An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

particularly to Einar Haugen’s 1966 essay on the relation between dialect and
standard language.
What Haugen succeeds in doing in this discussion is to explain both what stan -
dardisation means in terms of the language–society interface and at the same time
to provide a methodology for determining the extent to which a language code has
achieved the status of a standard language. Haugen offers a table which has been
much used and now underpins much of applied linguistic thinking about standard
languages; it has helped explain why standard languages are necessary (see Table 2.1).
Table 2.1
Aspects of Standardisation
Form
Function
Society
Selection
Acceptance
Language
Codification
Elaboration
(Haugen 1966/1972: 110)
Haugen argues that all standard languages are dialects that have become accepted,
given status. (We can of course also say that they are dialects in power, dialects with
an army; but that is a negative view since it is equally true of other characteristics of
societies, from politeness to dress to housing and education, status tends towards the
more powerful.) This is why linguists say that all languages/dialects are equal: what
is meant is that potentially they are; it does not mean that they are equal socially. (It
is not wholly clear that they are equal even linguistically, certainly not in terms of,
for example, technical vocabulary, as we see when comparing Standard English with
an unwritten language at this point in time.)
How does a dialect become a standard language? Haugen charts its normal
progress (and it is its generalisability which makes his categorisation of theoretical
value):
The four aspects of language development … isolated as crucial features in taking
the step from ‘dialect’ to ‘language’, from vernacular to standard, are as follows:
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(a) selection of norm, (b) codification of form, (c) elaboration of function, and
(d) acceptance by the community. The first two refer primarily to the form, the
last two to the function of language. The first and last are concerned with society,
the second and third with language. They form a matrix within which it should
be possible to discuss all the major problems of language and dialect in the life of
a nation.
(Haugen 1966/1972: 110)
Haugen’s terminology may need explanation:
1. Selection of form: one of the existing dialects is chosen for standardisation pur -
poses. The chosen dialect is likely to be the one spoken by the more powerful
and better educated groups living in or near the capital.
2. Codification of form: the selected dialect is provided with a written grammar
and a dictionary so that it can be used in official documents, taught in schools
and learnt by foreigners.
3. Elaboration of function: where necessary, ways of talking and writing about
technology and other developments needed for modern education and
commerce will be developed by an academy or language bureau. In the first
instance it may be necessary to borrow or invent vocabulary lists.
4. Acceptance by the community: neither codification nor elaboration will
succeed unless the community agree that the right dialect has been selected.
The relevance of Haugen’s work to applied linguistics is that it provides a method -
ology for examining language in use. It abstracts and theorises from actual language
data, the dialect continuum, the existence of standard languages, the decisions
by society as to which dialect to select for standardisation purposes. It is this
actualisation which gives it its robustness and which makes it an applied linguistic
endeavour. It is not linguistics alone, nor political science alone nor sociology alone.
It is the bringing together of these viewpoints to focus on a language problem in
society which allows us to call it applied linguistics.