The article explores the problem of purism and the criteria for identification of purist interventions that usually occur after changes of political systems. From a theoretical point of view, the article analyzes the definition of purism and discusses the dilemma regarding the existence of a neutral period from the aspect of purism. In that context, it tries to explain why some Croatian linguists denote only some parts of Croatian history as purist. In the first part, the author identifies the problem of the definition of purism and the methodological problems of its observation, while in the second part the article offers a brief comparative overview of perspectives on the need for intervention in the Croatian language in the period 1918 - 1990. The author argues that purism should be assessed according to the degree and methods of removing undesired words from usage, and concludes that partial historical analyses will always result in finding that a particular regime pursued the policy of purism. Therefore, future studies of purism should include elements of comparison and criteria for the evaluation of the policy aggressiveness and of the ideology behind it. Without the latter, linguistic debates on purism, although not intended to qualify certain political regimes, remain primarily indicators of their authors’ political preferences.
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