Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: From the outset, I was taught, as a descriptive linguist, to be suspicious of attempts at language standardization, especially since they are often accompanied by prescriptive attempts to make usage conform to the dialect of privileged rule-makers.My responsibility as a linguist was to avoid being prescriptive.I preferred to let any reduction in variation within a language community happen naturally, as people representing different varieties interacted with each other and adjusted their language use to facilitate communication across dialect boundaries.From reading the papers in this volume, I learned that sociolinguists recognize both approaches to standardization, often described as standardization "from above" and "from below."Further, although I may not appreciate efforts at standardization from above, they certainly exist, and from a descriptive perspective, it is important to understand them.
DOI: 10.64830/001c.163976
Author: J. Albert Bickford
Institution: Dallas International University
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7166716249
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