Sociology of language

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The sociology of language is a sub-discipline of sociology that describes the relationship between language and society . It examines what influence language has on society and vice versa.

Difficult demarcation

The term sociology of language is difficult to describe an exactly distinguishable sub-discipline of sociology. Language and sociology are closely related from the start, which is also a tension. Communication takes place largely linguistically within social contexts, and insofar as sociology examines communications - in whatever sub-area of ​​itself - it is in many cases also the sociology of language. A sociology of knowledge, for example, is inconceivable without a basis in terms of the sociology of language. For this reason, concepts and theories as diverse as Luhmann's systems theory , Aaron V. Cicourel's empirical approach or the later phenomenology of Alfred Schütz cannot do without theoretical considerations related to language; the theories of many sociologists are built around the relationship between the social and the language. What is sometimes tried to differentiate as a specific sociology of language, apart from the differences in the sociological textual material that deals primarily with language, shows rather artificial features.

In the history of science , the peculiarity of language as a central means of communication has an effect insofar as very different sciences and disciplines are interested in language and also claim a claim on language. Linguistics , sociolinguistics , communication studies and the sociology of language share language as the most important object. Sub-disciplines of linguistics such as semantics or semiology (semiotics) also have an impact on dealing with language, as do work on the history of language, literary studies and sociology of literature . The approaches and perspectives overlap. Language has therefore become a central theme in very different contexts and by people with very different backgrounds and stories.

Methodically, this has been reflected in the development of a diverse methodological apparatus, which in turn makes use of many individual sciences and is ultimately interdisciplinary through the creative integration of theories and techniques that are initially outside the discipline. Discourse analysis , language analysis , text analysis , content analysis , semantic analysis techniques and others are used in the context of language-sociological problems.

Linguistic sociology and sociolinguistics are repeatedly equated. In fact, the differences are often of a terminological nature or depend on the respective discursive frame of reference, although similar issues are dealt with. The following references to theoretical approaches are specific sociological.

Theoretical approaches

Alfred Schütz

The originally Austrian and then American sociologist and philosopher, who emigrated to the United States of America because of National Socialism , constantly dealt with problems in the sociology of language. Today he is considered the founder of phenomenological sociology. The revolving of his thinking around the intersubjectivity problem , which Edmund Husserl had not adequately solved in his opinion, brought Alfred Schütz to the table again and again. A manuscript that is known today as Spracharbeit comes from the interwar period . The later lectures on the sociology of language were reconstructed from notes from students and originated before the central essay Symbol, Reality and Society . Schütz observes the structuring function of language in maintaining the intersubjective bonds between people. For him, language is a basic requirement of society.

Torgny T. Segerstedt

Segerstedt's work The Power of the Word. A sociology of language was translated into German in 1947, the very year that the author was appointed the first professor of sociology in Uppsala. The book follows a critical-behaviorist approach and tries to describe the entanglement of psychology and sociology in the phenomenon of language. After introductory sections on language as a social phenomenon and on social norms, the author describes the language in a constructive manner and works his way from simple sounds to a theory of signs and symbols. The book closes with a chapter on the function of language, in which individual sociological terms (group, social control, communication [translated as traffic in the German translation from 1947 ]) are combined with a theory of social cohesion.

Fritz Sagittarius

In the more than 1,000-page work Language, seen sociologically, Fritz Schütze starts from the assumption that language not only has a basic function for the constitution of social action and for the development of social structures, since conversely speaking is also influenced by socio-structural factors. After a comprehensive demarcation from sociolinguistic and language-philosophical theories, the blind spots of which are worked out with regard to a sociological basic theory, Schütze develops an extreme typological model of the constitutional contribution of language to social reality, which is intended to contribute to the understanding of the influence of language on structures of power and domination . The sociological description of language as a medium is prepared by assuming an egalitarian basic structure of linguistic action.

Aaron V. Cicourel

With frequent reference to philosophical and linguistic texts, Aaron Victor Cicourel emphasizes the central position of language in a sociological theory of meaning and culture. With a clear distinction from these theories, he examines how far they can be used for a sociological theory.

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Rosenstock-Huessy tries to prove that a method of its own can be found for the social sciences, the basis of which lies in the patterns of language. He developed this grammatical method on the basis of his historical-sociological work. A comprehensive essay was published in 1969 under the title Speech and Reality by Argo Books, Norwich VT;

In the first volume of his sociology he explains: "The present is therefore recognized as a force field into which the future and the past protrude because something has been said." That people speak and that people speak of them is the basis of their social existence. "All pre-grammatical sociology fails to recognize its theme and remains social physics, that is, a misunderstanding."

