Normative language policy is a book about the ethics of language planning. Specifically, the authors examine language planning in Quebec, identifying ‘pivotal’ ethical questions and proposing that the issues and solutions revealed thereby are applicable to wider contexts. Arguments and methods are drawn from several disciplines, ranging from descriptive sociolinguistics to political philosophy, in an attempt to create a ‘shared scientific language’, and a ‘multidisciplinary framework’. The book, however, does not presuppose in-depth knowledge in either field, and also mostly avoids in-depth discussion of structural details of the French language, holding the conversation in universal terms, though always grounded in the context of Quebec. For the uninitiated, chapter 2 provides an historical overview of language policy in Quebec, serving as a backdrop for the ethical discussion in the rest of the book.
Chapter 3 examines the ethics of status planning (i.e. efforts to change the social role of a language). The authors argue that the promotion of French in Quebec is compatible with liberal democracy, and in fact, a laissez-faire approach in this context would not be morally permissible. Examining the status of minority languages within the English-dominated globalized economy, they show that the desire to learn English for instrumental purposes does not imply that younger generations would abandon their native languages; rather, monolingualism is becoming a ‘liability’ in a globalized labor market, even for speakers of English.
Chapter 4 turns to the ethics of acquisition planning (i.e. efforts to influence the number of speakers of a language through education), contending that the demand that immigrants integrate into francophone Quebec society is compatible with liberal democratic values. It argues for the advantages of the ‘intercultural’ model developed for Quebec, which explicitly addresses the relationship between minority languages and a national language, over the ‘multicultural’ model used in the anglophone parts of Canada, which does not explicitly endorse any language, but relies on the global dominance of English. However, the authors argue that integration should not imply complete assimilation, and that the host society is also obligated to facilitate integration by providing education opportunities and fighting discrimination against newcomers.
Chapter 5 discusses corpus planning (i.e. efforts to shape the structure of a language), considering the position of Quebec French within the francophone world. The authors present justifications for the creation of local French ‘endonorms’ in Quebec and Africa—that is, new standard forms of French, separate from that of France. It is claimed that this will reflect existing perceptions in these regions, facilitate communication, and better serve local communities in consolidating their linguistic identity.
The final chapter, summarizing the rest of the book, argues for the wider application of the concepts introduced, and underlines the fact that questions of language policy are ‘wicked problems’, which cannot be solved once and for all, but rather must be constantly renegotiated to adapt to changing social conditions; it is therefore crucial that discussions of language policy should be sensitive to local contexts.
