27.1797, Review: Discourse; Socioling: Janicki (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1797. Mon Apr 18 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1797, Review: Discourse; Socioling: Janicki (2015)

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Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:30:02
From: Lorena Hernandez Ramirez [lorenaherram at gmail.com]
Subject: Language and Conflict

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-1779.html

AUTHOR: Karol  Janicki
TITLE: Language and Conflict
SUBTITLE: Selected Issues
PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Lorena Hernandez Ramirez, CUNY Graduate Center

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

Karol Janicki’s “Language and Conflict” is rooted in the idea that people
often get into conflicts as part of language use in their daily lives. The
same way language can drag us into conflicts, it can help us resolve them and
prevent them. 

In a note for teachers in the preface, the author explains that the book
should be treated as a text drawing from a myriad of disciplines (discourse
analysis, pragmatics, language in use), but with only one focus, that of
conflict as related to language use.

The book is not intended for a specialized audience, which makes it a
versatile volume that could be used as a textbook for students of language and
communication, or for general educated readers interested in the topic with no
particular knowledge of linguistics.

This book contains, besides the acknowledgments and a preface, a note for
teachers, an introduction, eight chapters, a conclusion, a glossary of key
words, references, and an index. In turn, each chapter includes at the end a
story illustrating the topic of the chapter, as well as a summary with
practical advice, notes, and suggestions for further reading. 

In Chapter 1, “Mixing Words and Other Things. A Reason for Conflict”, the
author makes a distinction between the world of words and the world of other
things. It is crucial to understand the discrepancies between what people say
and what they do. Mixing words and the real world is at the core of initiating
conflict. Words only stand for other things, but are not those things. In
other words, in order to avoid conflict (or resolve it when it is already
happening), a distinction must be made between words themselves, and what they
refer to.

The problem is that “We find it hard not to view symbols as naturally attached
to things and difficult not to conflate them with the real thing” (p. 13). In
this sense, the apparition of symbols in human articulated language marks the
start of conflict in human communication. 

Language users must be aware of the difference between the referent and their
own experience. When we differ in our conception of a word, but are able to
discuss these differences, the possibility for conflict is less likely.

Chapter 2 is titled “Framing: How We Talk Differently about the Same Thing”.
First, Janicki offers an overview of some definitions and theoretical
underpinnings, and then, building on some of these, she explains framing as
follows: “when you hear words and combinations of words in a variety of
grammatical structures, you understand them via mental images, as pictures
coming to your mind […] No matter how complicated the mental image, you
automatically get one in your mind once you hear a word or word combination,
independent of the type of grammatical construction in which you hear the word
or phrase […] These words condition (frame) the way in which you understand
and engage in the world around you” (p. 35). The key to avoid conflict here is
for the language user to be able to consider alternative framing, so that one
thing can be imagined and talked about in different ways.

Along a continuum in which conflict presents itself at one end, and peace at
the other extreme, framing offers a great flexibility in how non-linguistic
reality is presented (p. 56).

In Chapter 3, “Emotions: How Words Can Influence Our Reasoning”, drawing from
some aspects of evolutionary theory, the author exposes how negative emotions
are the ones that arise more quickly and stay longer in our brains, and
therefore, attention must be paid to words that arouse these emotions in order
to avoid conflict.

Chapter 4, “Descriptions, Inferences and Evaluations: Different Levels of
Abstraction and Conflict”, as it states, distinguishes between descriptions,
inferences, and evaluations made through language, providing numerous examples
to illustrate each. The key here is that both inferences and evaluations are
often taken as descriptions of facts. The confusion and mixing of these three
elements constitutes one of the major causes for conflict. This can be
alleviated by checking our language against reality (p. 105).

In Chapter 5, “Euphemisms, Dysphemisms and Political Correctness: How We Can
Get Misdirected”, Janicki first offers a historical overview of the social
movement known as political correctness and how it came about in the Western
world. Political correctness movements have met strong criticism as well as
defense. Crucial to this movement are the notions of euphemism (words that are
used to replace potentially offensive language) and dysphemism (the opposite
of a euphemism, that is, the explicit use of offensive words). The author
explains how lists of ‘offensive words’ can be easily contested, since “as
with all other words, offence and harshness or mildness and pleasant
associations are not in the euphemisms and dysphemisms. They reside in
people’s minds” (p. 124). The consideration of a word as offensive or not
depends ultimately on the individual person in an individual context, the same
way that “the map is not the territory” (p. 129).

