The sound of absent-presence

Towards formulating a sociolinguistics of the spectre

Bibliographic Data

ID21458385
AuthorsAna Deumert (0000-0002-0199-8955, University of Cape Town, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume45
Issue2
Pages135-153
Publication date2022-07-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Review of Applied Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0155-0640 • E-ISSN: 1833-7139
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/aral.21039.deu
OpenAlexW4280584579
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited47

This article engages with the theme of the proposed special issue in a perhaps unexpected way: for me, the ‘translinguistic movement’ is a pertinent reminder to move beyond the boundaries of language and other visible/audible modalities that are involved in semiosis. It also encourages us to move beyond the naïve empiricism that has shaped sociolinguistic work over the decades. The ‘sociolinguistics of the spectre’ that I develop in this article is rooted in philosophies of radical empiricism; it acknowledges the sensuous and affective nature of social life, and refuses to work with the ‘boundaries, binaries and demarcations’ that are located within the temporal ‘linearity of modernity’ ( Garuba, 2013 ). In doing so, I will look at a particular time-space: the postcolony. It is a time-space where the ghosts of the past are ever-present and shape translinguistic practices; a time-space where time is always somehow ‘out-of-joint’

Aesthetics · Empiricism · Epistemology · Linguistics · Modernity · Semiosis · Semiotics · Sociology · Computer Science · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

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