Language Planning in Sociolinguistics

1. LANGUAGE PLANNING
Presented to: Sir Waleed Butt
Presented by: Huma Saleem
Shafaq Mir
Mahnoor Shabbir
Ayesha Afzal

2. PLANNING
 Language Planning
 A Reason for Language Planning
 Some Basic issues
 A Variety of Situations
 Stages of Language Planning

3. BIRTH OF LANGUAGE PLANNING
 Language planning was first put forward by Uriel
Weinrich, in 1957,at a seminar held in Columbia
University. In the literature concerned with "language
planning", the American-Norwegian sociolinguist Einar
Haugen is often mentioned as the person who gave birth
to the concept.

4. HOW LANGUAGE PLANNING IS DEFINED
 The development of policies or programs designed to
direct or change language use, through the establishment
of an official language.
 The numerous attempts that have been made to change a
particular variety of a language or some aspect of how
either of these functions in society. Such changes are
usually described as instances of language planning.
Ronald (1998, p. 347)

5. HOW LANGUAGE PLANNING IS
DEFINED
 Language planning involves the creation and
implementation of an official policy about how the
languages and linguistic varieties of a country are to be
used. David Crystal (1996, p. 366)

6. THE REASONS FOR LANGUAGE PLANNING
 Different social groups wish to maintain their linguistic
identities and interests, and may actively and often
violently campaign for recognition.
 Many governments try to solve their problems of slow
linguistic evolution by engaging in conscious, principled
‘language planning’.

7. LANGUAGE PLANNING IS CARRIED OUT BY:
 Government departments and agencies
 Academies
 Committees
 Popular societies
 Individuals

8. SOME BASIC ISSUES
 Language planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately
with a language or one of its varieties which may focus
on either its status with regard to some other language or
variety or its internal condition with a view to changing
that condition, or on both of these since they are not
mutually exclusive. The first focus results in status
planning, the second corpus planning.

9. STATUS PLANNING; CORPUS PLANNING
 Status planning changes the function of a language or a
variety of a language and the rights of those who use it.
Ronald Wardhaugh(1998, p. 347).

10. CONTI…
 Corpus planning seeks to develop a variety of a language
or a language, usually to standardize it, that is, to provide
it with the means for serving every possible language
function in society.

11.  The corpus/status dichotomy emphasizes the dual nature
of language planning, that is, its concern with both the
linguistic and social aspects of language.
 “Corpus planning” refers to all actions aiming at
modifying “the nature of the language itself”,
 “Status planning” is concerned with whether the social
status of language should be lowered or raised.
 However, the two cannot be separated from each other.
And language planning can never be corpus-oriented or
statusoriented exclusively.

12. 4 IDEOLOGIES OF DECISION MAKING
 Four typical ideologies that may motivate actual
decision-making in language planning in a particular
society are following:
1. Linguistic assimilation
2. Linguistic pluralism
3. Vernacularizaiton
4. Internationalism

13. LINGUISTIC ASSIMILATION
 The belief that everyone, regardless of origin,should
learn the dominant language of the society. For example:
• France applied this policy to various peoples within its
borders.
• Russification in the former Soviet Union.

14. LINGUISTIC PLURALISM
 The recognition of more than one language, also takes a
variety of forms. It can be territorially or individually
based or there may be some combination of the two. It
can be complete or partial, so that all or only some
aspects of life can be conducted in more than one
language in society. Examples are countries like Canada,
India.

15. VERNACULARIZATION
 The restoration or elaboration of an indigenous (native)
language and its adoption as an official language.
 Examples:
• Hebrew in Israel;
• Tagalog(or Pilipino) in the Philippines

16. INTERNATIONALISM
 The adoption of a non-indigenous (non native) language
of wider communication either as an official language or
for such purposes, as education or trade.
 Example:
English in Singapore, India, the Pilippines

17.  As a result of planning decisions:
 A language can achieve one of a variety of statuses. A
language may be recognized as the sole official
language, as French is in France.
 Two or more languages may share official status in some
countries, e.g., English and French in Canada and
Cameroon.
 A language may also have official status but only on a
regional basis, e.g., German in Belgium.

18.  Planning decisions will obviously play a very large role
in determining what happens to any minority language or
languages in a country. They can result in deliberate
attempts to eradicate such a language, as with Franco’s
attempt to eliminate Basque from Spain by banning it
from public life.

19. A VARIETY OF SITUATION
 We will look at a variety of linguistic situations in the
world to see some instances of planning. France serves
as a good example of a country which has a single
national language and does little or nothing for any other
language.
 The bilingualism of Belgium.Today, French and
Flemis(Dutch) co-exist in a somewhat uneasy truce in
Belgium.
 The struggle between the French and the Flemish has a
long history.

20. 4 STAGES OF LANGUAGE PLANNING
 Selection
 Codification
 Modernization
 Implementation

21. 1. SELECTION
 Choose a single language as a norm for official,
educational, and other purposes.

22. 2. CODIFICATION
• The chosen language needs to be developed to meet the
demands placed upon it as a medium of national or
international communication.
• If the language has previously existed only in spoken
form, or in an unusual writing system, an alphabet will
have to be devised, along with rules of spelling and
punctuation.
• An early aim will be the codification of the pronunciation,
grammar, and vocabulary to provide a set of norms for
standard use, especially if there is a great deal of local
variation.

23. 3. MODERNIZATION
• The vocabulary will need to be modernized to enable
foreign material to be translated consistently.
• Principles will have to be agreed for the introduction of
new terms; for example, should they be loan words or
coinage based on native roots?
• New styles of discourse may need to be developed, for
use on radio or in the press. Decisions will need to be
made about new or uncertain usages, especially in
technical contexts.

24. 4. IMPLEMENTATION
• The chosen standard will need to be officially implemented by
using it for government publications, in the media, and in schools.
• It will be viewed as the ‘best’ form of language in the speech
community, because it will be associated with educational
progress and social status.
• It will also provide the norm for literary style, and may be
associated with factors of a nationalistic, cultural, or religious
kind.