STATUS AND CORPUS PLANNING: ADDRESSING LANGUAGE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Mtholeni N. NgcoboDEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICSUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

LANGUAGE PLANNING

• A social construct• Production of a policy• Policy aspect of planning;Allocation (Gorman, 1973)Language happening (Jernudd & Das

Gupta, 1971)Language Treatment (Neustupný,

1974)

Language Planning

• De facto language planning vs. de jure language planning

• Practices vs. Policy

FOURFOLD MODEL• Selection of the norm• Codification• Implementation• Elaboration• Antia (2000) two-by-two matrixNorm + function = languageSociety + language = planning

THEORETICAL MODELS• Rational model (canonical or ideal

planning)• Alternative model• Rational model:

National/official language choice – purely government decision

• Alternative modelAccommodate several types/levels of government or non-governmental decision-making and implementation

THEORETICAL MODELS cont…

• Several planning mechanisms• Less organized and less

coordinated sources of change

LANGUAGE MANAGEMENT

• A reaction against centralisation• Focus on discourse

STATUS vs. CORPUS PLANNING

• Compartmentalization (Kloss, 1969)• Status planning:

Discourse of language politics and societySocial aspects of language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997)Related to political issues Focus on legislative decisions

STATUS vs. CORPUS cont…

• Corpus PlanningFocus on changes by deliberate planning to the corpus or shape of a languageOrthography, grammar, lexica (Antia, 2000)

• Relationship (status & corpus)Dichotomous and complementary

LP IN SA• Socio-historical view:

Traditional structural planning of culture and languageSymbolic power: the creation of the linguistic field; hebitus (Bordieu, 1991)The de jure emphasis (1822) – AnglicisationObjection – Dutch speaking people1910 – Union of SA

LP in SA cont…

English and Afrikaans legislationStandardization of some indigenous languages

LP in Democratic SA

Correction intervention: 11 official languagesCompromise and accommodating (Bellamy, 1999)LANGTAG and PANSALBPromotion of the use of official languagesDevelopment of minority languageConstitutional base & the Bill of Rights

POLICY DOCUMENTS

The National Policy Framework- 2003The Implementation Plan - 2003Language in Education Policy - 1996Language Policy for Higher EducationThe Western Cape Provincial Language Act of 1998

THE NATURE OF SALP

Emotional connotations that languages hold: various voices and interestsObjectively designed: to maintain ethnic diversity and compromiseDeliberate and political policy of multilingualismSymbolic

THE NATURE OF SALP cont…

Aims: promote, develop, respectLanguage groupings: Nguni, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, English and Afrikaans

CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS

Implementation problemEnglish dominanceThe balance of the needs and preferencesEscape clauses: practicability, usage etc.Discourse: equality vs. equity, individual rights vs. group rights

FROM STATUS TO CORPUS LP

Interlinguistically competitive market placePolicy approach vs. the cultivation approachPolicy: created the climate of transformation or reconstruction and development (Webb 2000)Development and corpus planning (a practical implementation strategy)

FROM STATUS TO CORPUS LP

Beautify, amplify and dignify (Fishman 1996)Terminology development, interpreting and translationThe use of new and acceptable conventions and the involvement of the designated audienceThe development of teaching material and other applications

CONCLUSION

The SA Policy is goodStatus planning should be complemented with corpus planningIdealistic vs. pragmatic types of language planningA need for localisation or glocalisation: a response to global technology (Antia, 2000)