Historical, political, and social issues, particularly those expressed by national agencies and institutions in Spain, influence the construction of language ideologies concerning the global spread of Spanish. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), Paffey analyzes texts from Spain’s newspapers, El País and ABC, in order to examine the Real Academia Española (RAE [language planning institution in Spain]) and other agencies’ ideological representation of Spanish in the press. This volume investigates the “hidden agendas” of these institutions as they relate to the definition of global Spanish through the analysis of both explicit (linguistic) and implicit meanings of the texts.
In the first chapter, Paffey defines and distinguishes between language ideologies and CDA and contends that, when combined, the two frameworks provide accurate analyses of language use. Chapter 2 presents the issue of standardization as an institutional means to promote not only certain linguistic traits but also certain social traits, and addresses the RAE, Spanish government, Instituto Cervantes, and media as language authorities that advocate a “standard” Spanish through publications, public education, and audio-visual productions. Although Paffey does not discuss whether or not grammar should be standardized or prescribed, Chapters 3, 4, and 5 reveal the actuality of what, how, for whom, and why institutions prescribe language standards.
The analysis of newspaper texts begins in Chapter 3, in which Paffey critiques the RAE’s inaccurate portrayal of a homogenous global Spanish and discusses possible consequences of excluding regionalisms and dialectal variants from el español común, such as linguistic discrimination and the imposition of a common identity on a diverse community of Spanish speakers. In Chapter 4, Paffey draws on statements issued by the RAE to assess the means by which it works to establish authority and change its image as a conservative language guardian. Chapter 5 profiles the efforts of language guardians as they persist in shaping ideologies now that Spanish is regarded as a pluricentric language.
This volume raises questions about the implications of promoting a standard Spanish and what this promotion means for variation and the transmission of global Spanish. It will be of interest to scholars who examine the intersection of language ideologies, discourse analysis, and policy and planning in the Spanish-speaking world.
