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8 - State-Appointed Institutions

Authority and Legitimacy in the Spanish-Speaking World

from Part II - Legitimacy, Authority and the Written Form

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

By
Darren Paffey
Edited by
Wendy Ayres-Bennett  and
John Bellamy
Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
John Bellamy
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

In contemporary societies, policy and planning initiatives driven by state-appointed institutions seek to manage and promote specific, prestigious, standardized varieties of language. Within the framework of language ideologies and standardization, this chapter analyses academies and similar organizations charged with promoting the Spanish language and seeks to identify contemporary patterns of normativity, with a particular focus on the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Language Academy, or RAE). The evolving nature of contemporary media, particularly social media, requires scholarship to address how these outputs constitute a form of status planning and how the interface between the digital world and language standardization works. Building on previous work on ‘Standard’ or ‘Panhispanic’ Spanish, I consider how the RAE has embraced and harnessed technological advances and explore how these latest changes are employed as a way of promoting Spanish globally. A wider discussion on the role of academies as ‘language mavens’ and ‘verbal hygienists’ follows. By critiquing the missions, activities, publications and practices carried out in these state-appointed institutions, we can understand how language management goals are achieved and how digital discourse disseminates, legitimates and reinforces the authority of both the institutions and also the state that appoints them.

Keywords

authoritylegitimacyinstitutionsacademiesstatepolicySpanishRAE
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Standardization , pp. 234 - 262
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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