P2SB: Linguistic Concepts Flashcards
imagined community (Anderson)
is a socially-constructed community that is imagined by the people who comprise it on the basis of their shared identity, their shared beliefs, and their shared practices
e.g. any nation, social movements like LGBTQ, feminist movements
social forgetting (Beiner)
is the act of creating social memory or inducing collective amnesia in choosing to remember or forget certain aspects of the past
e.g. SG –> focuses on independence after 1965, ‘forgets’ pre-1965
e.g. Japan –> downplay atrocities it committed during WW2
verbal hygiene (Cameron)
is the act of advocating a change in language use so as to bring about social change
manufacture of consent (Chomsky)
is the ability of the media to shape public opinion on an industrial scale in a systemic manner given its reach
Self (de Beauvoir)
is the socially-constructed sense of being that is shared by the members of the dominant in-group – which is defined relative to the Other
Other (de Beauvoir)
is the socially-constructed representation of the subordinate out-group by the Self
collective consciousness (Durkheim)
is the shared set of norms, perspectives and/or values that is common to a community and that functions as a unifying force
e.g. kiasuism in SG
interdiscursivity (Fairclough)
is the act of drawing on elements from other discourses in the production of the text, which can then frame its interpretation
e.g. Barbie Girl song (draws from gender & age)
linguistic reflectionism (Fairclough)
is the belief that thought precedes language, which will therefore mirror reality
discursive formation (Foucalt)
is an organised set of beliefs that constitute a discourse, which can frame one’s understanding of reality when viewed through its lens
power/knowledge (Foucalt)
is the symbiotic relationship between power and knowledge – where power can define what knowledge is, the restriction of which can then entrench one’s power
labelling (Goffmann)
is the belief that the identity and/or the behaviour of individuals can be influenced by the language that is used to describe them
hegemony (Gramsci)
is a set of shared perspectives and shared values that constitute what is “common sense”, which is perpetuated by the in-group as a means of entrenching their dominance
e.g. meritocracy in SG
i.e. to emphasise DOMINANT value
recontextualization (Linell)
is the transfer and transformation of an element from one discourse to another discourse, which can reframe one’s understanding of it
e.g. boy (to refer to an African American) age marker –> race marker (used in a pejorative sense to portray inferiority of an African American man)
Othering (Levinas)
is the act of creating an out-group by foregrounding their differences vis-à-vis the in-group, which can result in their exclusion from wider society
euphemism treadmill (Pinker)
is the belief that euphemisms tend to gradually acquire the same pejorative connotations as the original terms they replaced, which would necessitate coining new euphemism
Orientalism (Said)
is the creation of a dichotomy between the East and the West, where the former is represented as an inferior Other that is irrational, feminine and weak - vis-à-vis the latter, which is rational, masculine and powerful – to be subjugated and commodified by the latter
linguistic relativism (Sapir-Whorf)
is the belief that language and thought share a two-way relationship where both can influence each other to some degree
ideological square (van Dijk)
is the creation of an “us” vs “them” framing through positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation – that is, by foregrounding the positives whilst downplaying the negatives of the in-group and doing the converse for the out-group
linguistic determinism (Wittgenstein)
is the belief that language precedes thought and will therefore shape reality
