160129 PS Specific Problems of Language Policy (2019S)

This sociolinguistic seminar will focus on the topic “language and power”. We will tackle ‘the power of language’ as well as ‘the language of power’ (cf. Busch 2011). This means that we will discuss following questions: How is power grounded, maintained and reproduced in and through language? Who has to bear which consequences of ‘powerful’ language? Are there contexts or interactions that are free of power? How can power be challenged or reinterpreted? In order to study these questions, we will first learn about the sociological concept ‘power’ before approaching a variety of domains and their specific issues from a sociolinguistic perspective (examples: language in the media; language, propaganda, manipulation; the role of language in/for education; the challenging of power, e.g. gendered language, ‘political correctness’, language policies in general).
The goal of this seminar is for students to become familiar with the sociolinguistic perspective on power (i.e. the relevant literature, debates and methods). A further goal is to develop an argument on their own in the form of a presentation and seminar paper and to generally become aware of the various constellations of power and the inherent role of language.