TPCS 36: Decentralization of the linguistic norm online: the Royal Spanish Academy challenged on the Internet

By Juan Eduardo Bonnin

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss new forms of creating and observing linguistic norms in Spanish which abandon the idea of a central institutionally-defined normative discourse. Instead of accepting the linguistic instruments designed by the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española, RAE) as an ineludible reference against which every text written in Spanish should be measured, we will observe several heteroglossic loci of production of normative discourse on language in a corpus of threads expressing normative doubts in the WordReference Internet forums. In sum, we will argue that speakers decenter the RAE norm, locating it among many different sources of normative discourse but, at the same time, they claim a similar authoritative and central place for the norm they produce.

Keywords: linguistic norm – Internet - Real Academia Española – Royal Spanish Academy - normative discourse – language ideology – heteroglossia - Spanish

How to quote (APA): Bonnin, J. E. (2012). Decentralization of the linguistic norm online: The Royal Spanish Academy challenged on the Internet. (Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies; No. 36).

Read the full working paper here: Decentralization of the linguistic norm online: the Royal Spanish Academy challenged on the Internet.