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Title:
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Language Ideologies in Languages Laws: The protection of regional or minority languages and the construction of French and European identity
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Author:
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Simo Määttä
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of California, Berkeley
, Department of French
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Degree Date:
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2004
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Sociolinguistics
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Director(s):
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Richard Kern
Robin Lakoff
Joseph Duggan
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Abstract:
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While the main function of law is to regulate behavior, many contemporary laws, in particular laws about culture and language, lack this function. However, rather than being meaningless and symbolic, laws that do not regulate behavior make beliefs and ideologies appear to be accepted knowledge and universal truth. Language ideologies embedded in legal texts do not always correspond to the particular needs of different minority languages. This dissertation, based on a theory that defines discourse as the material support of ideologies, defines the language ideologies that European Union (EU) and French laws materialize, and the ways in which different understandings of the concept 'language' participate in the creation of French national identity and European identity. The method of analysis combines textual analysis of language laws with a contextual analysis of the genesis of these laws, reactions to them, and their actual consequences.
As the EU shifts from economic aspirations towards political and cultural unity, its laws about minority languages parallel this development. This dissertation explains how language ideologies based on formal education, literary cultivation and presence in the public sphere favor certain minority language over others in EU action schemes. In addition, it shows how language diversity is used as one of the elements of European identity.
The analysis of French language laws demonstrates that, rather than directly affecting minority languages, these laws have contributed to the construction of the French nation. French language ideologies, based on reason, order and homogenization, were inscribed in legal texts during the Revolution. The dissertation examines how these ideologies equated the French language with democracy and replaced religious uniformity as an essential component of the nation, and associated regional languages in France and indigenous languages in the colonies with backwardness and anti-nationalism.
Today minority languages in France allegedly have some recognition, which is partially due to the influence of EU human rights laws. While this recognition is more symbolic than real, it shows how French national identity is increasingly defined through France's role in the EU.
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