STATUS AND CORPUS PLANNING: ADDRESSING LANGUAGE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Mtholeni N. NgcoboDEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICSUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
LANGUAGE PLANNING
• A social construct• Production of a policy• Policy aspect of planning;Allocation (Gorman, 1973)Language happening (Jernudd & Das
Gupta, 1971)Language Treatment (Neustupný,
1974)
Language Planning
• De facto language planning vs. de jure language planning
• Practices vs. Policy
FOURFOLD MODEL• Selection of the norm• Codification• Implementation• Elaboration• Antia (2000) two-by-two matrixNorm + function = languageSociety + language = planning
THEORETICAL MODELS• Rational model (canonical or ideal
planning)• Alternative model• Rational model:
National/official language choice – purely government decision
• Alternative modelAccommodate several types/levels of government or non-governmental decision-making and implementation
THEORETICAL MODELS cont…
• Several planning mechanisms• Less organized and less
coordinated sources of change
LANGUAGE MANAGEMENT
• A reaction against centralisation• Focus on discourse
STATUS vs. CORPUS PLANNING
• Compartmentalization (Kloss, 1969)• Status planning:
Discourse of language politics and societySocial aspects of language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997)Related to political issues Focus on legislative decisions
STATUS vs. CORPUS cont…
• Corpus PlanningFocus on changes by deliberate planning to the corpus or shape of a languageOrthography, grammar, lexica (Antia, 2000)
• Relationship (status & corpus)Dichotomous and complementary
LP IN SA• Socio-historical view:
Traditional structural planning of culture and languageSymbolic power: the creation of the linguistic field; hebitus (Bordieu, 1991)The de jure emphasis (1822) – AnglicisationObjection – Dutch speaking people1910 – Union of SA
LP in SA cont…
English and Afrikaans legislationStandardization of some indigenous languages
LP in Democratic SA
Correction intervention: 11 official languagesCompromise and accommodating (Bellamy, 1999)LANGTAG and PANSALBPromotion of the use of official languagesDevelopment of minority languageConstitutional base & the Bill of Rights
POLICY DOCUMENTS
The National Policy Framework- 2003The Implementation Plan - 2003Language in Education Policy - 1996Language Policy for Higher EducationThe Western Cape Provincial Language Act of 1998
THE NATURE OF SALP
Emotional connotations that languages hold: various voices and interestsObjectively designed: to maintain ethnic diversity and compromiseDeliberate and political policy of multilingualismSymbolic
THE NATURE OF SALP cont…
Aims: promote, develop, respectLanguage groupings: Nguni, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, English and Afrikaans
CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS
Implementation problemEnglish dominanceThe balance of the needs and preferencesEscape clauses: practicability, usage etc.Discourse: equality vs. equity, individual rights vs. group rights
FROM STATUS TO CORPUS LP
Interlinguistically competitive market placePolicy approach vs. the cultivation approachPolicy: created the climate of transformation or reconstruction and development (Webb 2000)Development and corpus planning (a practical implementation strategy)
FROM STATUS TO CORPUS LP
Beautify, amplify and dignify (Fishman 1996)Terminology development, interpreting and translationThe use of new and acceptable conventions and the involvement of the designated audienceThe development of teaching material and other applications
CONCLUSION
The SA Policy is goodStatus planning should be complemented with corpus planningIdealistic vs. pragmatic types of language planningA need for localisation or glocalisation: a response to global technology (Antia, 2000)
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