Intellectuals who cling to inherited language are conservative and reactionary.

Evidence

If the task of the intellectuals is to determine and to organise the reform of moral and intellectual life, in words to fit culture to the sphere of practice, it is clear that “crystallised” intellectuals are conservative and reactionary. For while the new social group at least feels itself split off and distinct from its predecessor, these intellectuals are not even conscious of this distinction, but think that they can reconnect themselves with the past. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1608