Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology of Language

Abstract

This study examines Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of language. Bourdieu’s language analyses have not received sufficient attention, both due to having been overshadowed by such fields as the sociology of education as well as remaining embedded within his general sociology. Still, Bourdieu has developed a strong sociology of language consistent with his broader sociological framework. This study aims to situate Bourdieu’s language analyses within his general sociology, thereby framing the Bourdieusian sociology of language as a distinct field of discussion. Bourdieu began his language analysis with a critique of linguistics’ definition of language. According to him, linguistic approaches tend to reduce the social and political conditions of language and language use to secondary considerations, analyzing language as an abstract system independent of social structure and power relations. Bourdieu argued sociality to have a decisive influence on language and language use. In this respect, he focused on how language functions as a symbolic power endowed with a specific form of social capital. Bourdieu analyzed in his works how language relates to hierarchical positions in social spaces, how class differences determine linguistic capital, and how legitimate language is reinforced by state mechanisms and socialized through education. He carried out these analyses using conceptual constructions such as linguistic habitus, linguistic market, linguistic capital, symbolic violence, symbolic power, and censorship.