4 Importance of Attitude Study for Language Policy

1. Overt vs. Covert: Attitudes that may not be overt may still be covert; they may affect the implementation of policy and cause it to fail. Or results may be obtained that were not anticipated or predicted THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, resources may be wasted, no changes result, with perhaps even backlash against the policy.

2. My conception of language attitudes is that they are a part of linguistic culture (Schiffman 1996) and since language policy is often rooted in linguistic culture, attitudes cannot be ignored.

3. In the Labovian sociolinguistic paradigm, there is the notion of covert prestige of certain (usually non-standard) linguistic forms, which explains why certain (usually non-standard) forms persist despite attempts to eradicate, stigmatize, or extirpate them. With regard to certain forms, e.g. Philadelphia (sh) forms (e.g. `shtreet' for `street') all subjects negatively evaluate this pronunciation, even those who use it themselves, and if asked what kind of a job such speakers might have, reply that they ``shouldn't have any job!"

4. Male speech often thus seems to have covert prestige, being associated with `machismo'. Attempts to eradicate non-standard forms will then be seen as an attact on the masculinity of their users, and will fail.

• 4.1 Other Things to Consider
• 4.2 Bibliography