Language as Symbolic Power

291 Pages·2020·1.207 MB·

by  Claire Kramsch

LanguageasSymbolicPower
Languageisnotsimplyatoolforcommunication–symbolicpower
struggles underlie any speech act, discourse move, or verbal inter-
action, be it in face-to-face conversations, online tweets or political
debates.Thisbookprovidesaclearandaccessibleintroductiontothe
topicoflanguageandpowerfromanappliedlinguisticsperspective.
Itisclearlysplitintothreesections:thepowerofsymbolicrepresen-
tation, the power of symbolic action and the power to create sym-
bolic reality. It draws upon a wide range of existing work by
philosophers, sociolinguists, sociologists and applied linguists, and
includescurrentreal-worldexamples,toprovideafreshinsightinto
a topic that is of particular significance and interest in the current
politicalclimateandinourincreasinglydigitalage.Thebookshows
the workings of language as symbolic power in educational, social,
cultural andpolitical settings and discusses ways torespond to and
evenresistsymbolicviolence.
clairekramschisProfessorEmeritaattheUniversityofCalifornia,
Berkeley. She has won the Kenneth Mildenberger Award from the
Modern Language Association three times, for Context and Culture in
LanguageTeaching(1993),TheMultilingualSubject(2009)andTheMulti-
lingual Instructor (2018, with Lihua Zhang). She is the past President
oftheAmericanAssociationforAppliedLinguistics(AAAL)andofthe
InternationalAssociationofAppliedLinguistics(AILA).
KEY TOPICS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS
SeriesEditors
ClaireKramsch(UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley)
andZhuHua(UniversityofBirmingham)
Booksinthisseriesprovidecriticalaccountsofthemostimportanttopics
inappliedlinguistics,conceptualizedasaninterdisciplinaryfieldof
researchandpracticedealingwithpracticalproblemsoflanguageand
communication.Sometopicshavebeenthesubjectofappliedlinguistics
formanyyearsandwillbere-examinedinthelightofnewdevelopmentsin
thefield;othersareissuesofgrowingimportancethathavenotsofarbeen
givenasustainedtreatment.Thetopicsoftheseriesarenuancedand
specialized,providinganopportunityforfurtherreadingarounda
particularconcept.Theconceptexaminedmaybetheoreticalorpractice
oriented.Writtenbyleadingexperts,thebooksintheseriescanbeusedon
coursesandinseminars,orassuccinctguidestoaparticulartopicfor
individualstudentsandresearchers.
Language as Symbolic Power
CLAIRE KRAMSCH
UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108835862
DOI:10.1017/9781108869386
©ClaireKramsch2021
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Kramsch,ClaireJ.,author.
Title:Languageassymbolicpower/ClaireKramsch.
Description:Cambridge,UK;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2020.|
Series:Keytopicsinappliedlinguistics|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020015973(print)|LCCN2020015974(ebook)|
ISBN9781108835862(hardback)|ISBN9781108798891(paperback)|
ISBN9781108869386(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Languageandlanguages–Politicalaspects.|Communication–
Politicalaspects.|Power(Socialsciences)
Classification:LCCP119.3.K682020(print)|LCCP119.3(ebook)|DDC302.23–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020015973
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020015974
ISBN978-1-108-83586-2Hardback
ISBN978-1-108-79889-1Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
ListofFigures pageix
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
Language:ALoadedWeapon? 1
I.1 LanguageasSymbolicAction 2
I.2 DefinitionofTerms 3
I.3 TheFundamentalParadoxofSymbolicPower 7
I.4 LanguageasSymbolicPowerinAppliedLinguistics 8
I.5 LanguageasSymbolicPowerinLanguageEducation 11
I.6 OrganizationoftheBook 15
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 16
part i the power of symbolic representation
1 “ISpeak,ThereforeIAm” 19
What’sinaWall? 19
1.1 ThePowertoSignifyandCategorize 23
1.2 ThePowertoInterpret 25
1.3 ThePowertoManipulate 30
1.4 ThePowertoConstructMeaning 32
1.5 “EinTischisteinTisch.”Really? 36
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 37
2 ThePowerofSymbolicRepresentation 38
“LaRaisonduPlusFort...” 38
2.1 TheReasonoftheMorePowerful 40
2.2 FromReferencetoRepresentation:SaussureandBeyond 43
2.3 ThePowerofSymbolicRepresentation 45
2.4 ThreeWaysofLookingatSymbolicRepresentation 47
2.5 ThePoliticsofRepresentation 55
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 57
v
vi Contents
3 NarrativesofPower—ThePowerofNarrative 58
“Pfui!GarstigerStruwwelpeter!” 58
3.1 ANarrativeofPower:DerStruwwelpeter(1845) 59
3.2 WhatStruwwelpeterIsReallyAbout 65
3.3 FromTheLittleEngineThatCould(1930)toTheCatintheHat(1957) 68
3.4 DifferentTribes,DifferentScribes 70
3.5 FromMoralPrescriptivismtoEthicalPerspectivism 72
3.6 ThePoliticalPowerofNarrative 74
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 76
part ii the power of symbolic action
4 “IDoThingswithWords,ThereforeIAm” 79
