Language Ideology

Abstract

Language ideologies are morally and politically loaded representations of the structure and use of languages in a social world. They link language to identities, institutions, and values in all societies. Such ideologies actively mediate between and shape linguistic forms and social processes. Three research streams that joined in the early 1990s to bring language ideologies into focus are discussed. Theoretical tools of semiotic and social analysis are surveyed, including indexicality, indexical order and field, enregisterment, iconization, erasure, and recursivity. Focal topics of linguistic ideology explored are sociolinguistic differentiation and linguistic authority, including ideologies of anonymity, authenticity, and sacred origins. Critiques of expert and activist language ideologies, and unintended consequences of ideologies such as linguistic purism, are discussed. Emergent ideologies are seen in linguistic commodification, appropriation, and globalization, as well as in changing forms of linguistic authority produced in contentions over ritual language in colonial encounters.