1. Standardization is the organized and standard form of a particular sector and is a very complex process. The standardization is achieved by setting a set of standards which are acceptable and should be adhered to. These standards are considered as a benchmark and every new development or existing practices are compared to these standards. The standardization of language has a single, widely accepted norms which is considered to be appropriate and required only minor modifications or variations for all purposes for which the language is used. The process of standardization serves to homogenate the language and provides the acceptable level of the language.
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2. The article focuses on effects of the ideologies of the standard language and the process of formation of the ideology and its affect on the language specialists and non-linguists. The ideology of the language is proven to have certain impact on the standardization of the language. The author claims that sociolinguists consider language as a part of the linguistics and not of the social science. The goals of the standardization of the language and ideology are linguistic and not social.
3. The native language English has undergone several changes and though, it’s still associated to the Standard English, the use of jargons and several words which acts as fillers or are meaningless have evolved over the years to be an acceptable part of the language. Such words or constructions are not necessarily synchronized with the standard norms of language, however is widely recognized and accepted. The standardized form of language consequently has also altered over the years to accommodate the common phrases and filler words. However, in terms of vowels and grammar, the language still remains adherent to Standard English and in spite of several changes, it is dictated by the common sense of the usage of language. The knowledge of use of verbs or vowels has become so well embedded in the history of language, that their positioning and usage becomes a common sense, instead of special knowledge.
4. Canonical form of language is the correct form of language the expression and consciousness of which is provided by the standardization of language. The knowledge of canonical form stems from the culture of the language and as the insider to the culture; one just knows one construction of sentence to be right and other to be wrong. The acceptance of one and rejection of other doesn’t require any deliberation and it comes naturally to the educated person in the language. However, if one has to deliberate and find justification for the acceptance of one and rejection of other, then the individual is not thoroughly educated in language and is an outsider to the culture of that specific language.
5. The dominant ideologies of the time affecting the scholars of nineteenth century are majorly the elitist theory of social class and rarely the discernible nationalist element. These ideologies are no longer present in the linguistics; however the concern over legitimacy of language and its purity still appears in some contexts in the language.
6. Mesthrie et al. maintained that sociolinguistics is related to the social class of the language and several researchers like Labov have studies this relationship. The association of race and class has been studied by social researchers and its impact on language has been ascertained. As stated in the article, sociolinguistics field has not made enough attempts in relating the sociolinguistic with the social class. The article speaks about the internal and external structural analysis of the language whereas Mesthrie et al and other sociolinguists believes and differentiates between the borrowing from other language and the development of the language.
7. The theory article uses is focuses on the ideologies of the language and its development from the historic times. The ideology of the language is derived from the standardization of the language which stems from the belief of the speaker about the language they speak and other languages. The article considers that language standardization is not a universal phenomenon and the standardization of the language impacts the appropriateness of the language to a large extent. The standards of the language are the acceptable norms about the language and which do not required be rationalizing or justifying by the learners of that language. The language is influenced by various ideologies prevalent at various times such as in nineteenth century, as expressed by scholars of that time, the language was influenced by the ideology of elitist theory of social class. However no such ideology exists in present time.
8. The article discusses the work and theories of nineteenth century scholars in detail and then contrasts them with the present time ideology of the language. The language and its standardization have been related to the ideology of the language and its description and establishment by the scholars and linguistic specialists have been discussed. The contributions of the language scholars in the creation of the standard ideology is discussed in the later section mentioning about the legitimating the language. The article uses the contrasting methodology to bring about the development of ideologies in the history of language.
References
Milroy, J. (2001). Language Ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics , 5 (4), 530-555.
