Pluricentric linguistic justice in Quebec

Abstract

With the emergence of the notion of Standard Quebec French, debates about linguistic usage in Quebec are today largely shaped by two competing normative models: an exonorm defined for all intents and purposes in France and an endonorm reflecting socially acceptable usage as determined by Quebec­ers themselves. While language attitude research has provided some indication of the normative preferences of ordinary Quebec­ers, the picture remains largely ambiguous. This article seeks to provide some clarity through a reconceptualisation of language attitudes intended to specifically elicit value judgments on norm setting and enforcement. Building on research in political philosophy and theory, it further develops the notion of ‘pluricentric linguistic justice’, proposed as a tool for assessing questions of authority and legitimacy concerning French in Quebec. It then presents the results of an empirical exploration of this notion focused on the attitudes of a sample of franco­phone Quebec­ers towards endonormativity, including as a function of key social variables. The study represents an innovative attempt to develop and test a methodological instrument for interrogating questions of linguistic justice in pluricentric settings more broadly.