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Language Planning: Theoretical Background

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Language Planning in the Post-Communist Era

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Abstract

Provides information on major aspects of the conceptual framework of language planning with a view to enabling the reader to gain a clearer understanding of language planning as both a concept and a set of activities in historical reality. Information introduced includes definition , typology and terminology of language planning, and motivations and methods in language-planning activity. An Addendum containing a synopsis of the historical origins of language planning and of the development and significance of language planning as a subject of scholarly inquiry, along with pertinent bibliographical data, is also included.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a brief and lucid exposition of other terms central to the book’s subject matter, such as standard language , national language and official language , see Stroinska and Andrews, Chap. 10, Relevant Concepts section, below.

  2. 2.

    For more on the uses of the terms ‘language policy ’ and ‘language policy and planning,’ see Ferguson (2006: 16).

  3. 3.

    Spolsky (2009) places yet another construction on the meaning of the term ‘language management ’ by introducing the concept of ‘claims [to] authority’ in the language- planning/policy area of ‘modifying practices or beliefs’—an area for which, Spolsky argues, “[language] management seems better suited than [language] planning” (Ibid.: 4).

  4. 4.

    For more on theory and application of ‘language management ,’ see Sanden (2016); also Kaplan and Baldauf (1997: 207–209).

  5. 5.

    For a fascinating view of the extent and the variety of modes of resistance by speakers of ‘dialects’ against attempts by the powers-that-be to impose on them use of standard-language, instead of dialect, speech forms, see below Chap. 3, Putonghua and the Chinese ‘Dialects .’

  6. 6.

    On the new notions in nineteenth century China and their wider linguistic-cultural ramification, see Chu (1973: 605).

  7. 7.

    The trend toward authoritarian language-planning attitudes and practices in the so-called post-totalitarian era is most evident in the Language Laws of the Russian Federation , Ukraine , Lithuania , and Poland (see Chaps. 4, 7, 8 and 10, respectively), as well as, for example, in post-Mao China ’s language policies on minorities beginning in the early 1990s. The following observation in Chaps. 3 and 4, respectively, give us a good view, I think, of the authoritarianism trend in the language-planning-and-policy environment of the post-communist era since the early to mid-1990s:

    • “There has been a marked shift in language policy [in the Russian Federation ] during the past two decades away from measures aimed at democratizing Russian society by supporting linguistic diversity to policies promoting and valorizing the Russian language . This shift has taken place in the context of the recentralization of political power in Russia and the rise of Russian nationalism” (Chap. 4, Conclusion).

    • “[The] new emphasis [beginning in the early 1990s] on language as an agent of national integration [has] had important policy outcomes [in China ]. Policy makers withheld approval for the introduction of new writing systems for minority languages , they delayed legislation on script use, they began a progressive reduction in minority language broadcasting, and in some areas (such as Tibet) they forced the schools to introduce the teaching of Putonghua much earlier (…) This approach was reinforced in 2001 by a new Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law that required the teaching of Putonghua and Chinese characters to begin in either the lower or the higher grades of elementary school [and] was pushed even further in Xinjiang, with mergers of Uighur schools and Chinese schools, with the increasing use of ‘bilingual’ education from pre-school onwards to ensure a rapid transition to the use of Putonghua, and with the virtual abolition of Uighur language classes at the University of Xinjiang and the forced retirement of all teaching staff whose Putonghua was not up to standard (…)” (Chap. 3, Putonghua and the Languages of China’s Ethnic Minorities ).

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  1. Bloomington, IN, USA

    Ernest Andrews

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  1. Department of Linguistics, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Ernest Andrews

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Andrews, E. (2018). Language Planning: Theoretical Background. In: Andrews, E. (eds) Language Planning in the Post-Communist Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70926-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70926-0_2

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