The native speaker: a border marker of the standard, the nation, and variation

ABSTRACT The study compares the uses of the native-speaker concept as a legitimizing resource in language-standard ideologies and normative discourse in five languages of European origin. Much research and international discussion has focused on the native speaker of English, a symbolically international language. We aim to show how the native-speaker concept may function differently in national-standard ideologies. The study entails a concise comparison of five European standardization ideologies, a closer look at three such ideologies, and a case study of the native speakers’ function in the normative discourse on a syntactic construction of a national language, namely Swedish. Much language planning and standardizing relies on academic linguistics for legitimacy, and native speakers’ judgments are an irrefutable data source in theoretical linguistics. However, the concept of the native speaker as a judge of linguistic material is recontextualized in normative discourse. Drawing on analyses of national-standard ideologies and standardizing discourse, results indicate that the native speaker may have different repercussions depending on the heterogeneity of the speech community and the standard ideology. We argue that the native speaker may function as a border marker of the standard language, but in national languages also of what is considered intralingual variation, and thus in symbolic terms the nation.