Professor Devitt offers a new view of the linguistic process of standardization, the movement of specific language features towards uniformity. Drawing on theoretical arguments and empirical data, she examines the way in which linguistic conformity develops out of variation, and the textual and social factors that influence this process. After defining and clarifying the general theoretical issues involved, the author takes as a specific case study the standardization of written English in Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and shows that standardization is a gradual process, that it occurs at significantly different rates and times in different genres, that it encompasses periods of great variation, and that it occurs concurrently with sociopolitical shifts. The interrelationship of linguistic features, genres, and social pressures shape the nature and direction of standardization.

Language Standardization and Language Change describes the formation of an early standard norm at the Cape around 1900. The processes of variant reduction and sociolinguistic focusing which accompanied the early standardization history of Afrikaans (or ‘Cape Dutch’ as it was then called) are analysed within the broad methodological framework of corpus linguistics and variation analysis. Multivariate statistical techniques (cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling and PCA) are used to model the emergence of linguistic uniformity in the Cape Dutch speech community. The book also examines language contact and creolization in the early settlement, the role of Afrikaner nationalism in shaping language attitudes and linguistic practices, and the influence of English. As a case study in historical sociolinguistics the book calls into question the traditional view of the emergence of an Afrikaans standard norm, and advocates a strongly sociolinguistic, speaker-orientated approach to language history in general, and standardization studies in particular.

This volume presents fourteen case studies of standardization processes in eleven different Germanic languages. Together, the contributions confront problematic issues in standardization which will be of interest to sociolinguists, as well as to historical linguists from all language disciplines. The papers cover a historical range from the Middle Ages to the present and a geographical range from South Africa to Iceland, but all fall into one of the following categories: 1) shaping and diffusing a standard language; 2) the relationship between standard and identity; 3) non-standardization, de-standardization and re-standardization.

This book focuses on a century of language change, starting early in the 20th century when Standard Afrikaans first emerged. Different areas of language use are explored, such as pronoun use, tenses, possession, and connectives. The changes in these areas are divided into three categories of types of change: paradigmatic changes, grammaticalization, and discursive and socio-cultural changes. The book also includes a short history of the standardization of Afrikaans and brief discussions of some relevant ideological issues. The second and final chapters include an in-depth discussion of the theory of language change and language evolution, as well as reflections on what language change is and how it proceeds. The role of language contact in language change, and language-external influences, are also considered.

Master essays for standardized tests with The Princeton Review! No matter how much writing you've done in school, the timed essays you'll face on standardized tests present a whole new challenge. This essential guide expertly analyzes what graders are looking for across each of these standardized high school tests and then helps you swiftly and effectively meet their requirements. Steady your nerves and start preparing with: • Comprehensive coverages of AP, ACT, TOEFL, ISEE, and SSAT essay formats • Specific writing strategies to help ensure you're fulfilling the right criteria for each essay type • Annotated samples that show you how the grading rubrics are assessed • Tips on how to better support your answer for every kind of essay, including how to analyze textual, qualitative, and visual content and make calculations within an essay • Additional material on unique topics, such as foreign-language essay approaches and more!

During the 18th century, letter manuals became the most popular form of conduct literature. They were marketed to and used by a wide spectrum of society, from maidservants and apprentices, through military officers and merchants, to gentlemen, parents and children. This work presents the most influential manuals from both sides of the Atlantic.

This important contribution to the sociolinguistics of Asian languages breaks new ground in the study of language standards and standardization in two key ways: in its focus on Asia, with particular attention paid to China and its neighbours, and in the attention paid to multilingual contexts. The chapters address various kinds of (sometimes hidden) multilingualism and examine the interactions between multilingualism and language standardization, offering a corrective to earlier work on standardization, which has tended to assume a monolingual nation state and monolingual individuals. Taken together, the chapters in this book thus add to our understanding of the ways in which multilingualism is implicated in language standardization, as well as the impact of language standards on multilingualism. The introduction, Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 are free to download as open access publications. You can access them here: Introduction: https://zenodo.org/record/5749388#.YaiwuNDP3cs Chapter 6: https://zenodo.org/record/5749522#.Yaiw-9DP3cs Chapter 8: https://zenodo.org/record/5749586#.Yai0RNDP3cs

This volume provides a space for the development of dialogue between dialectologists, language community activists, and other researchers working on the development of orthographies regarding issues that arise during the creation of writing systems in places where there is dialect variation and an absence of writing systems, or where there is a writing system for a national language but not for the particular related language. The chapters in this volume address two major themes: first, the imperative for standardization is influenced by many social and political factors, including identity, age, ease of use of the language, and familiarity, as well as the nature of the language itself. The second theme investigated by the authors is the assumption of the value of standardization, which in many cases leads to overt or covert negotiations or conflicts in the process of language planning and orthography development. These themes are addressed through the experiences of the authors of working with languages and dialects in various parts of the world, including Cyprus, Poland, Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico, among others. The languages examined in this volume include both those for which there have long been writing systems for “standard” dialects (such as Cypriot Greek and Podlachian, which is sometimes said to be a Belarusian-Ukrainian variety) and those for which writing has been only recently introduced (such as Cayuga, Oneida, and Mixean).

Score higher on any standardized test with the help of CliffsNotes! For anyone taking any standardized test—such as the SAT, ACT, GMAT, Praxis I, GRE, or others—CliffsNotes Verbal Review for Standardized Tests is designed to review, refresh, and reintroduce essential grammar and verbal skills. Written by test preparation experts, this clear, concise, and easy-to-use guide gives insight into the types of questions you'll face on the exam, and demonstrates how to avoid the common and costly errors that trap the unprepared. Grammar and usage review English usage and sentence correction Timed essay writing Verbal ability—antonyms, analogies, and sentence completion Reading comprehension Strategies for each question type Practice exercises with hundreds of questions and complete explanations Parts of speech, adjectives and adverbs, linking verbs, and comparatives and superlatives Punctuation—using commas, semi-colons, colons, apostrophes, and dashes Writing narrative, descriptive, analytical, and expository essays With guidance from CliffsNotes, test takers will feel at home in any standardized-test environment!

By integrating different research angles and methods of philosophy of law, sociology of law, applied linguistics, and legal translation, this book presents a groundbreaking approach to the non-standardization phenomenon in Chinese legislative language, unveils the underlying causes and adverse effects thereof, and provides potential principles, strategies, and methods to be followed in the standardization of Chinese legislative language. Divided into three parts, this book firstly talks about the fuzziness of language, addressing both the active and negative influences thereof on the legislation; secondly approaches the non-standardization phenomenon in Chinese legislative language from the perspective of philosophy of law; and thirdly offers a comprehensive studies on the standardization of Chinese legislative language, offering possible solutions to address the above-mentioned problems and promote the standardized development of law making. This book facilitates the legal practitioners, jurists, law students, legal translators as well as the non-experts to get a better understanding of the mechanism and process of legislation and improve their skills and capacities in apprehending and translating Chinese laws and regulations.