Relatives and Metatheory

Language as a social phenomenon is also placed at the center of sociological theories, which do not understand themselves as the sociology of language alone, but can be all the more a metatheory for considerations in the sociology of language. In this context, reference should be made to Niklas Luhmann's system-theoretical approach and Jürgen Habermas' theory of communicative action . The works of the two thinkers are centered around the phenomenon of human communication and therefore often deal with language in very different contexts in very different contexts.

Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann's system-theoretical approach is not conceived as a sociology of language. Such a designation would certainly be an inadmissible shortening of his theory. An emphatic reference to the sociologist is inevitable because of the frequency of linguistic sociological topics in his work. At Luhmann, language is the central medium of structural coupling between social and psychological systems. Operations and ultimate elements of social systems are communications. In one of Luhmann's central works, namely in Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft , there is a chapter on language that examines the connection between language and sociological systems theory. There the central meaning of the term semantics becomes clear. In contrast to the linguistic theory of meaning, Niklas Luhmann describes the premises of meaning within a social system that are worth preserving.

Luhmann expressly differentiates the sociological examination of language from linguistic approaches within the framework of his systems theory. For him, language is not a system, but a medium. This means that language does not have its own operations, as it only exists in the operations of the psychic (thought) and social (communication) systems. Therefore, according to Luhmann, a social theory must start from communications and not from language.

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas ' theory of communicative action sees the normative foundations of society in language and that is insofar also the sociology of language.

John R. Searle

Searle dealt extensively with the construction of social reality through language. On the basis of a theory of speech acts , the philosopher, like John L. Austin, turned to the study of everyday language.

History of science

In terms of the history of science, the sociology of language is basically a temporary phenomenon of the first half of the 20th century, the subject matter of which is so comprehensive that a specific language-sociological discourse no longer takes place, since in the post-war period the central questions of this sociological sub-area were already addressed by one differentiated complex of scientific disciplines and subject areas. An indication of the quiet departure of the sociology of language is the fact that it has more or less disappeared from textbooks and university curricula as a special sociology. In this context (especially for the German-speaking area) it is also important that the section on the sociology of language of the German Society for Sociology has been renamed the section on the sociology of knowledge .

The differentiating sociology was initially based on philosophical programs and texts that seemed to require a specialized occupation with the language within the framework of sociology. The sociology of language in the German-speaking area thus emerged with Alfred Schütz against the background of the works of Henri Bergson and Edmund Husserl , while Aaron V. Cicourel and Rolf Wiggershaus were strongly influenced by the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein .

In the context of a history of science in sociology, it should not be overlooked that Émile Durkheim already saw the importance of language for a sociological theory. The linguist Roman Jakobson writes: "One can recall Durkheim's view of the steadily increasing superiority of linguistics among the social sciences and his fatherly admonition to develop a sociology of language." In this context, Jakobson refers to Harry Alpert's book Emile Durkheim and His Sociology , the he probably took the reference to this admonition. Thomas Luckmann points out accordingly that Durkheim was able to win Antoine Meillet as a linguistic speaker for the collaboration on his journal L'Année Sociologique .

Thomas Luckmann , who published his Sociology of Language in both English and German, can probably be seen as a later point in the linguistic sociological discourse. In his work, he relied on a specifically German tradition, which ultimately referred to Wilhelm von Humboldt and drew a line to Alfred Schütz . In his description of the development of the sociology of language, Hubert Knoblauch emphasizes that in the course of the 1970s there was a differentiation between sociolinguistics and the sociology of language.

A few years after Luckmann's book, Fritz Schütze published his work Language - seen from a sociological point of view , thus marking another important point in the history of the sociology of language. The book primarily promoted a shift from quantitative to qualitative methods in the sociology of language.

The term sociology of language was - always somewhat overshadowed by ideologically abused German studies - also instrumentalized by scientists in National Socialist Germany. Georg Schmidt-Rohr, for example, worked expressly during the existence of the Third Reich on the foundation of a national biological language sociology and was head of the language sociology department of the SS.

