LINGUIST List 5.603

Tue 24 May 1994

Disc: The treatment of language in popular publications

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1. Dr M Sebba, The treatment of language in popular publications

I have written a working paper called _Putting Language on the Map_,
which reviews the treatment of language and language issues in a
selection of atlases and reference books intended for use by the
general public (NOT specialist publications or large encyclopedias).
The conclusion is that they range from abysmal to just-about-OK in
terms of their accuracy and coverage; but depressingly, most of them
could be seen to be spreading and encouraging the kind of myths and
half-truths about language which linguists try to dispel. (Examples:
non-Standard and minority languages ignored or lumped together with
inappropriate terms like "native languages"; a fascination with
language families and writing systems without any indication of their
significance; lack of explicit criteria for mention of
different languages.)

One conclusion is that few of these books are doing their job properly, and
this seems to be due partly to the fact that linguists are either not
consulted, or not fully consulted, in the production of such general
reference books.

My question is this: how can we as linguists act to change the
situation? Why do publishers of atlases etc. - or the collective
authorship of these books - seem unaware that there is a discipline
called linguistics? Is there anything we can do to make them take note?