Conflicting notions of language in metalinguistic discourses in Lithuania, Norway and Serbia
Conflicting notions of language in metalinguistic discourses in Lithuania, Norway and Serbia

Summary/Abstract: Standard language ideology is the dominant ideology in the environment where there is a standard language with a high status, with its main features being a prescriptive view on language, the notion that language is not in the ownership of its speakers and efforts are invested to preserve the language (Milroy 2001). Linguists, especially sociolinguists, have been engaged in language debates, promoting a different view of language, but are mostly either misinterpreted or misquoted by journalists, who share the ‘folk’ view of language (Johnson 2001; Jaspers 2014). Since journalists have had more influence than linguists over users when it comes to language issues, it is only natural to assume that the majority of non-linguists will share this view. However, the growing online communities provide a new sphere for public debate (the virtual sphere), which, unlike traditional media, includes two-way communication, lesser degree of regulation than in the traditional media and many communication outlets (user blogs, comment sections, photo sharing etc.). This article aims to explore different types of notions of language in comment sections of internet portals in Lithuania, Norway and Serbia. The metaphors of language analysed are categorized into eight different notions of language according to the way metaphors are used. The results show that four of eight notions are shared in two or more countries, while four are specific for one of them, though quantitative research and more comparison are needed to confirm how specific they are for exactly these countries.

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