The Purpose of the Standard Language and the Grammarians’ Mission

The fifth chapter constitutes the second of two chapters dealing with the primary material of the study. It also includes three subsections dealing with the ‘standard language ideology’ of the Hebrew and Arabic grammarians of the ʿAbbasid period. In this case, each subsection is related to the purpose of the standard language (in the thought of the grammarians) and the grammarians’ ultimate mission in promoting it. Included in this chapter are treatments of linguistic-ideological similarities with respect to a performative register of language (see §1.0), the complaint tradition (see §2.0), and a negative attitude towards foreign languages (see §3.0).