Language Management and Language Behavior Change: Policies and Social Persistence

Abstract

The socio-political evolution of western societies, that have corne to provide a model imitated by other non-western countries, has led, especially over the last two centuries, to an enormous increase in the functions and power of the state in the everyday life of the community. Language is one of the areas in which the state's influence has grown most quickly. Over and above the self-organizing and polycentric secular social dynamic used to solve problems of everyday linguistic communication, political authority has become, in many countries, the chief organizer of public language communication. In contemporary societies, then, the final choice of linguistic code or codes for institutionalized public life lies in the hands of political bodies. As a result, in general terms the language that the population must know is also decided by political bodies through universal and obligatory education. Political power will also decree -directly, or by delegating the task to academic institutions or linguistic authorities- the form of the code or codes to be used.