There's a name for it, episode 2

[cjsmith]

Is there a word for that thing that happens when a whole bunch of people who used to do things* slightly differently start talking a lot more and then the doing of the thing gets to be more and more the same? Or at least the differences become hierarchical and some may even be stigmatized?

"Things" can be all sorts of stuff, but mostly I'm thinking of abstracts such as ideas, stuff that's harder to pin down than (say) a recipe. The status elevation and increased spread of what we now think of as the generic USian accent, at some expense to other USian accents, via television and radio -- that's a great example of what I'm trying to get at.

I feel like sociology must have a simple word for this but I don't know how to search for it.

Comments

[amaebi]

"Flattening" is used sometimes, for accent but IIRC for some other things.

[cjsmith]

Thanks - looking that up!

[redbird]

"leveling" comes to mind as a possible linguistics term, but I'm nowhere near certain of that.

[cjsmith]

Thanks - I'll look that up!

[amaebi]

Yep. Here's an instance.

[siliconshaman]

Homogenisation.. I think.

[just_cyd]

i came to say the same thing. a quick check of the almighty google shows the non-dairy definition as "the process of making things uniform or similar" so i think it fits.

[siliconshaman]

Yeah, it's a thing in genetics, where you have two distinct sub-species can interbreed, if you remove whatever barrier was keeping them apart, you end up with one sub-species.

[cjsmith]

(nod) thanks! Makes sense. Looking for the specific mechanism of it, next. Homogenization via... everyone watching the same films turning your culture the same, for example.

[cjsmith]

Nice! I had almost chosen to describe "stuff becoming more the same" as "stuff becoming homogeneous". Does that have the particular denotation that it is as a result of more communication that the process occurs? That's the particular bit I'm trying to capture.

[siliconshaman]

That sounds right, yeah. Linguistic/cultural homogenisation as the result of increasingly shared media experience

[cjsmith]

Super! I had hoped there was one word that meant ALL of that but this is pretty concise. ♥

[siliconshaman]

There quite possibly is, but it's most likely in German.

[German technical jargon is basically just the description with all the words smushed together into one.]

[cjsmith]

*grin* I'd be good with a word I could steal, much the way schadenfreude seeped into the American English lexicon.

[ororo]

That's the first word that came to mind here too.

[cjsmith]

Cool, thanks!

[excessor]

In linguistics, the term you're looking for is convergence. I happen to be reading a book right now that just explained the term.

[cjsmith]

Oh wow, thank you! *chef’s kiss*

[wordweaverlynn]

Standardization?

[cjsmith]

Yeah! Particularly if it's due to more widespread communication of ideas.