Sample Academic Text
Linguistic
ideology
Common themes of linguistic ideology revolve around notions of a
language's beauty, authenticity, purity and sacredness. They converge
on the doctrine that a certain variety embodies the language in
question in its best form which must be guarded against corruption.
This is much easier when a clearly defined written standard is
available than in the absense of such. With regard to Greek diglossia,
Sotiropoulos (1992:164) claims that 'graphicentrism', defined as the
primacy of the written language, premeates the linguistic ideology of
Greek culture. Similar precepts more or less explicitly endorse
function-specific H/L separation for all speech communities living with
diglossia. The actual contents of cultural belief systems supporting
diglossia differ; their common function is to single out a variety of
language as H which is subject to norms investing it with the prestige
necessary for being accepted as a standard language. (141 words)
(from Coulmas Sociolinguistics p.
132)