grammar

Scott discusses in seeing-like-a-state how models come to be imposed on reality in order to render reality legible and hence controllable. A related example (though not directly involving questions of state control) is grammar. Grammar is a model of how actual language works, but its "rules" come to dictate what "correct" usage sounds like. Unlike Scotts's examples, spoken language is malleable and flexible enough to escape grammar's yoke, though of course "correct" usage is still used as a class marker and barrier.