Reflections and answers on the linguistic quality of Catalan

Abstract

This text aims to answer the following questions: 1) is prescriptive grammar implantation in a standard variety synonymous with (good) quality in such variety?; 2) is prescriptive grammar implantation necessarily an indicator of (good) linguistic quality?; 3) does the lack of a prescriptive grammar implantation necessarily imply poor linguistic quality?; 4) may one speakof (good) linguistic quality when rules are violated, if they are violated by transgression?, and may one speak of (good) linguistic quality when rules are violated, if they are violated out of ignorance? Our final proposals are as follows: 1) given the structural characteristics and social functions of the standard variety, prescriptive grammar implantation is synonymous with linguistic and sociolinguistic quality in such variety; 2) in non-standard varieties, prescriptive grammar implantation is not necessarily an indicator of linguistic quality; 3) in non-standard varieties, the lack of prescriptive grammar implantation does not necessarily imply poor linguistic quality: the limits, however, would be genuineness and grammaticality; 4) linguistic quality may still be spoken of when the rules are violated, whether by transgression or out of ignorance: the limits, however, would be genuineness and grammaticality. The following may be noted with respect to these proposals: 1) to arrive at these proposals, we discussed the concepts relevant to the argument in order to answer the questions, formulating them in general but applying them to Catalan; 2) based on the definition of these concepts, we sought to refute the affirmative hypotheses corresponding to the four questions.