This paper addresses the role of bottom-up prescriptive pressures in language policy debates and their interplay with institution-driven, top-down influences. I approach this issue through an analysis of social media data concerning debates surrounding recent orthographic reform in France. Building on Heyd’s (Lang Soc 43: 489–514, 2014) discussion of grassroots prescriptivism, I illustrate how French speakers on Twitter oppose the suggested changes through a set of common strategies. I argue that these strategies largely hinge upon the mobilization of particular discourses, especially that of the ideal French speaker. This ideal French speaker is presented as a figure with which speakers in opposition to the reforms may align themselves, thus casting those in favour of the reform as “bad” French speakers. The dynamic in these social media discourses shifts the traditional balance of prescriptivist power away from the institutional level and toward the public. I conclude by arguing that prescriptivist ideologies need to be understood in terms of the interaction of top-down and bottom-up pressures, and in this context the role of policymakers in language planning projects becomes more challenging.

中文翻译：

---

“Je suis circonflexe”：草根规定主义和正字法改革

本文讨论了自下而上的规定性压力在语言政策辩论中的作用及其与机构驱动、自上而下的影响的相互作用。我通过分析社交媒体数据来处理这个问题，这些数据涉及围绕法国最近的拼写改革的辩论。在 Heyd (Lang Soc 43: 489–514, 2014) 对草根规定主义的讨论的基础上，我说明了 Twitter 上的法语使用者如何通过一系列共同策略反对建议的更改。我认为这些策略在很大程度上取决于特定话语的动员，尤其是理想的法语演讲者的话语。这位理想的法语演讲者被描述为一个反对改革的演讲者可能会与之结盟的人物，从而将那些支持改革的演讲者视为“坏”法语演讲者。这些社交媒体话语中的动态将传统权力的传统平衡从制度层面转移到公众层面。最后，我认为需要根据自上而下和自下而上压力的相互作用来理解规定主义意识形态，在这种情况下，政策制定者在语言规划项目中的作用变得更具挑战性。