Focusing and proto-standards

Screenshot 1 below from a Google advert called "The more we learn, the closer we get | Search On" shows a young white person greet some friends who are black. Screenshot 2 shows the greeting utterance in a search bar depicted as "wagwan":

This is an interesting marketisation of a process called focusing which forms one part of the " systematic process of variant reduction" (Conde-Silvestre, 2020:443). More precisely Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre (2020), citing Deumert (2004), writes that focusing is:

"'competition-selection process[es] [...] of cumulative micro-accommodation [...] and dialect convergence' that take place in the speech of individuals" (Conde-Silvestre, 2020: 443)

This contrasts with the other part of "the achievement of uniformity" (Conde-Silvestre, 2020: 443) namely the one that is regulated by an external authority. See Banned words and racism in schools by Furzeen Ahmend and Ian Cushing for some description of aspects of this process.

Camilo Conde-Silvestre (2020) claims that focusing is parallel to the "language standard" of Joseph (1987) who distinguishes "language standard" and "standard language":

"For while ‘language standards’ exist in every linguistic community, ‘standard languages’ represent a specifically European concept, whose defining criteria are based on the attributes of European languages and on European cultural values." (Joseph, 1987: x)

Joseph (1987) says standard language:

"implies that the speakers of X dialects recognize a significant body of language standards, in which the positively valued variant is always part of Standard X" (Joseph, 1987: 6).

Conde-Silvestre (2020), citing Demuert (2004), notes:

"Focusing via inter-dialect contact and inter-speaker accommodation is fundamental in the initial historical stages of standardisation insofar as it favours the appearance of ‘protostandards’: 'relatively uniform, collective norm[s] – models of ‘good’ or ‘appropriate’ usage – towards which speakers orient themselves in their linguistic performance, [. . .] they are not transmitted through institutionalized instruction and are not yet characterized by a prescriptive tradition [. . .] [but] are acquired primarily through exposure to and imitation of model texts and model speakers [. . .] in local and professional networks' (Deumert 2004: 5–6;...)" (Conde-Silvestre, 2020: 444)

Clarifying further Conde-Silvestre (2020) claims:

"Focusing refers to the sociological observation that individuals change their verbal behaviour so as to accommodate to that of the group they wish to be identified with, creating uniform varieties in the process, which may then become norms." (Conde-Silvestre, 2020: 444)

Conde-Silvestre (2020) wants to highlight

"the role that identity construction plays in focusing and, therefore, in triggering the initial stages of standardisation. As a result, an important facet of standardisation is left out of the discussion: its relationship to 'the beliefs and attitudes, shared practices and discourses which shape and support the historical development' (Deumert and Vandenbussche 2003: 10)" (Conde-Silvestre 2020: 445)

He goes on:

"It is my contention that the relationship of focusing to identity construction must have been instrumental, in certain contexts, in the formation of protostandards. " (Conde-Silvestre, 2020: 445)

The idea of identity driving the notion of proto-standards which users orient themselves to in order to create an identity is arguably useful when considering the standard language debates.

References

Conde-Silvestre, J. C. (2020). 15. Communities of practice, proto-standardisation and spelling focusing in the Stonor letters. In Wright, L. (Ed). The Multilingual Origins of Standard English (pp. 443-466). De Gruyter Mouton.

Joseph, J. E. (1987). Eloquence and power: The rise of language standards and standard languages. Basil Blackwell