“WillAnyoneRidMeofThisMeddlesomePriest?” 79
4.1 “IDoThingswithWords,ThereforeIAm” 81
4.2 ThePerformativeStructureofCommunicativePractice 82
4.3 InteractionRitualsandSymbolicPower 88
4.4 TheEconomyofSymbolicExchangesandthePowerofInstitutions 91
4.5 CommunicativePracticeasSymbolicPowerStruggle 93
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 95
5 FromSymbolicPowertoSymbolicViolence 97
“ILoveYou”asSymbolicViolence 97
5.1 WhatIsSymbolicViolence?BourdieuandFoucault 99
5.2 TheParadoxesofSymbolicViolence 102
5.3 ThePerlocutionaryEffect 103
5.4 AnExampleofIndividualViolence:TheReciprocityImperative 104
5.5 AnExampleofInstitutionalViolence:TheEducationalSystem 110
5.6 AnExampleofCommunicativeViolence:Conversational
Inequalities 113
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 116
6 WhenSymbolicViolenceTurnsintoSymbolicWarfare 117
“FireandFuryLiketheWorldHasNeverSeen” 117
6.1 WhatIsSymbolicWarfare? 118
6.2 SymbolicWarfareandPopulism 120
6.3 ACaseStudyofSymbolicWarfare:DonaldTrump 121
6.4 TrumpianNewspeak 125
6.5 TwitterPolitics 127
6.6 ResistingSymbolicWarfare 128
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 131
Contents vii
part iii the power to create symbolic reality
7 “IAmSeenandTalkedAbout,ThereforeIAm” 135
Harambe:TheGorilla,theMartyr,theMeme 135
7.1 FromLocalNewstoMediaticEventtoMeme 136
7.2 FromaModernisttoaLateModernistReadingvia
ExistentialismandSocialConstructivism 139
7.3 FromtheDisciplinarySocietytotheSpectacleSociety 143
7.4 Harcourt’sExpositorySociety 147
7.5 FromMedialitytoDocumediality 149
7.6 Virality,Community,Conviviality 150
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 153
8 LanguageasSymbolicPowerintheDigitalAge 154
TheFacebookMe 154
8.1 DigitalMediaasSocialSymbolicSystems 155
8.2 SocialMediaasPlatformsfortheExerciseof
SymbolicPower 160
8.3 AlgorithmicControl 163
8.4 ASocialandCulturalRevolution 166
8.5 Post-truthandOtherDisinformationintheInformationAge 170
8.6 RoboticsandSymbolicPower:A.I.andGoogleTranslate 172
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 173
9 EngagingwithSymbolicPower—RespondingtoSymbolic
Violence 174
HowSerCiapellettoBecameSaintCiapelletto 174
9.1 Time:ThePoliticalPromiseofthePerformative
inButler 176
9.2 Space:StrategiesandTacticsindeCerteau 180
9.3 Time-Space:DialogismandAddressivityinBakhtin 184
9.4 Causality:“TheReasonofEffects”inBourdieu 188
9.5 Post-humanisminPennycookandLatour 191
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 193
Conclusion 195
Language:TheMeasureofOurSymbolicLives 195
C.1 SummaryoftheArgument 196
C.2 ImplicationsforAppliedLinguisticResearch 200
C.3 ImplicationsforCommunicativeLanguageTeaching 201
C.4 SymbolicPowerinEducationalPractice 203
C.5 BacktoEthicsandPolitics 204
C.6 “Language–TheMeasureofOurLives”:ATributetoToni
Morrison 207
viii Contents
Glossary 212
Endnotes 217
References 238
Index 259
Figures
2.1 Saussure’stwotalkingheads(1959:11) page43
9.1 Linguisticsurvivalispossiblebecauseoftheiterability
ofdiscourseopentothepastaswellastothefuture 179
ix
Acknowledgments
Thisbookistheresultofmanyhappyserendipities.Havingtaughtfor
several years a successful undergraduate course titled Language and
Power through my German department at University of California,
Berkeley (UC Berkeley), my colleague in that department, Professor
Robert Holub, who had just become Dean of Undergraduate Studies,
invited me in spring 2006 to give that course again within the newly
instituted Discovery Course program in the College of Letters and
Science. The audience would be a general audience of 18–22-year-olds
from all over campus; it would satisfy their social and behavioral
sciences or their arts and literature breadth requirement, and the
requirements of the minor in Education and in Applied Language
Studies.
These Discovery Courses, launched in fall 2005, were promoted on
their website as being “deliberately designed to engage and ignite the
mindsofnon-experts,[and]tobeunforgettable.”Coursenamesranged
from: “Physics for future presidents,” “Physics and Music,” “Introduction to
general astronomy,” to “Wealth and Poverty” and “Questioning efficiency:
Human factors and existential phenomenology” among many others. The
course L&S180 Language and Power was added in 2006 and was taught
since then every year for twelve years. It offered the following course
descriptiononitssyllabus:
Asthesayinggoes,"Sticksandstones/Canbreakmybones/Butwords
willneverhurtme"–butisthatreallyso?Weallknowthatpeopledo
thingswithwordsandthatinturnwordsdothingstopeople.
Languagecaninformordeceive,seduceorinsult,makeusfallinlove
orkillourreputation.Whatisitaboutlanguagethatgivesitthat
power?Howcansoundsinaconversation,signsonapagemakeus
laughorcry?Whyarewesoattachedtothelanguagewegrewup
with?Whycanaforeignlanguagebesosexy?Whatdoesittaketo
speakandbenotonlyheardbutactuallyrespondedto?Howdoour
wordsremember,imagine,anticipate,respondtothewordsofothers?
Andhowcanweacquireconversationalpower?Thiscoursewill
x