The remainder of the chapter deals with a controversial issue, that of
euphemisms as deception. Euphemisms can mislead us and manipulate us. The
deceit “is in a dramatic violation of social agreements about the use of
words, in blurring the meaning we normally assign to words, in priming us to
invoke positive associations for things that would otherwise seem unpleasant,
unrewarding or downright atrocious to us. By being exposed to the euphemisms
in question, we become indifferent towards something we would otherwise be
appalled by” (p. 126).

In Chapter 6, “Communicative Competence: How We May Misinterpret Other
People’s Linguistic Behavior”, after briefly exposing what linguistic
competence means as referred to by Chomsky, the author highlights the
importance of communicative competence and the knowledge of rules that will
deem language sociolinguistically appropriate to particular situations. Along
the continuum of communicative competence rules there exists an enormous range
of variations. The awareness of this by the language speaker will diminish the
chance of conflict.

Chapter 7, “Meaning: How Conflicts Revolve around the Definitions of Words”,
treats the concept of meaning and the fact that it serves as the thread
uniting all the previous chapters. The author distinguishes between the
classical approach and the prototype approach to meaning. The former “treats
meaning as resident in words and as discrete and definable objectively”
(p.175), and therefore does not allow for understanding conflict; if anything,
it only exacerbates it. On the other hand, the prototype approach sees meaning
“as resident in the language user’s mind and as potentially fuzzy, open,
doubtful and definable subjectively” (p. 176). This approach promotes peaceful
cooperation.

At the end of the chapter, Janicki highlights the need for language awareness
as a way of “undermining the position of the powerful in matters linguistic”
(p. 176). 

In Chapter 8, “Linguistics for Peace Education”, the author explains what can
be done about the destructive potential of language when it leads to conflict.
Early education to at least some beliefs, as well as introducing aspects of
linguistics into the K-12 school system are crucial to the purpose. Topics
such as ‘meaning’ and ‘words and what they refer to’, are fundamental for any
further linguistic awareness, and key in the teaching of ‘peace linguistics’. 

Finally, in the conclusion, Janicki points out again that failing to
distinguish between words and what they refer to in turn becomes a failure to
distinguish between descriptions and inferences, which will lead to conflict.
The author suggests to take a trip to the Matsés to “help us distinguish
between reality, words, descriptions, inferences and fantasies” (p. 201). The
language of these tribespeople requires them, through linguistic forms, to
make a distinction between what they have personally experienced, and what
they infer. 

In order to diminish linguistic deceit, we must counter-attack with
non-linguistic facts. Counter-attacking with more words would be just words
against more words.

EVALUATION

Janicki’s “Language and Conflict” is an easy-to-read volume on a topic that is
receiving much attention lately in several fields, such as discourse analysis
and cross-cultural communication. What makes this work different is that it
focuses on the several linguistic phenomena that are involved in conflict.
Looking at conflict through a myriad of subtopics, each chapter conveniently
offers an abundance of examples, a real story or anecdote that illustrates the
subtopic being treated, and a section with practical advice. This section on
practical advice may seem redundant at times, but only because the common goal
throughout the whole book is always learning how to avoid or alleviate
conflict in language use.

The author has achieved the objectives set forward in the preface and the
introduction, which are, namely, presenting a series of topics related to
language and conflict, and trying to answer questions that arise from these
topics in an attempt to solve potential problems. 

Each chapter is supported by specific theoretical frameworks; however, it came
as a surprise that little attention was paid to the field of pragmatics in the
chapter dealing with communicative competence. Misunderstandings caused by
lack of communicative competence, that is, by misunderstanding of
sociocultural rules, are extensively common in language use, especially in
instances of cross-cultural communication. 

When reading this book, one cannot help but wonder “What is language? What is
conflict?” However, one soon realizes that asking the “what is x?” sort of
question would defeat the purpose of the book itself, since the author asserts
that there is no one answer to any given question. Nevertheless, Janicki
states in her conclusions: “The discussion throughout this book promotes one
view of language and conflict” (p. 199). I will ask, then: what is exactly
this view of language and conflict?

Finally, the last section of the conclusions could benefit from elaborating on
what non-linguistic facts are, those facts that seem to be helpful to
counter-attack words and resolve conflicts.

This book contains an excellent amount of information on the topic of conflict
as related to language use. In fact, each one of the chapters could constitute
a volume on its own. The text leaves the door open then for further research
on each one of the topics covered. A fine starting point for future studies
could be planning a detailed trip to the Matsés.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Lorena Hernandez Ramirez is currently a Language Lecturer at New York
University. Her research interests include Language Ideologies and the
intersection between language and politics. She is also interested in the
pedagogy of Spanish.





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