Language ideology
Language ideology is a belief or assumption about language and its use that connects linguistic forms with social values, identities, or power.
Standard language: A socially privileged variety treated as the norm for public communication and correctness. Standardization turns particular beliefs about correctness into institutional language norms.
Sociolinguistics: The study of how language varies and functions in social life. Language ideology is a central concern within sociolinguistic accounts of language and society.
Michael Silverstein: An American linguistic anthropologist known for influential work on language ideology and linguistic communication. His work helped establish language ideology as a framework in linguistic anthropology.
Language education: The teaching and learning of languages, including decisions about which varieties and languages schools recognize. Schooling transmits judgments about language while deciding which forms count as legitimate knowledge.
Linguistic descriptivism: The study of language as it is used, without prescribing which forms speakers ought to use. Descriptivism contrasts with ideologies that mistake socially privileged norms for linguistic facts.
Language policing: The correction or regulation of language use according to social or institutional expectations. Ideologies are enforced when speakers are corrected, mocked, or excluded for their language.
Metalinguistic awareness: The ability to reflect on language and its forms, uses, or rules. Ideologies depend on ideas people can express about how language works.
Judith Irvine: An American linguistic anthropologist whose research examines language, social differentiation, and ideology. Her scholarship developed influential accounts of how linguistic forms become socially meaningful.
Translanguaging: A view of multilingual communication as drawing flexibly on a speaker's integrated linguistic repertoire. It challenges ideologies that treat named languages as separate, bounded systems.
Linguistic relativity: The hypothesis that language influences patterns of thought and perception. It concerns language's effects on cognition, rather than beliefs about language's social value.