Purist norms and language change: ideological approaches and changes from above

Abstract This article focuses on the relationship between ‘change from above’ and ‘change from below’ as intended in the purist tendencies of the Atticist lexicographers of the second century CE. The production of Atticist lexica in the second century CE – as a manifestation of the purist trend that characterized the Greco-Roman world since the first century BCE-sought to reproduce an alleged Classical Greek through the prescription of morphological, lexical and syntactic features. The purists’ attempt to promote a specific kind of language reflected a progressive tendency to use language to construct social categories. The community of educated speakers was defined by the selection of linguistic features that differed from those used by the masses and became distinctive signs of education and elitism. By analyzing examples from these lexica, I will examine the mechanisms purists use to cleanse contemporary language from the changes that have affected the Koine. In order to do this, I will use the frameworks of modern sociolinguistics and, in particular, I will refer to three semiotic processes proposed by Irvine and Gal. 1995. The boundaries of languages and disciplines: How ideologies construct difference. Social Research 62(4). 967–1001; Irvine and Gal. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities , 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press: 1) Iconization, which is expressed in the association that Atticist lexicographers make between supposedly pure/correct forms and certain social and ethnic groups (e.g., educated people/Attic writers/the ancients, etc.); 2) fractal recursivity, which is reflected in the Atticists’ projection of the opposition “Attic versus barbarian” onto the dualism “Attic versus non-Attic”; and 3) erasure, which is represented by the Atticists’ disregard for linguistic variation and their interpretation of Attic as a monolithic system. This analysis aims to describe the ideological factors that support linguistic purism and the mechanisms behind the prescription of a language consistently detached from contemporary usage.