Language versus linguistics.
A sociolinguistic approach to problems of language and interaction target the aspects of
social problems that give people a common basis to understanding and communicating with each
other (Chambers, 1995; Fasold, 1984). The origins and uses of initial language implementation
have as great of an effect on social problems and inequality as do the perceptions around, and
stereotyping resulting from the linguistic (i.e. tonal, phonetic, semantic, etc.) variations of
genders, races or sexualities (Fasold, 1984; Myhill, 2004; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000).
Although much of the relevant theoretical research done on language in society has more to do
with language groups and minority languages (Adegbija, 1994; Chambers 1995; Downes, 1998;
Fasold, 1984; Heller, 2008; Ruanni Tupas, 2000; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000), this paper deals to a
greater extent with the role that semantics and lexical choice play in determining levels of social
inequality.
The varied degrees to which language can be used to attack and isolate an individual or a
collective identity come from the extent of that language’s embedded nature in historical social
inequality. There must be a common, or minimally affirmed belief in the power and subjectivity
of a word or locution in order for it’s definition to hold meaning (Chambers, 1995; Downes,
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cool . As noted by Apostolidou: “Insult is not unilateral. It incorporates, reflects, and produces
conditions of exclusion and intolerance; it incubates social investments made on “othering”; it
serves the appeasement of social tensions; it alleviates the vivid representation of
awkwardness” (2010:43).
In this way, discursive violence and the power of an insult is to subordinate not only the
targeted population, but by connotation all those people who are associated with some of the
words held within (Apostolidou, 2010; Downes, 1998; McElhinny, 1999; Skutnabb-Kangas,
2000). In the case of a homosexual male being called an “accomplished girl” (Apostolidou,
2010:47), this not only carries connotation for the male because of the derogatory way in which
the term is used, but also suggests that there is something negative about being an ‘accomplished
girl’, even for a woman. This is to say that it is not only a matter of how language perpetuates
existing social inequality, but how that inequality is used as the basis for limiting the
development of both language and human capacity in the future (Apostolidou, 2010). It is from
this basis that we construct the ideal norms and values of social relations and interpersonal
interactions that lead to the socialization of identity and the normalizing of certain gender, race
and sexuality hierarchies.
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