Exploring different perspectives on language ideology

In order to develop a state of the art regarding research on language ideologies and to encourage further research on Creoles from a language-ideological perspective, Chapter 3 explores the main approaches and concepts in fields that examine ideologies. Focusing on theoretical and empirical work in Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology, the chapter starts with an overview of Marxist notions before engaging with more differentiated and post-structuralist conceptualisations of the notion of ideology. We look at Marxist-inspired sociolinguistic research that has focused primarily on ideologies (and power structures) surrounding the notion of standard language. This view has been popular in critical analyses of language in Creole communities. The chapter then discusses language attitudes research, which is probably the most prolific language-ideological research tradition in Creole contexts, before exploring the wealth of linguistic-anthropological work on language ideologies and the concept of indexicality which is central to this research. Finally, we discuss different tools for analysing ideologies (including Critical Discourse Analysis) and outline some related concepts, such as identity work, enregisterment, and language commodification.