Domains and levels of language management

In this book, I have chosen to start with the smallest rather than the largest speech community. Chapter 2 dealt with the home and the family, which, while certainly “micro,” turned out to be quite complex as a sociolinguistic ecology. If we were studying sociolinguistic ecologies, the logical next level might well have been the village or the urban neighborhood. This would also have made it possible to consider the effect of density of settlement on language policy, comparing the village with the city, and asking whether the city is indeed the root of all evil or the locus of solutions (Fishman 1999). I chose, however, to skip this level, for those with the authority to attempt to manage language practices are to be found in some governmental structure, such as a city or regional government which will be treated later. Instead, in Chapter 3, I dealt with a domain that is close to the family but distinct from it, religious organizations and institutions. Being part of an ecology means that there is complex interaction between domains, so that from time to time it was necessary to consider the effects of political and national policies. In the same way, while studying language management in the workplace we will need to make a somewhat artificial distinction by concentrating on language management activities that originate within the domain, and ignore in the meantime as much as possible the way government language management impinges on many workplaces.