S0075 · jespersen_mankind_nation_individual · registry identity
Mankind, Nation and Individual from a Linguistic Standpoint
Bears on
Canonical propositions this source was matched as evidence for.
How Hirsch uses it
Every occurrence, grouped by book and chapter, with the claim it was linked to support and (where the extraction regenerated one) the underlying warrant.
1977 · The Philosophy of Composition
The logic that standard language is necessary for writing to an anonymous public.
direct Standard language is the most effective tool for communicating with an unknown or unseen audience in writing.
Warrant (explicit): Effective communication between parties who lack shared local context or personal acquaintance requires a neutralized, standardized medium to minimize ambiguity.
could fail ifContext-neutrality can be achieved through simplified 'pidgin' or specialized technical vocabularies rather than a full-scale national standard language.
Expert testimony from Otto Jespersen on the social and educational consequences of linguistic standardisation.
direct Children have a higher capacity than their parents to attain natural mastery of a Standard Language.
Warrant (explicit): Language mastery is subject to a 'critical period' in which children can achieve native-level fluency in a secondary prestige dialect that adults can only approximate with effort.
could fail ifThe failure of parents to achieve the standard may be due to social resistance or lack of educational exposure rather than a biological or cognitive limit on 'attainment'.
1987 · Cultural Literacy
Otto Jespersen's research on the formation of eclectic common speech in major European cities.
direct Great European cities forged the beginnings of the common, classless languages used by great nations.
Warrant (implicit): The processes of linguistic synthesis observed in major urban centers by historical linguists can be generalized as the standard mechanism for the formation of modern national languages.
could fail ifThe 'classless' nature of these languages may be an illusion created by the exclusion of rural or lower-class urban vernaculars from the written record Jespersen studied.
2006 · The Knowledge Deficit
Otto Jespersen’s linguistic research on the universal historical trend of oral language simplification.
direct Oral languages universally tend toward simplification, which improves the efficiency of communication.
Warrant (explicit): Universal trends observed across the history of diverse oral languages can be generalized into a principle of communicative efficiency.
could fail ifLanguage change is not always a linear path toward efficiency; social prestige and identity markers often cause languages to retain or adopt more complex, inefficient forms.
Raw source_reference strings seen
As they appeared before normalization/consolidation into this source identity.
O. Jespersen, Mankind, Nation, and Individual from a Linguistic Point of View (London, 1946)Otto Jespersen