Language’s defining power enforces social structures by silencing alternatives

Evidence

The sociologically generated world-picture replicates the accomplishment of societal legislating powers. But it does more than that: it silences the possibility of articulating alternative visions in whose suppression the accomplishment of such powers consists. Thus the defining power of language supplements the differentiating, separating, segregating and suppressing powers lodged in the structure of social domination. It also derives its legitimacy and persuasion from that structure. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 609

Categorization

• DEFINE: The mechanism by which discourse itself is a means of social control — ‘language defines its objects while pretending to describe them’.
• XREF: Strong resonance with hegemony and common-sense concepts the reader is building; also connects to the construction of the ‘Other’ through language. — connects to: A language’s active ‘imperial’ voice shapes how its intellectual tools impose agency. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 828; Language changes through class culture acquisition and hegemonic national languages; Power operates through symbolic influence while coercion abandons symbolic generalization (+17 more)

Related

• Language changes through class culture acquisition and hegemonic national languages (similarity 0.83)
• Power and language are not disembedding mechanisms like money (similarity 0.82)
• Discourse constrains what can be thought about the Other (similarity 0.80)
• Power requires an economy of true discourses to function. (similarity 0.79)
• The seclusion-or-universality dichotomy legitimizes linguistic domination (similarity 0.79)
• Nouns in public discourse govern sentences authoritatively, blocking negation. (similarity 0.78)
• Everyday speech conceals society’s domination over language as hidden meaning (similarity 0.78)
• Discourse produces knowledge that shapes perceptions and enacts power (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Discourse produces knowledge that shapes perceptions and enacts power #corroborates (0.82) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 687
• Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them #expands (0.80)
• Power operates through symbolic influence while coercion abandons symbolic generalization #complicates (0.78)
• Social categories embed buried power relations that etymology can unearth. #expands (0.78)
• Discoursing on power differs fundamentally from being silenced by it #responds-to (0.72)