What does language mean: the economics of language exchange

Author: [French] Bourdieu
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-06-01
Features: In Essay on the Introduction of the Concept of Negative Grandeur in Philosophy, Kant imagined a person with a very high degree of stinginess but striving for a very high degree of brotherly love, in contrast to another person with a moderate degree of stinginess and the capacity to achieve a high degree of generosity, yet who only acted with a moderate degree of generosity. He concluded that, while measured by actions—2 to 4—the former was undeniably inferior to the latter, but morally, he was more noble. We might use a similar arithmetic-based evaluation to assess scientific works. Social sciences are clearly in the camp of a very high degree of stinginess, and if we know how to consider the social forces they must overcome in the Kantian manner, we can undoubtedly evaluate their value more accurately. This is even more certain when the issue under discussion is a special goal that affects all social science disciplines. This special goal, language, is holistic and indivisible. In Saussure's research, it was constructed by excluding all internal social variables; or, according to Chomsky's view, it was constructed by giving formal properties of grammar priority—which undermines functional constraints. Therefore, deriving all the consequences of this fact becomes necessary, yet these are strongly suppressed by linguists and their imitators, to the extent that Introduction to General Linguistics asserts, "The social attributes of language are one of its internal characteristics," and social heterogeneity is contained within language. This issue must be resolved, while also being aware of the risks involved in this endeavor, risks that are not obvious crudeness, because this crudeness can be subjected to rigorous analysis. Such analysis can bring the repressed back into view, but this is also where it faces criticism. In short, we must choose to pay a higher price for truth while accepting a lower profit in distinction.