Resumen de The role of social factors in the shaping of language attitudes — with an evaluation of the concept of life style

Inge Lise Pedersen

• The standardization processes of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian display large differences with Denmark and Norway at the opposite ends of the scale and Sweden in the middle. A closer historical study reveals significant differences between the modernization processes (demographic developments, types of industrialization, and modernization processes within agriculture). These differences led to different class alliances, a fact that has had a bearing on language attitudes and language change. In late modern society the notion of class seems to be problematic, and life style analysis has entered the sociolinguistic scene and seems well suited to keep a balance between determinism and agency in a post-traditional world.