Language and social power

Abstract

Unequal social relations and domination by individuals and groupings in a society can be created and maintained by violence. But this generally is inadequate for the legitimation of that situation or for the acquiescence of those less privileged; the maintenance of the inequality is affected by language, by devaluing the subjugated's language and by using language to create the impression of the legitimacy of the unequal relations. This study aims to explore some aspects of how language and specifically speech acts are structured to create unequal social relations and link this to discourse practices that maintain this inequality. Language is, however, not an inflexible medium; as it can be used to shape the subjugated's consciousness to regard the inequality as normal, it can also form and reflect a resistance consciousness. Language and power mesh in many ways. Chapter one will deal generally with issues of language and power relations in society. This dissertation hopes to focus on how ideology and power are present in and structured into utterances. Chapter two will show that the speech act theory can be extended to include ideological force or intent as part of a speech act. This intent is structured in the details of the utterance; and that will be the area of chapter three, which reviews the "critical linguistics" thinking around discourse analysis of manipulative intent; and the last chapter will focus on how language can be a means of resisting social domination and creating true consensus.