The metalinguistic prophecy on the decline of the Greek language: its social function as the expression of a crisis in Greek national identity

It is suggested that a metalinguistic position being promoted, which foretells the decline of Greek as a language because of the boundaries imposed between Demotic, Katharevoussa, & Ancient Greek, is succeeding in persuading people of its validity. The persuasiveness of these arguments are analyzed using a model that classifies the main features of ideological discourse contributing to producing latent messages of negative evaluation of the Greek language. Among the features noted to contribute to the development of the argument are redundancy, evaluation, amalgam, euphemism, dichotomy, & the assumption of self-evidence. It is suggested that these messages are succeeding in fostering language decline & are aided by a crisis in Greek national identity resulting from Greek participation in the European Union. A remedy proposed is that Ancient Greek be taught at the compulsory education level. 43 References. Adapted from the source document.