In their book on language in late capitalism, Alexandre Duchêne and Monica Heller describe the current state of affairs as follows: “during the 1990s and into the 21st century, we are witnessing the widespread emergence of discursive elements that treat language and culture in primarily economic terms.” (Heller and Duchêne 2011: 3)
No doubt: language has become a commodity – a good that can be marketed, bought and sold. And while this is relevant for all kinds of language use, English is at the very center of such global tendencies. In this class, we will take a critical look at the English language and its implications with the (new) economy. Following Bourdieu and other theorists, we will analyze language as a form of symbolic capital, and we will discover and discuss the dynamics of this linguistic market: Through the traction of global economic and cultural flows, specific ways of speaking English have become highly coveted commodities. This has been witnessed on the level of global economy, where scripted talk is prescribed for service encounters in order to promote a certain brand image; it is found in pop cultural production, where artists strategically use stylized varieties in their performances; and it has been observed at the individual level, where speakers are targeted by “accent reduction courses” to conform to standard varieties of English. Tapping into these forms of linguistic commodification allows us to witness some central sociolinguistic processes as they unfold.
In this class, we will lay the ground by looking at some key concepts that help to understand language and the (new) economy, such as globalization and the role of global English, as well as sociolinguistic concepts such as indexicality, social meaning and enregisterment. We will then analyze different settings, both through current research and real-life instances. We will include spoken and written discourse from domains such as tourism, call centers and service encounters, language teaching, TV talk, and imprinted clothing. We will conclude by critically discussing the findings: who are the winners and losers of the linguistic market? And how do these recent tendencies tie in with older, more traditional forms of selling (through) language?
Literature:
Selection of key publications. A detailed reading schedule will be distributed at the beginning of class.
Cameron, Deborah. 2000. Styling the worker: Gender and the commodification of language in the globalized service economy. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4(3): 323-347.
Gaudio, Rudolf. 2003. Coffeetalk: Starbucks™ and the commercialization of casual conversation. Language in Society 32(5): 659-691.
Heller, Monica and Duchêne, Alexandre (eds.) 2011. Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. London: Routledge.
Heller, Monica. 2010. The Commodification of language. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 39: 101–14.
Heller, Monica. 2003. Globalization, the new economy, and the commodifcation of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4): 473-492.
Johnstone, Barbara. 2009. Pittsburghese shirts: Commodification and the enregisterment of an urban dialect. American Speech 84(2): 157-175.
Rubdy, Rani, Peter Tan (eds). 2008. Language As Commodity: Global Structures, Local Marketplaces. London: Continuum. |
