Language
Introduction
Language has to be one of the most fundamental of the issues presented
for investigation in this unit. When you start challenging perspectives
on language, you are questioning the very foundations of knowledge
and culture. In many ways language is the glue that provides coherence
to culture and a vehicle for the creation and the reproduction of
knowledge.
Current theorists would say that language and culture are inextricably
linked and that providing an opportunity to develop an understanding
of other perspectives of language, allows us to begin to question
our culture and epistemological theory. A crucial component of a
resource manager's role is the development of appropriate and successful
relationships and communication with people and being able to address
the power relationships that exist because of differences in language
and access to language.
What is at stake?
Our epistemology
is the language we use to talk about the way we know things.
It is the way we talk about what we consider to be 'true'.
Challenging our perceptions of language goes right to the heart
of who we are as people and what we consider ourselves to be. Contesting
our concepts of language then challenges the very concepts of how
we know and what we know - how we think we could possibly know what
we think we know. So, when we begin to question and challenge language,
what is at stake is our identity, both individually and collectively.
What is the status quo?
Of all the different issues presented, language is probably the
one which has faced the greatest challenges in terms of the way
in which it is perceived in the 'western world'. Language was one
of the first of the areas of social theory to undergo contestation
of its modernist
and structuralist
perspectives.
A modern view of language sees reality as already intrinsically
structured, and language being used as a tool to 'cut through nature
at its joints'. In other words we use language to classify and codify
our experience of reality. In this sense, using language is an objective
process describing the world that is already in existence.
Modernist perspectives of language have characterised it in terms
of the machine
metaphor. Language can be broken down and analysed, the various
components of the language described and classified and then re-constituted.
Many of the issues relating to way language is couched within culture
and vice versa are often ignored or are considered to be peripheral.
Increasingly however, the inter-connectedness of language and
culture has been recognised over the last century and now conflicting
perspectives on language, its use and its relation to culture exist.
What are the alternatives?
Language, culture and power
Now, it is clear that there are inextricable links between language,
culture and power relations between speakers. Language is said to
have the ability to shape culture and determine cultural practice.
Language shapes perceptions and the use of particular language styles
and vocabularies can define social boundaries and cultural groupings.
Take for example, the way in which language has shaped the culture
of urban blacks in the United States. The language identifies the
culture and some would say that the shaping of language is carried
out simultaneously by the culture.
Think how important it is for you to speak in different ways
in different cultural groups to which you belong. How much does
the language shape the culture and how much the culture shapes the
language? It is very obvious in the cultural groups in which I belong.
Academia has a specific language that is not at all appropriate
when speaking to my family, which they are often at pains to tell
me. The thing is though, I think differently in each cultural setting
and part of the way I think is shaped strongly by the language I
use.
Some people would go so far as to say that language creates
our reality. We construct reality through the language we use
to describe and communicate. Think of an incident that has been
witnessed by two individuals. Imagine how different the stories
of each person might be when telling the story to, say, police.
An example
This was particularly startling to me recently when I was reminiscing
with a friend, whose grasp of our shared past was significantly
different to my own. Whose story of our shared events is right?
Are the motives behind my actions ten years ago the ones he describes
or the one I 'know' to be the case now? I was particularly amazed
by the way events seemed to gain some mythical status with the benefit
of distance and hindsight. And then I thought he probably thinks
the same about my rendition of the same story.
Constructing stories of past events
Theorists would say that we are both constructing the stories of
the past events and that the language we are using is actually creating
stories which in each of our minds is true. We are both constructing
our own reality with the language we use and it is strongly influenced
by the experiences we have had prior to the event and the ones that
have shaped our thinking since (particularly since we live so far
apart). Language is very heavily implicit in the creation of the
contingency of our truths. They are local and individual and are
often only shared when you have the chance to reinforce them with
each other over time. I often wonder how different the stories of
my friend and I would be if we still lived near each other and were
able to reinforce our shared history more regularly.
Language tied to geography
This perception of language is much more conducive to the linguistic
philosophy of many indigenous people. Accounts by indigenous people
indicate they believe that language is tied to geography -that a
particular language belongs to a particular place - because the
land as we know it, and the people who belong to that land, were
created by the singing, talking, and dancing of the ancestral creators.
Language and the local world have identical shapes because they
came into existence at the same time, through the same creative,
imaginative force. The Judeo-Christian tradition also affords language
special status where the scriptures talk about 'the word' being
in existence before the creation.
Language as power
Another dimension of language that has been discussed at length
is the relationship between language, its use, and power. Powerful
people are powerful because they can use language in ways that afford
them access to resources. Some people talk about the secret languages
(e.g. secret English), the covert rules and conventions that are
part of language and part of culture. Powerful people are the ones
that know what these conventions are and how to use them to their
advantage. Isn't language often about coercion and coercion is about
the exercising of power.
Think about:
- How is language is used to exclude people?
- Who are the powerful people in Australia and what sort
of language do they speak?
- What accents do the powerful people use and why?
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Language perpetuates culture
There are many places in the world where the use of a particular
language is part of the process of subjugation. What effect does
the process of education in Australia being exclusively in English
have on Indigenous children? By forcing them to think in English,
are we perpetuating the assimilationist policies of last century,
are we effectively locking them out of the education system or are
we providing Indigenous children with an opportunity to participate
in the dominant and more powerful culture that exists in Australia?
What happens when different knowledge systems speak to each other?
What happens when you start thinking about the relationship between
language, culture and power? Opening yourself up the idea that others
might think very differently to you because of the way they speak
and the language you use, challenges your language use in your interactions
with them. Do you use language in an empowering way? Is the language
you use disempowering them in some way? Are you preventing them
from accessing resources, knowledge or something else, because of
the way in which language you use is embedded in your culture, maintains
important cultural assumptions and excludes others in the process
of using it? Conversely, in what ways are you excluded by the use
of language? Are you 'othered'
by the use of languages which are not accessible to you?
The question 'What happens when different knowledge systems speak
to each other?' demonstrates the importance of language in relating
knowledges to each other. How do knowledges interact? They speak!
The meeting of languages is really the meeting of cultures and
the interaction of cultures on an equal footing can provide the
opportunities that are described by the Ganma metaphor used by Yolngu
people. The openness to different construction of reality with language
can provide the sorts of new and interesting relations that are
contained within the Ganma metaphor from east Arnhemland. The interweaving
of different knowledges, cultures and language can provide a resource
which is richer than either can be independently.
Resources
These readings will provide you with a starting point for looking
at the contestation of knowledge in language.
Reading 5.10
Christie M.J. & Perrot B. 'Negotiating Resources: language, knowledge
and the search for "secret english" in north-east Arnhem Land',
in Howitt R. et al. Resources, Nations and Indigenous Peoples,
Oxford University Press, Australia.
Other references
Christie M.J. 1992 'Grounded and Ex-centric Knowledges: Exploring
Aboriginal Alternatives to Western Thinking', paper presented at
the Fifth International Conference on Thinking, Townsville,
Australia, 7 July 1992, pp14-27.
Fairclough, N. 1989 Language and Power, Longman, UK. Chapter
1 & Chapter 3, pp 1 - 16, 43 - 67.
Marika-Mununggiritj, R, and Christie, M.J. 1995 'Yolngu metaphors
for learning', International Journal of the Sociology of Language,
no. 113, pp 59-62.
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