The evaluation of Catalan restandardisation: defining the problem

Abstract

This study is set within the framework of our research evaluating the restandardisation of Catalan (Costa, 2016, 2019, and in press-a and in press-b). The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which the new Catalan spelling and grammar (IEC, 2016 and 2017) can be evaluated in the same way as terminology planning or linguistic policy and planning. This paper makes an analysis of the documents presenting the official restandardisation of Catalan, according to a terminology planning evaluation model (Fathi, 2017) and a linguistic policy and planning evaluation model (Gazzola, 2014). After recalling the standardisation model of Haugen (1983) with supplementary concepts of Cooper (1989), Garvin (1992), Lamuela (1994), Branchadell (2001), and Cerruti, Crocco and Marzo (2017), this model is approached from the standpoints of Fathi (2017) and Gazzola (2014), with examples of what has been done in the official restandardisation of Catalan. The foremost original contributions of this study are this analysis of the Haugen model on the basis of the evaluation models of Fathi and Gazzola, and the description of how IEC explicitly approaches the definition of the problem which the restandardisation should solve.

Keywords: terminology planning evaluation, language policy and planning evaluation, restandardisation evaluation, Catalan, language corpus planning.