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1 - Language Construction and Language Symbolism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

Yasir Suleiman
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter provides a comparative perspective on language construction in the non-scriptal and scriptal worlds. It does so by reference to the symbolic function of language. The use of language as proxy in expressing conflict in society reveals its availability for expressing competing narratives of the in-group and the out-group. The chapter deals with these topics by exploring three processes in language construction: identification, differentiation and distanciation, relating them to issues of national identity and inter- and intra-group political conflict. Language ideology is central to this exploration, as is the use of language to do politics through culture in society. A secondary aim of this chapter is to counter the folk-linguistic idea in the Arabic-speaking world that what is called fuṣḥā Arabic stands outside this constructivist paradigm, largely owing to its longstanding status as a standard language.

Introduction

Standardisation has the effect of making languages assume the status of natural categories of the social world. This is particularly true when language standardisation has deep roots in history, as is the case for Arabic. Most Arabic speakers are unaware of the constructed nature of their language, both at the status and corpus planning levels, or of the ideological factors involved in the complex and multi-layered process that led to its emergence as a marker of identity. The fact that this process is linked to ideas about uniformity, correctness, purity and ethnic election requires excavation, in order to bring it into the overt discourse about the language in folklinguistic terms.

Type
Chapter
Information
Arabic in the Fray
Language Ideology and Cultural Politics
, pp. 13 - 50
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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