Tensiones entre normatividad lingüística y descripción gramatical en la reciente producción gramatical de la Real Academia Española

Abstract

Linguistic normativity (usually identified with notions such as prescription or language correction) is hard to match with the idea of descriptive or explanatory grammar. This is

because the grammatical encoding itself is already a first stage of the regulation. However,

tensions between norm and description in the Nueva gramática de la lengua española result from the academic context in which such work is compiled: Academies are socially expected

to be regulative, but the linguistic ideology of the persons in charge of the codification work

make it difficult for the NGLE to meet these requirements and the social expectations. Not-

withstanding, it is not always possible to dodge normativity and avoid value judgment over

certain uses of Spanish, though the difficulty appears when trying to reach an agreement

regarding an objective way of giving regulatory orientations. This paper deals with the

necessity of understanding the concepts of descriptive grammar and normative grammar as

two poles in a continuum of normativity through which codification always traverses, which

can vary according to the grammatical aspect in question. It also examines extensively the

Nueva gramática de la lengua española, in order to find out and analyze in which parts of the descriptions “shaded” normative judgments are offered, relating these to the topics of

regulation and correction which have been recurrent throughout the history of the regula-

tion of Spanish.