ABSTRACT
As we have seen from the examples of language policy treated in the previous chapters, language policy is primarily a social construct. It may consist of various elements of an explicit nature—juridical, judicial, administrative, constitutional and/or legal language may be extant in some jurisdictions, but whether or not a polity has such explicit text, policy as a cultural construct rests primarily on other conceptual elements—belief systems, attitudes, myths—the whole complex that we are referring to as linguistic culture, which is the sum totality of ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, religious strictures, and all the other cultural ‘baggage’ that speakers bring to their dealings with language from their background. Linguistic culture also is concerned with the transmission and codification of language and also has bearing on the culture's notions of the value of literacy and the sanctity of texts. This also involves the role of language as the main vehicle for the replication, construction and transmission of culture itself.
