ABSTRACT
In the concluding chapter the main findings of the book are resumed and discussed collectively. The chapter considers how a transversal perspective contributes to our understanding of standardization in contemporary society and what theoretical implications such an approach might have. The findings of the entire book pose questions to the fundamental issue of ‘change’ and the assumption that linguistic change is measurable in quantitative terms. Such an approach is rooted in a belief that specific versions of specific features can be taken to represent ‘dialect’ and ‘Standard’. However, the results of this project demonstrate that ‘dialect’ and ‘Standard’ do not have the same meaning and functions across field sites, generations, and situational contexts. In fact, these concepts cover various versions and do not pose stabile and easily measurable factors. In order to fully understand processes of language change mapping and analyzing such differences is central. The approach needed for illuminating such alterations in the standardization processes of one single speech community, the chapter argues, is centered on the concept transversality. Transversality is not simply about a study being multi-sited, or multi-methodological, but also about collecting different data types systematically in various field sites, as well as the same types of data from different contexts and across different generations. Thus, a transversal study applies a variety of methodological approaches in one coherent sociolinguistic research endeavor in order to illuminate standardization from different angles. Approaching the phenomenon of language standardization through a transversal methodology and analysis is argued to be a fruitful—even necessary—way of truly understanding standardization as sociolinguistic change.
