Book contents
- Language as Symbolic Power
- Key Topics in Applied Linguistics
- Language as Symbolic Power
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Power of Symbolic Representation
- Part II The Power of Symbolic Action
- 4 “I Do Things with Words, Therefore I Am”
- 5 From Symbolic Power to Symbolic Violence
- 6 When Symbolic Violence Turns into Symbolic Warfare
- Part III The Power to Create Symbolic Reality
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Endnotes
- References
- Index
4 - “I Do Things with Words, Therefore I Am”
from Part II - The Power of Symbolic Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2020
- Language as Symbolic Power
- Key Topics in Applied Linguistics
- Language as Symbolic Power
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Power of Symbolic Representation
- Part II The Power of Symbolic Action
- 4 “I Do Things with Words, Therefore I Am”
- 5 From Symbolic Power to Symbolic Violence
- 6 When Symbolic Violence Turns into Symbolic Warfare
- Part III The Power to Create Symbolic Reality
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Endnotes
- References
- Index
Summary
Using as an example an exchange between Donald Trump and FBI director James Comey in the Oval Office in February 2017, this chapter revisits in a post-structuralist perspective canonical concepts from pragmatics and sociolinguistics , such as Austin’s performative, Searle’s speech act, Goffman’s participation framework and Brown and Levinson's concept of politeness through facework. It shows the workings of symbolic power in the most mundane interaction rituals. It introduces the notion of institution, not only in the form of particular organizations such as the Government, the Family, the Army, or the Church, but also any durable social relation which endows individuals with power, status and resources of various kinds, for example, membership in a club, association, corporation or online community, but also more unspoken relations of wealth, race, ethnicity or gender that represent institutionalized forms of symbolic power. These institutions give people authority, legitimacy and the right to speak and be listened to. Communicative practice is therefore not just the ability to speak correctly and appropriately, but an individual and institutional struggle to be heard and taken seriously.
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- Information
- Language as Symbolic Power , pp. 79 - 96Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020