Chapter 9. Processes of destandardization and demotization in the micro-macro perspective

The fact that the processes of language standardization can be interpreted in terms of language management has been well known for decades. However, this kind of language change should not be taken for a one-way process, because there is clear evidence of opposite processes in which the degree of standardization decreases. Some of these processes are called destandardization, others demotization (Auer & Spiekermann, 2011; Kristiansen & Coupland, 2011; Mattheier, 1997). This paper seeks to explore the differences between these concepts and to operationalize them for empirical research. To achieve these goals, it refers to different kinds of expectations, the phases of the language management process and micro-macro-perspectives, which are a part of language management theory (Nekvapil & Sherman, 2015; Fairbrother, Nekvapil & Sloboda, 2018).