Kun-dangwok: ''clan lects'' and Ausbau in western Arnhem Land

The sociolinguistic concept of an Ausbau language is widely thought of as exclusively associated with the standardization of languages for the political and social purposes of nation states. Language policy initiated by state institutions, the development of literacy and new specialist registers of language are typical elements involved in the Ausbau process. However, the linguistic ideologies of small language groups such as those of the minority languages of Aboriginal Australia can drive certain forms of deliberate language elaboration. An important aspect of Aboriginal linguistic ideology is language diversity, reflected in the development of elemental sociolinguistic varieties such as patrician lects. In the Bininj Kun-wok dialect chain of western Arnhem Land, a regional system of lectal differentiation known as Kun-dangwok has developed, reflecting an Aboriginal linguistic ideology whereby being different, especially different ways of speaking, are seen as central aspects of identity. The functions of the Kun-dangwok clan led system are described using examples of naturally occurring conversation which provide evidence that clan lects are the result of an Ausbau process that results in the opposite of language standardization and an increase in Abstand between varieties

Conflicting Tendencies in the Development of Scientific and Technical Language Varieties: Metaphorization vs. Standardization

The present paper discusses relations between meaning and context as an interactive process that promotes cognition and communication, both intralingual and interlingual. The article also studies two evident conflicting tendencies in the development of technical language: metaphorization and standardization. Metaphorical meaning extension is characteristic of technical vocabulary in all discourse domains. At the same time, contemporary development of corpus linguistics facilitates standardization of terms. Taking into account pragmatic aspects of the text environment, i.e. referential, situational, cultural and social contexts, language users can interpret the meaning of new terms, establish relations and interconnections between terms and concepts within a text, domain and entire scientific and technical discourse. In the present article, observations on the nature and application of contemporary technical terminology are made on the basis of extensive empirical research

Standardizing and destandardizing practices at a Flemish secondary school : a sociolinguistic ethnographic perspective on Flemish pupils’ speech practices

For a couple of decades now, in Flanders, the functional elaboration of what is generally called tussentaal, i.e. mesolectal language use situated in between (‘tussen’) acrolectal Standard Dutch and basilectal Flemish dialects, has caused increasing concern about the position of Standard Dutch relative to other recognized ways of speaking. This has provoked intense debate about the proper characterization of this evolution. This paper focuses on the daily language practices and overt attitudes of six girls at a Flemish secondary school to illustrate that it is relatively easy to find evidence that suggests this evolution is properly characterized as a type of destandardization. Yet by zooming in on the covert SLI-influenced language attitudes of the girls, I will argue that a close ethnographic study of daily language use is able to go beyond the surface appearances of larger-scale ideologies and can demonstrate the continuing influence of standardization. Sociolinguistic ethnography may therefore have a vital role to play in the ongoing debate about language variation in Flanders

A helynév-standardizáció terminológiájáról

On the terminology of geographical names standardization     The first part of the paper presents (i) geographical names standardization as a sub-field of language standardization, (ii) the importance of geographical names standardization as explained in UNGEGN documents, and (iii) the similarities between geographical names standardization and the general practice of standardization. In the second part, the author describes the editing principles as well as the structure of the terminological glossary (Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names) and its supplement (Addendum for Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names) published by UNGEGN in 2002 and 2007, respectively. The author points out the need for a similar up-to-date standardization glossary in Hungarian, which may be integrated into a dictionary (or data base) of Hungarian onomastic terms to be compiled in the future

Malaysian English: Exploring the Possibility of Standardization

The notion of Malaysian English in relation to the concepts of standard English and language standardization is explored. An overview of the development of varieties of English spoken in Malaysia is discussed and the factors involved in language standardization such as the role of codifying agents in regulating the use of Malaysian English, the status of Malaysian English as a "New English", the need for a standardized variety of Malaysian English and the linguistic complexity of Malaysian English are examined. Of the three varieties of Malaysian English, namely, Malaysian English Type I, Malaysian English Type 11 and colloquial Malaysian English, Malaysian English Type II has the potential to develop into a widely accepted variety of Malaysian English. Nevertheless, the possibility of Malaysian English being standardized is still remote due to the limited need for a standardized variety of Malaysian English as the reference model in language teaching, and its early stage in the process of language standardization. Further and on-going descriptive studies on Malaysian English are needed

Standardizing a component metadata infrastructure

This paper describes the status of the standardization efforts of a Component Metadata approach for describing Language Resources with metadata. Different linguistic and Language & Technology communities as CLARIN, META-SHARE and NaLiDa use this component approach and see its standardization of as a matter for cooperation that has the possibility to create a large interoperable domain of joint metadata. Starting with an overview of the component metadata approach together with the related semantic interoperability tools and services as the ISOcat data category registry and the relation registry we explain the standardization plan and efforts for component metadata within ISO TC37/SC4. Finally, we present information about uptake and plans of the use of component metadata within the three mentioned linguistic and L&T communities

The global regime of language recognition

There is no universally accepted working linguistic definition of a language; the distinction between a dialect and a language is a political question. On the basis of a discussion of this problem, the article proposes that the ISO 639 family of standards, issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), amounts to the backbone of an emerging global regime of language recognition. This regime is being rapidly coaxed into being by the booming IT industry and by the Internet, both of which require clear-cut and uniform standards on languages and their scripts in order to function efficiently and profitably. A potentially undesirable and divisive foundation of the regulatory regime, stemming from and meeting the distinctive sectoral purposes of the world of Evangelicalism and Bible translation, is a hurdle to be overcome in achieving a universally accepted system of language standards. Despite efforts by other actors, there is no viable secular alternative in prospect, because the religiously-grounded system has an established and substantial “first mover” advantage in the field.Peer reviewe