An invitation to pluricentrism. Notes for the study of a pluricentric language in conflict

Abstract

Pluricentrism is the framework for studying a specific type of standardization: one that affects languages with more than one standard variety. Its original contribution is precisely to highlight that there are many languages that have more than one standard variety and that have been codified by more than one centre, with different degrees of cooperation between them. In three decades of evolution, this concept has gone from considering the use of one same language in several countries as the defining element of pluricentricity to considering the de facto existence of explicit or implicit rules of use of different varieties of a formal standard. As regards methodology, pragmatics and especially cognitive sociolinguistics have provided the necessary empirical approach to research. Drawing on this body of theoretical and methodological thought, this paper presents a research proposal for the standardization of Catalan, based on its conceptualization as a pluricentric language in conflict.

Keywords: pluricentricity, language standardization, linguistic conflict, Catalan, cognitive sociolinguistics.