Direct vs. indirect attitude measurement and the planning of Catalan in Mallorca

Abstract

Studies of the sociolinguistic situation of Catalan have generally concentrated on Catalonia and have disregarded other territories where Catalan is also native, namely the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. Although the three territories share a common history of linguistic oppression, different approaches with respect to language planning on the part of the respective autonomous governments have produced different patterns of sociolinguistic evolution. In this article, the specifics of the island of Mallorca and in particular the sociolinguistic situation of its capital city, Palma, are reviewed. Research on attitudes in the Balearic Islands has made use of direct questionnaires as a tool of analysis. This paper explores the differences between the answers to direct questionnaires and the responses to a matched-guise experiment by way of the traditional distinction between the parameters of status-instrumentality and solidarity-integrativeness. It also proposes that a combination of methods is needed to obtain a clearer picture of the problems still to overcome.