Language Ideology
-249 Pragmatics 2:3.235 InternationalPragmatics Association
LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY: ISSUES AND APPROACHES
Kathrvn A. Woolard
1. Introduction This special issue of hagmarl 'cs derives from a day-long symposium on "l^anguage Ideology: Practice and Theory" held at the annual meeting of the American Anthropology Association in Chicago,November 1991.1 The organizing premise of the symposiumwas that languageideologyis a mediating link between social structuresand forms of talk, if such static imagery for some very dynamic processescan be forgiven. Rather than casting language ideology as an epiphenomenon, a relatively inconsequentialoverlay of secondaryand tertiary responses(Boas 1911; Bloomfield 1944),, symposiumstarted from the proposition that ideology stands in dialectical the relation with, and thus significantlyinfluences,social,discursive, and linguistic practices. As sucha critical link, languageideology merits more concertedanalytic attention than it has thus far been given. In this first attempt to bring form to an area of inquiry, we have adopted a relatively unconstrainedsenseof "languageideology."Alan Rumsey 'sdefinition, based on Silverstein (1979),is a useful startingpoint: linguisticideologiesare "sharedbodies of commonsense notions about the nature of languagein the world "(1990: 346). We mean to include cultural conceptionsnot only of languageand languagevariation, but of the nature and purpose of communication, and of communicativebehavior as an enactment of a collective order (Silverstein 1987: l-2). I use the terms "linguistic" and "language"ideology interchangeably,although in the articles that follow one might detect differencesin their uses,perhaps varying with the degree to which the authors focus on formal linguistic structuresor on representationsof a collective order. In order to build toward a general understandingof the cultural variability of language ideology and its role in social and linguistic life, the symposium brought
1 The
LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY: ISSUES AND APPROACHES
Kathrvn A. Woolard
1. Introduction This special issue of hagmarl 'cs derives from a day-long symposium on "l^anguage Ideology: Practice and Theory" held at the annual meeting of the American Anthropology Association in Chicago,November 1991.1 The organizing premise of the symposiumwas that languageideologyis a mediating link between social structuresand forms of talk, if such static imagery for some very dynamic processescan be forgiven. Rather than casting language ideology as an epiphenomenon, a relatively inconsequentialoverlay of secondaryand tertiary responses(Boas 1911; Bloomfield 1944),, symposiumstarted from the proposition that ideology stands in dialectical the relation with, and thus significantlyinfluences,social,discursive, and linguistic practices. As sucha critical link, languageideology merits more concertedanalytic attention than it has thus far been given. In this first attempt to bring form to an area of inquiry, we have adopted a relatively unconstrainedsenseof "languageideology."Alan Rumsey 'sdefinition, based on Silverstein (1979),is a useful startingpoint: linguisticideologiesare "sharedbodies of commonsense notions about the nature of languagein the world "(1990: 346). We mean to include cultural conceptionsnot only of languageand languagevariation, but of the nature and purpose of communication, and of communicativebehavior as an enactment of a collective order (Silverstein 1987: l-2). I use the terms "linguistic" and "language"ideology interchangeably,although in the articles that follow one might detect differencesin their uses,perhaps varying with the degree to which the authors focus on formal linguistic structuresor on representationsof a collective order. In order to build toward a general understandingof the cultural variability of language ideology and its role in social and linguistic life, the symposium brought
1 The
References: Perspectives on officiat English. Berlin:Moutonde L. (1990) Adams, Karen & DanielT. Brink (eds.) Gruyter. KnthrynA. Woolard Bourdieu,Pierre(1982)Cequeparlerveutdire;L 'economie dchanges des linguistiques