Normipuheen diskursseja: kielen muuttuvat normit kyselyvastauksissa

The article examines two metapragmatic discourses in survey data focusing on standard language norms. Open survey answers are approached from a dialogical perspective on norms, as reflexive articulations of metapragmatic models within which language use is seen as indexing specific social personae. First, in the discourse of social differentiation, the informants place both specific grammatical features and abstract orientations to language use as emblems that index, e.g., lack of education or uninformed, strict language attitude. Second, in the discourse of weighing perspectives, the informants orient to competing norm centers. On the one hand, they articulate a contradiction between rational understanding of language and personal feelings. On the other hand, they weigh up different requirements for language planning, thereby constructing an identity as a language-aware person. The role of understanding language change is placed at the core of metapragmatically categorizing self and others in relation to standard language norms.