LANGUAGE AND POWER

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• Language is not just a reflection of our world
• Language, our use of it, and our attitudes towards it, play an active role in shaping
and creating the realities we experience.

Discourse, Ideologies, Context

Language
• a system of communication, signs associated with meanings.
• the connection between a sign and its meaning is arbitrary (just looking at a specific
word does not automatically tell you what the word means or it is associated with)

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Creative, Changing

■ Language is not static, it changes over time

■ New signs are created with new meanings
■ Old signs shift in meaning
■ Ex: He “friended” me on facebook.

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Multimodal

■ Verbal, written, signed

■ Facial expressions, gaze, gesture,

Multiple Functions

■ Referential: use of language to convey information (ex: recipes, lectures)

■ Relational: use of language that attends to the social relationship between
people in a particular context
■ Phatic: use of language to ease social interactions (ex: saying hello and
goodbye, please and thank you)
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Non-linguistic signs can communicate as well

■ Symbols
■ Embodied and material goods (clothes, makeup, etc)

Language as a social practice

■ Linguistic phenomena are social in which people speak or listen or write

or read, they do so in ways which are determined socially and have social effects.

■ Ex: if the professor came in the room speaking a different language or in

a different accent, it creates a different effect

All language activity happen in social contexts as a part of social processes and
practices, not just a reflection of them. 5
Discourse: Language as a form of social practice determined by social
structure.

○ Language used in any particular context

■ Not language as an abstract system, but as a text, context, social structures

○ Discourse Strategies
■ Seldom consciously chosen, often used unintentionally
● Using gender neutral pronouns when referring to students because it lines up
with personal ideologies
■ Underlie and support other stratifying practices (discrimination in
housing, employment, policing, etc.)
■ Choices and patterns in vocabulary
● Ex: wording, pronouns, metaphor 6
■ Grammar
● Ex: use of passive verbs vs active verbs
● Ex: “I broke the vase” - identifying the agent vs “I was at a party and the
vase broke” - not identifying the agent

■ Participation/text structure
● Ex: turn taking in interaction, texts
● Ex: One way vs two way conversations

■ Cohesion
● Ex: conjunctions, synonyms and antonyms

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● Power

■ The more power a group has, the more it is able to control the acts and
minds of members of other groups
■ This understanding of power presupposes power base of access to social
resources

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●Hegemony: mechanism by which dominant groups convince
subordinate groups that it is right for them to have power.

○ Easier to maintain, harder to context, and built into the world

around.

○ Seeing hegemony
■ The way it is often obscures other possible ways of being
■ Ex: hegemony in language: men is always Mr. but women can be Miss or
Mrs.

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●Ideology: a set of beliefs and behaviors from a particular point of view that
are thought to be natural
○ Often presented as universal
○ How a certain system works
○ Ex: Economical, political, religious, gender ideologies

● Language and Ideology

○ Language is always influenced by ideology
○ Language is never neutral or disinterested
○ Linguistic analysis reveals how ideologies are embedded in and produced by
every instance of language use

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 Language and Media: Public Discourse

● Public Discourse

○ Types of power are maintained by access to and control over different kinds of
resources
■ Public discourse is an important symbolic resource for maintaining
hegemony
○ Does everyone have the same access to and control over public discourse? - no.
○ Access to public discourse –
Depends on various social or institutional roles: gender, age, position, context,
topics, etc

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Why does this matter?

■ Control over public discourse → control over ideologies

■ Ideology is seen as group consciousness

● acquired , enacted, and organized by institutions
● Ex: state, media, education, church, etc.

■ Ideologies often concealed and naturalized (always presented as normal and just
how things are)

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Media

○ One of the most pervasive institutions in the world today

■ Few of us are unaffected by media
■ Taken for granted

○ Traditional media: press, radio, television, film

○ “New” social media: facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.

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○ Media produces representations of events, people, places, things

■ We like to think the information is transparent but it is very much filtered

■ Language used in these representation reflects and constructs ideologies
about what is represented

○ Media as powerful site for producing/circulating social meanings

■ Shapes the way we think and talk about many issues

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● Media as a Powerful Tool,
○ Decides what counts as news - What events and people are reported
on, what is said about people/events.

