Linguistic ideology and the ‘correct’ use of language in Camilo Ortúzar’s Diccionario manual de locuciones viciosas (1893)

Abstract

The present study describes the beliefs and attitudes which undergird the Chilean priest Camilo Ortúzar’s notions of correct and incorrect language use in his Diccionario manual de locuciones viciosos (1893), and how those beliefs and attitudes are situated within the broader context of late nineteenth-century Chilean metalinguistic thought. The analysis is performed using a variety of content-oriented analytical tools, chief among them the discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis. The beliefs we find present in the dictionary are then summarised, and shown to be largely consistent with the prevailing hegemonic ideological beliefs surrounding language use in nineteenth century Chile.