Politics of Language
Résumé
Political language narrowly defined refers to a specific use of language for political means. In a broader sense, political language refers to language policy or political linguistics—that is, the ways in which governments attempt to shape the linguistic structure of the society or the claims issued by linguistic groups to change existing language arrangements or legislations. Neither of these working definitions fully captures the relevance of language issues to politics and political science. This entry therefore reviews three types of related but not overlapping issues: (1) the way social sciences address the relationship between language and politics, (2) classical language policies and legislation, and (3) the “normative turn.”