Status and Corpus Planning
Language planning is conventionally divided into status planning, which assigns functions to a language, and corpus planning, which shapes its form, with acquisition planning added to address its teaching.
Definition
Status and corpus planning are the two classic components of language planning: status planning concerns decisions about the social functions and official roles of a language, while corpus planning concerns deliberate changes to its structure, including its writing system, norms, and vocabulary.
Scope
This topic covers the foundational typology of language planning: status planning (officialization, function allocation), corpus planning (graphization, standardization, modernization of vocabulary), and acquisition planning (spreading a language through education). It includes Haugen's four-step model of selection, codification, implementation, and elaboration. The specific process of standardization is detailed in its own topic, and the politics of education in another.
Core questions
- How is status planning distinguished from corpus planning?
- What does Haugen's model of selection, codification, implementation, and elaboration describe?
- How is acquisition planning related to the other components?
- How do status and corpus decisions interact in practice?
Key concepts
- Status planning
- Corpus planning
- Acquisition planning
- Haugen's planning model
- Graphization, standardization, modernization
Key theories
- Status-corpus distinction
- Kloss separated planning aimed at a language's social standing and functions (status) from planning aimed at its internal form (corpus), a division that organizes the whole field.
- Haugen's planning model
- Haugen described language planning as a sequence of selecting a norm, codifying its form, implementing it through institutions, and elaborating it to meet new functions.
History
The status-corpus distinction was drawn by Kloss in 1969 and complemented by Haugen's model of the planning process; Cooper added acquisition planning in 1989, completing the standard tripartite framework.
Key figures
- Heinz Kloss
- Einar Haugen
- Robert Cooper
Related topics
Seminal works
- kloss1969
- cooper1989
- haugen1983
Frequently asked questions
- Where does acquisition planning fit in?
- Acquisition planning, added by Cooper, concerns increasing the number of users of a language, typically through education, complementing status planning (its functions) and corpus planning (its form).