LANGUAGE CULTIVATION

Some language policies aim to prevent people from using bad language and to have them avoid words or expressions assumed to offend because of their meaning, form or association with a stigmatized or foreign language or variety. The reverse side of the coin is made up of policies the aim of which is to improve the language variety itself, by cultivation or modernization.

Cultivation was the term coined in English by Garvin (1973) to translate Sprachkultur, to refer to establishing and modifying the norms of a literary or standard language. The norm must be based on “the average literary language practice over the past 50 years.” It assumes the existence of an established, practicing literary elite who use the language in a consensually standard way. Garvin recognized other norms. A standard language was “a codified form of language, accepted by and serving as a model to, a larger speech community.” An official language had gained its status by the formal recognition of a government. The term ‘national’ language could be neutral, referring to the language most widely used in a particular territory, or emotional, with an implication of serving as a national symbol. In practice – in constitutions, for example – the use of these terms is locally determined and one must be careful in interpreting them.