Social Theory and Analysis

1. 1
LANGUAGE
SOCIAL THEORY AND ANALYSIS
Chapter 7

2. INTRODUCTION
• The social significance of language is manifested in a number of ways: its
key function as a tool of communication grants language privileged access
to forms of coercion and domination, as well as resistance to this
domination.
• There is a dual purpose of language – it can be used very effectively to
advanced knowledge, make reasoned arguments and right historic wrongs.
• It can also used to manipulate public opinion, as well as to demonize and
isolate groups of people. History is littered with examples of words being
used to demonize and isolate that make these generational wars on social
media pale in comparison.
• Language is also key to the work of social theory. Social theory itself would
struggle to express itself without the explanatory power of language.
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3. The chapter is organised around the following themes:
I. Language and the linguistic turn
II. Examples of the linguistic turn
a. Deconstruction (Derida)
b. The Dialogic Imagination (Bakhtin)
c. Discourse (Foucault)
d. Communicative action (Habermas)
e. Symbolic Power (Bourdieu)
III. Language and its significance in schooling
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4. I. The Linguistic Turn In Social Theory
Several influences on the linguistic turn were the
following;
1. Hans-George Gadamer – His influence is based on
the idea about his argument that knowledge and
understanding are dependent on language. His
philosophical hermeneutics is built on the premise
that ‘all understanding is linguistic in character’.

5. 2. George Herbert Mead – his concept of the ‘generalized
other’, as well his intersubjectivist take on mind, self and
society, relies heavily on linguistic structures --- systems
of symbols and signs --- as without them meaningful
forms of interaction and relation would be impossible to
establish.
3. Ludwig Wittgenstein – his concepts of ordinary language
and language games had a profound effect on the
philosophy of language by drawing attention to the social
contexts with which language is generated and deployed.

6. 4. J.L. Austin – his influence is based on his concept of
speech act, in which a language represent a set of
actions.
5. Mikhael Bakhtin – another thinker who, through
concepts such as heteroglosia and dialogism, drew
attention to the value – laden nature of language. His
work made an impact on numerous disciplines such as
literary criticism, semiotics and history.

7. II. Examples of Linguistic Turn
A. Deconstruction - was both created and has been
profoundly influenced by the French philosopher
Jacques Derrida.
- refers to approaches to
understanding the relationship
between text and meaning.

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“Deconstruction seems to center around the idea
that language and meaning are often inadequate in
trying to convey the message or a communicator is
trying to express. Since the confusion stems from the
language and not the object then one should break
down or deconstruct the language to see if we can
better understand where the confusion stems.”

9. B. The Dialogic Imagination – The Russian Philosopher
Mikhail Bakhtin developed the concept of diagolism as an
alternative to monological approaches to language, which
believe that speech utterances represent one specific
meaning. The dialogical approach for Bakhtin was a more
accurate description of language
as used in everyday encountered as
it portrays linguistics utterances as
incorporating multiple meanings in
communicative interactions.

10. C. Discourse– Michel Foucault, a French philosopher is one
of the towering figures of social theory. Another theorist
who took something of a linguistic turn, as evident in his
concept of discourse. Rather than being a language in
their own right, discourses for Foucault are language-like
systems that regulate our knowledge
and understanding. Discourses
represent what Foucault calls regimes
of truth, as they exercise power over
the ways in which people interpret
the world and their position in it.

11. D. Communicative Action – Jürgen Habermas, a German
philosopher was also an enthusiastic adopter of the
linguistic turn. Language plays a vital role in his theory
of communicative action, a role that allowed him to
focus on the intersubjective dimension of self-
development and social interaction. Linguistic
communication provided him with a basis
for his theories of universal pragmatics and
discourse ethics, key building blocks in his
critical theory of society that sought to locate
the pathologies.

12. E. Symbolic Power – Pierre Bourdieu’s work on language
emphasizes its symbolic power over standard concerns
with grammar: for him language had a political aspect
to it derived from the social struggle over meaning.
Bourdieu’s sociolinguistic approach places centre stage
the social context of language use, insisting
that verbal communication between people
can only be examined from the perspective of
the power relations that frame such forms of
linguistic exchange.

13. III. The Hidden Curriculum of Language
• The concept of ‘hidden curriculum’ has been used by a number of
authors to explore the impact of schools and schooling on levels of
inequality. One of the main contributors to this study was Basil
Bernstein, who develop a linguistic theory of the hidden curriculum of
schooling. He argued that the hidden language of British schools actively
work against working-class children. It does so because the mode of
communication favoured by schools does not resemble that of their
family and local community, which as a consequence means working
class are left disadvantaged in terms of their learning experience and
educational outcomes. The language of school is alien to the working-
class child and effectively acts as a form of class-based exclusion.

14. “Language is power, life
and the instrument of
culture, the instrument of
domination and liberation”
-- Angela Carter --

15. Question
+ Have you experienced language as a tool of
power to your own life? How did this manifest
itself?
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16. Thank you so much
for listening!