418353670

Language policy / Bernard Spolsky

Spolsky, Bernard,i1932- [Verfasser]

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004

Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press

1 Online-Ressource (xi, 250 pages)

Key topics in sociolinguistics

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)

978-0-511-61524-5 ; 978-0-521-80461-5 ; 978-0-521-01175-4

 

Je nach Lizenzbedingungen können Sie ggf. nicht über alle unten angegebenen Links auf den Volltext zugreifen. Die für Sie gültige URL finden Sie im Bestandsinfo Ihrer Bibliothek.

 

Language policy is an issue of critical importance in the world today. In this introduction, Bernard Spolsky explores many debates at the forefront of language policy: ideas of correctness and bad language; bilingualism and multilingualism; language death and efforts to preserve endangered languages; language choice as a human and civil right; and language education policy. Through looking at the language practices, beliefs and management of social groups from families to supra-national organizations, he develops a theory of modern national language policy and the major forces controlling it, such as the demands for efficient communication, the pressure for national identity, the attractions of (and resistance to) English as a global language, and the growing concern for human and civil rights as they impinge on language. Two central questions asked in this wide-ranging survey are of how to recognize language policies, and whether or not language can be managed at all.