Research Article

Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority

Number: 34 October 21, 2026
TR EN

Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority

Abstract

Fluent machine-generated Turkish has given new life to an old evaluative question: is the machine ruining Turkish, or does it write the language better than its speakers do? This article treats the question, and the stances it organizes, as objects of analysis. Drawing on the theory of language ideologies, it first argues that judgments of machine Turkish can be analyzed through the mechanisms of iconization and erasure, which make four stances available: degradation, correction, authenticity, and the institutional criterion. The stances are then traced in a purposively selected set of fifteen Turkish public texts from 2024 to 2026, comprising statements of the Türk Dil Kurumu, editorial and practitioner commentary, academic evaluations of machine-generated Turkish, and two empirical measurements. Each unit was coded for its verdict, criterion, named features, semiotic mechanism, assigned role, and any genre exempted from the verdict. All four stances are attested, and the genre exemption that the framework leads one to expect is observed twice. The article then distinguishes three grades of the machine's involvement in standardization: standardizing pressure, documented by audits of English-language systems; discursive authorization, whose traces appear in the set; and institutional coupling, documented in the norm authority's corpus and language-model program with a domestic partner. It proposes that standardization theory distinguish intentional-institutional from statistical-infrastructural agents and reads the Turkish case as their announced coupling.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

Bu çalışma kamuya açık ve yayımlanmış belgelerin çözümlemesine dayanır. Katılımcılardan veri toplanmamış; anket, mülakat, odak grup, gözlem veya deney gibi bir veri toplama aracı kullanılmamış; özel ya da hassas nitelikte kişisel veri işlenmemiş, yalnızca kamuya açık ve akademik olarak atıf verilebilir yayınlar ile kurumsal açıklamalar incelenmiştir. Bu nedenle çalışma etik kurul izni gerektirmemektedir.

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Linguistic Performance Science

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

October 21, 2026

Submission Date

August 25, 2026

Acceptance Date

October 11, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Number: 34

APA
Başbuğ, F. (2026). Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority. Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları, 34, 423-442. https://doi.org/10.30767/diledeara.2025244
AMA
1.Başbuğ F. Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority. Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları. 2026;(34):423-442. doi:10.30767/diledeara.2025244
Chicago
Başbuğ, Fırat. 2026. “Public Discourse on Machine-Generated Turkish: Standard Language Ideology and Linguistic Authority”. Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları, nos. 34: 423-42. https://doi.org/10.30767/diledeara.2025244.
EndNote
Başbuğ F (October 1, 2026) Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority. Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları 34 423–442.
IEEE
[1]F. Başbuğ, “Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority”, Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları, no. 34, pp. 423–442, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.30767/diledeara.2025244.
ISNAD
Başbuğ, Fırat. “Public Discourse on Machine-Generated Turkish: Standard Language Ideology and Linguistic Authority”. Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları. 34 (October 1, 2026): 423-442. https://doi.org/10.30767/diledeara.2025244.
JAMA
1.Başbuğ F. Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority. Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları. 2026;:423–442.
MLA
Başbuğ, Fırat. “Public Discourse on Machine-Generated Turkish: Standard Language Ideology and Linguistic Authority”. Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları, no. 34, Oct. 2026, pp. 423-42, doi:10.30767/diledeara.2025244.
Vancouver
1.Fırat Başbuğ. Public discourse on machine-generated Turkish: Standard language ideology and linguistic authority. Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları. 2026 Oct. 1;(34):423-42. doi:10.30767/diledeara.2025244

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