Everyday speech conceals society’s domination over language as hidden meaning

Evidence

This historical dimension of meaning can no longer be elucidated by examples such as “my broom is in the corner” or “there is cheese on the table.” To be sure, such statements can reveal many ambiguities, puzzles, oddities, but they are all in the same realm of language games and academic boredom. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 669

Categorization

• XREF: Marcuse here is directly attacking Wittgenstein’s ordinary-language philosophy — the same targets as in the analytic philosophy debates this reader studies. — connects to: Speech’s apparent impersonal life is borrowed from the personal freedom of speakers. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1217; Celebrating working-class dialect is reactionary because domination has deformed the poor’s language — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 116; Ordinary language is already purged of expressive means by society — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 651 (+12 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the contrast between ordinary language analysis and dialectical critical thinking.

Broader Connections

• Language’s performative power depends on masked underlying paradigmatic structures #expands (0.85)
• Language is socially constructed and speaks through individuals #corroborates (0.82)
• Language’s defining power enforces social structures by silencing alternatives #expands (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 609
• Language can distort as well as transmit human culture #expands (0.75)
• Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them #expands (0.74)
• Everyday-language analysis alone cannot reveal the underlying causes of social trends #expands (0.72)
• Popular-consciousness language cannot reveal underlying causes of social trends #expands (0.72)