 129
References 149
Author Index 153
Subject Index 155
Preface
Inearlierandmoreinnocenttimes,itwaswidelybelievedthatlanguage,
just as any other gift from God, could neither be “planned” nor “im-
proved”.Asthosetimeswerecomingtoanend,anattemptwasmadeby
ProfessorRobertA.Hall(1950)tofosterthecompletedisappearanceof
languageplanningbyharshcriticism,discouragingscholarlyactivityin
the language-planning direction. His book, Leave Your Language
Alone!,nowstandsasamonumenttoabygoneage.Today,thewheelhas
turnedoncemore,aswheelsaresupposedtodo,andscholarlybookson
languageplanningaremorelikely,byfar,toconsiderhowtointervene,
whether in the language change process itself (all living languages
change, with orwithouthuman intervention, overtime), or, even more
so,inthefunctions(or“uses”and“purposes”)towhichparticularlan-
guagesareputwithinthespeechandwritingcommunitiesoftheirusers.
Itisdifficulttosaywhichofthesetwoapproachesto“languageprob-
lems”isthemoredifficultformosthumans:nottointerveneatallorto
dosowiselyandeffectivelyinaworldbrimfullofunanticipatedandof-
ten undesirable consequences. But, in any case, the Rubicon has been
crossedanditisnolongerpossibletoput“thetoothpastebackintothe
tube”. Languages are increasingly viewed as scarce national resources
(notunlikefloraandfauna,agriculturalorenvironmentalresources,and
allothersuchimprovableoralterableresourceswhosequalitycanbein-
fluencedbyplannedhumanintervention).Speechandwritingcommu-
ix