○ Favors stories about most powerful people, groups, or institutions in

society
■ Inherent part of societal power structure
■ Mouthpiece of the “elite”
■ Reinforces power of the powerful

○ Who holds the power?

■ We might think journalists do but it is important to think about how
journalists reproduce or challenge ideologies they are confronted with
● Ex: editors, boss, etc.
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● Idea of Media Neutrality
○ Media is a public forum, a public vote
○ In principles, journalism is supposed to be neutral, producing objective reports of
the truth
○ Ex: Media as a watchdog of democracy, cornerstone of democracy

● Ethics of Neutrality: Journalistic Guidelines

○ Rules for media interviewers
■ Refrain from the direct assertion of their own opinions or those of their employer
● A news reporter was fired for giving her own political opinion about
the riots
■ Refrain from directly agreeing or disagreeing with the views expressed by
the interviewees
■ Need to ask for comment on all sides of a story
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 Language and Power in the Media

● News media is an important resource for maintaining hegemony (keeping that

power)
● How?
○ Circulating discourses of powerful groups widely across society
○ Control access of public through limiting participation
○ Media discourses frame social issues in particular ways
○ Contain hidden evaluations conveyed through linguistic details

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Social Media: group of internet-based applications that allow the creation and
exchange of user-generated content

● Social Media: Language and Power

○ Another way of producing discourse

■ In conflict with traditional media, can be used to point out its failing

■ Is access equal?
● No, it is limited because access is different by amount of time available,
affordability → creates power differential

■ Raises important questions about language and power

● Is this new voice recognized? By whom?
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Techno-optimism: point of view that celebrates social media as a positive
innovation

● Argues that social media are new tools that provide new forms of action

○ Connects people to one another

○ Democratizes public discourse
○ Gives everyday people a way to exercise power through language

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○ Destabilizes hegemonic
● Has detrimental effects
○ Isolates people from one another
○ Undermines the strong relationships between people that undergird collective
social actions
○ Opens up civilians to increasing surveillance by the State
○ Reinforces hegemony

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Social Media: hashtags and memes

●Frames: lenses or worldview, often unconscious, through which human beings see an
issue or problem .

○ Connects issue with many other ideas, values and worldviews

○ A hashtag, like a metaphor, creates a frame, presents issues in a particular way

○ What are they good for?

■ Help us quickly make sense of complex information and then make individual
collective decisions

○ Hashtag as semiotic resource

■Semiotic: the study of systems of signs and their meanings 22
●Indexicality: connects language to social meanings

○ Semantic meaning (dictionary definition, more permanent and context-

free)
○ Signs have index social meanings
○ Meaning conveyed through indexicality are contextual and social
○ Ex: words (hella, dude), specific accents, #metoo

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● Intertextuality: one text draws upon another text ○ Can be seen
inexplicit surface textual features such as quotations and citations
○ Ex: links to other articles, retweeting, using hashtags to create links

● Interdiscursivity: implicit shared connections among different

discourse events, lead to linguistic conversations (when the information
comes out of its original source) ○ Ex: memes and hashtags

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 Language and Education

In education there exists a hierarchy of languages, and the ones that are most
highly valued are those languages which would seem to bestow economic or
academic advantage. 

The language of the indigenous peoples was forced aside in favor of English. It
worked phenomenally. Within a generation, many of the colonized people
believed in the superiority of the language and customs of their colonizer.

learning a second language is often encouraged because it conveys the idea of a

renaissance spirit, of exoticism, and worldliness upon a person. It is looked upon
as beneficial, so it is encouraged.