See also

Adjacent departments

subjects

literature

  • Johannes Angermüller: After structuralism. Theoretical discourse and intellectual field in France. Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-89942-810-0 .
  • Walter Benjamin : Problems of the sociology of language . In Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. 1935.
  • Torgny T: son Segerstedt : The power of the word. A sociology of language. (= Internat. Bibl. For Psychology and Sociology. 3). Pan-Verlag, Zurich 1947.
  • Pierre Bourdieu : What does it mean to speak? On the economy of linguistic exchange. 2nd Edition. Braumüller, 2005, ISBN 3-7003-1518-X .
  • Pierre Bourdieu: Language. Writings on the sociology of culture I . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-518-29816-9 .
  • Aaron Victor Cicourel : Language in Social Interaction . List, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-471-61432-X .
  • Aaron Victor Cicourel: Method and Measurement in Sociology . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1974, ISBN 3-518-07699-X .
  • Hubert Knoblauch: The end of the linguistic change. From the sociology of language to the sociology of knowledge. In: Barbara Orth, Thomas Schwietring, Johannes Weiß (eds.): Sociological research: status and perspectives. A manual . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-4003-7 .
  • Thomas Luckmann : Sociology of Language. In: René König (Ed.): Handbook of empirical social research. Volume 11, Enke, Stuttgart 1969, pp. 1050-1101. (Completely revised in: René König (Ed.): Handbuch der Empirischen Sozialforschung. Volume 13, Enke, Stuttgart 1979, pp. 1–116 b)
  • Thomas Luckmann: The constitution of language in the everyday world. In: Bernhard Badura, Klaus Gloy (ed.): Sociology of communication. Frommann Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1972, pp. 218-237.
  • Ernest WB Hess-Lüttich: Applied sociology of language. An introduction to linguistic, sociological, and educational approaches . Metzler, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-476-00620-4 .
  • Rolf Kjolseth, Fritz Sack (Ed.): On the sociology of language: selected contributions from the 7th World Congress of Sociology . (= Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. Special issue 15). 1971, ISBN 3-531-11106-X .
  • Ulrich Oevermann : Language and Social Origin . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-518-10519-1 .
  • Wilfried Rohrbach: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's linguistic thinking. Historical discussion and systematic explication. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1973, ISBN 3-17-210141-X .
  • Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy : The language of the human race. A physical grammar in four parts . Published by Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg 1963.
  • Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy: Speech and Reality . Argo Books, Norwich 1970.
  • Alfred Schütz : Linguistic sociology (lecture, notes 1950, 1952/53) In: Alfred Schütz: Theory of the lifeworld 2 - The communicative order of the lifeworld. edited by Hubert Knoblauch, Ronald Kurt and Hans-Georg Soeffner . 2003, ISBN 3-89669-744-7 .
  • Alfred Schütz: Experience, language, concept (language work). (Manuscript 1925) In: Alfred Schütz: Theory of life forms. edited by Ilja Srubar. 1981, ISBN 3-518-07950-6 .
  • Fritz Schütze: Language seen sociologically. Fink Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7705-0990-0 .
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner (Ed.): Contributions to an empirical sociology of language . Verlag Narr, Tübingen 1982, ISBN 3-87808-939-2 .
  • William A. Stewart: A Sociolinguistic Typology for Describing National Multilingualism. In: Joshua A. Fishman (Ed.): Readings in the Sociology of Language. Mouton & Co., The Hague 1968.
  • Ernst Topitsch : Linguistic problems of social science theory formation. In: Ernst Topitsch (Ed.): Logic of the social sciences . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne / Berlin 1967, pp. 17–36.
  • Rolf Wiggershaus (Ed.): Speech analysis and sociology. The social scientific relevance of Wittgenstein's philosophy of language . Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-518-07723-6 .
  • Lutz Winckler: Production of cultural goods. Essays on the sociology of literature and language . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1973, ISBN 3-518-00628-2 .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ brockhaus.de
  2. ↑ Schütz's linguistic sociological work has been re-summarized and published under the title Theory of the Lifeworld 2. The Communicative Order of the Lifeworld as Volume V.2 of the Alfred Schütz Works Edition (edited by Hubert Knoblauch, Ronald Kurt and Hans-Georg Soeffner), Konstanz 2003 .
  3. ↑ Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy: Sociology. The superiority of the rooms. Stuttgart 1956, p. 313f.
  4. ↑ GLU. Glossary on Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems. Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 176.
  5. ^ The society of society. Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 205.
  6. ^ The society of society. Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 112.
  7. ↑ Garlic and others: New wine in a new tube. To rename the section sociology of language to section sociology of knowledge. ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (= Newsletter No. 1 of the Sociology of Knowledge section) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wp1026128.server-he.de
  8. ^ Roman Jakobson: Essays on linguistics and poetics. Year ?, p. 185.
  9. ↑ Thomas Luckmann, Alphons Silbermann: Language, Arts. In: Berger / Luckmann: Handbook of empirical social research.
  10. ^ Fritz Schütze: Language - Sociological Seen. Volume 1, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1975, urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-56223 ; Fritz Schütze: Language - Seen Sociologically. Volume 2, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1975, urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-56233
  11. ↑ Hubert Knoblauch: The end of the linguistic turn. From the sociology of language to the sociology of knowledge. In: Barbara Orth, Thomas Schwietring, Johannes Weiß (eds.): Sociological research: status and perspectives. A manual. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, p. 583ff.
  12. ↑ Gerd Simon: Wissenschaft und Wende 1933. On the relationship between science and politics using the example of the linguist Georg Schmidt-Rohr. 1986, http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/gerd.simon/wende1933.pdf