In:Pluricentricity and Pluriareality: Dialects, Variation, and Standards
Edited by Philipp Meer and Ryan Durgasingh
[Studies in Language Variation 32] 2025
► pp. 187–195
Chapter 9Pluricentricity AND pluriareality
Building the case for complementarity
Published online: 16 January 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.32.09dur
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.32.09dur
Abstract
Moving beyond the contention which has characterized the pluricentricity and pluriareality debate, this
summative chapter draws together the argumentative strands in the chapters in this volume to build the case for their
complementarity. We show the various ways in which terminological differences, of geography and of sociolinguistics, have
somewhat obscured the underlying similarities of these models, and highlight many of the key findings of this book’s
contributors in doing so. The chapter ends by highlighting how some of the issues related to the pluri-concepts might lie in
the different assumptions and foci of different linguistic paradigms, and with a request that further work on pluricentricity
and pluriareality view the models as flexible constructs which can work together towards mutual benefits.
Keywords: pluricentricity, pluriareality, complementarity, epicenter, language variation, standard
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