Language is powerful because it has the ability to shape connotations and create 25
sentiment, and define our idea of the abstract.
 Rosina Lippi-Green
○ Research breaks down commonly-held misconceptions of language (accent,
dialect, standard)
○ Challenges commonly held ideologies about “standard/non standard” varieties
○ Shows how we are socialized to these beliefs (Disney character study)
○ Highlights discrimination speakers of “nonstandard” varieties have faced
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Accent

■ Not a technical term in linguistics, not used

● Widely used by public to refer to a specific way of speaking in relation to
another way of speaking
○ Sound different than/do
○ Sounds different than how/think language should sound

■ Everyone has an accent and a particular way of speaking. Some may have
multiple ways of speaking based on membership in multiple speech
communities

■ Often times accent is used to mark ways of speaking that differ from the
dominant “norm”/”standard language”
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Dialect

■ Not a technical term in linguistics

■ A language is just a dialect with an army and navy
■ Is an offensive term for minoritized languages and/or indigenous languages
■ Dialect marks ways of speaking that differ from the dominant norm/standard
language

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How can Language vary?
○ Lexical items
■ Words: hella vs wicked vs rad

○ Prosodic features
■ Intonation, stress, pitch, speed of speaking

○ Syntax
■ Specific structures: verb systems, word order
● “She’s usually on time to class” - SAE
● “She be on time to class” - AAE
● “I’m leaving for LA” vs “I’m leaving to LA”

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Speakers are expert communicators

○Style shifting: expertly navigating different styles/varieties depending on context

■ Ex: speaking SAE in a meeting and switching to AAE for a phone
conversation with a friend

○Code switching: expertly switching between two languages

○Linguistic innovation: creating new words, new slang, new varieties

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 Standard language
Abstract set of norms about how language should be used, and how it should
sound
■ Usually the variety spoken by those with most socio cultural and historical power,
language of government and business
■ “All variants that are used by educated speakers”

Standard language = commodity

○ Standard language becomes the norm against which all other language varieties are
measured
○ Turns language into a commodity needed to “succeed”, not a collaborative process

■ Education system seen as an “equal” opportunity to “standardize” or

“assimilate” folks’ language 31
 Dominant vs Minoritized Varieties

○ What kind of phrases have you heard that describe “dominant” vs

minoritized varieties?
■ “Educated”, “articulate”, “perfect grammar”, “perfect English”, “smart”,
“British”

■ “Not proper” or “improper”

○ Often devalued or stigmatized
○ Not viewed or responsible as full and rich language
○ Through process of “iconicity”, speakers are often profiled as having
similar
qualities to that of their language
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 Minoritized Languages

• “Dialecto” considered a slur for indigenous languages of Mexico,

targets of discrimination and racism
• Minoritized language varieties
• Oftentimes stereotyped, essentialized, exaggerated, and exoticized in
TV/film/media performances

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• Oftentimes commodified and appropriated by speakers who are not
members of that speech community. .

Ex: Use of African American English features by white music artists in certain
contexts, but not “regular” contexts, Iggy Azalea vs Eminem

Ex: use of linguistic features created by and for queer communities, often queer
communities of color.

• Minoritized language and their speakers are often mocked

• “Mock language” is a concept articulated by Jane Hill

One of many convert racist discourses not necessarily understood/labeled
as “racist” by white folks
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Language Policies: Set of unofficial norms
governing the use of language in public (and
sometimes private) spaces

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 Language Justice

■ A commitment to ensuring all voices are welcome, respected and valued

■ A process that allows all people to participate in the language they feel
most comfortable using
■ Putting tools in place to help people connect across differences of
language, culture, race, ethnicity, and immigration experience
■ An essential element of Cultural Proficiency in a setting where more than
one language group are present
■ Vital to ensuring that everyone’s voices are truly heard and included in the
process of school, organization, and community change and improvement

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■ Developing a critical analysis of language and power, including
intersections with racism, ableism and nativism

■ Advocating for the rights of all people to

● Have their language recognized and respected
● Participate fully regardless of the language they use in our movements
● Connecting people
● Creating multilingual spaces

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 Sexist Language

● Titles: Miss/Ms/Mrs vs Mr/Dra vs Dr

● Professions: actor/actress; waiter/waitress; policemen/police woman

○ Even neutral terms are read as male

● Pronouns: he as the epicene pronoun = general pronouns that refers to or

includes multiple genders

● Insults: far more negative terms for women than men (most involve sexual
promiscuity)
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Language and Power???

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Find examples from the current world to show how
language and power relates with each other.

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Thank you

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