Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2014, Page 126

Lög um stöðu íslenskrar tungu og íslensks táknmáls, nr. 61/2011. [Aðgengileg í september 2014
á slóðinni http://www.althingi.is/altext/stjt/2011.061.html .]
Sigurður Líndal. 1988. Málfar og stjórnarfar. Málfregnir 3:12–18.
summary
ʻGood, simple and clearʼ
Keywords: Icelandic, language policy, standardized language, formal language, intelligibility
In 2011 the Icelandic parliament passed for the first time a law on the formal status of the
Icelandic language and Icelandic sign language in Iceland. This law states, among other
things, that the language used by the agencies of the state and municipalities should be
ʻgood, simple and clearʼ. This paper discusses possible definition of these concepts from
the point of view of linguistics and language policy and the feasibility of including require-
ments of this sort in the law. It is argued that while there can hardly be any question that
ʻgood languageʼ and ʻclear languageʼ are positive ideals, it is possibly an illusion that formal
discussions of complex administrative issues can be adquately discussed in ʻsimple lan-
guageʼ. Now it is often claimed that written material coming from government agencies,
institutions and companies, e.g. material found on public websites, is difficult to under-
stand. It has not, however, been investigated to what extent this is really true, and if so,
whether the difficulties have to do with unnecessarily complex language or the inherent
complexity of the subject matter itself. Hence the paper calls for further research into this
issue and points out that such research would indeed be necessary for those who are oblig-
ed to follow the law paragraph cited.
Ari Páll Kristinsson
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar
í íslenskum fræðum – málræktarsvið
Neshaga 16
IS-107 Reykjavík, ÍSLAND
aripk@hi.is
Ari Páll Kristinsson126