ESP Power Issues from the Perspective of an Intentional Approach to Specialised Languages

Bibliographic Data

ID21990244
AuthorsMichel Van Der Yeught (Aix-Marseille Université, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume40
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueILCEA (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2101-0609 • E-ISSN: 2101-0609
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/ilcea.10692
OpenAlexW3034374535
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

The purpose of this paper is to study ESP power issues in the framework of the intentional approach (IA) to specialised languages (SLs). IA has recently emerged in France (Van der Yeught, 2016, 2018, 2019a, 2019b) as an attempt to theorise the study of SLs. It differs from standard ESP postures because it tries to account for “specialisedness”—the mental disposition of a person who specialises—before examining how language serves the purposes of specialisations. The approach is dubbed “intentional” because specialisedness is regarded as one of the forms of “intentionality”—mental states about objects outside the mind—as theorised by American philosopher John Searle (1983, 2004). It is promisingly fruitful to examine power issues in the light of IA because the group extension of intentionality, “collective intentionality”, is, in Searle’s theory, the main originator of social reality (Searle, 1995, 2010). Since the most common forms of power observable in modern specialised communities are social creations, it makes sense to study them as intentionally-created social realities. Still, until recently, power issues have not attracted notable interest among ESP authors although some researchers have come to bridge the gap (Orts, Breeze & Gotti, 2017; Paltridge & Starfield, 2013). This paper first presents a brief summary of the IA project and endeavours to clarify the epistemological standing of power in relation to SLs. The second section is devoted to power allocation in specialised communities, and examines the “deontic powers” (Searle, 2010: 105) that come with specialist status, especially regarding SL use. The third section discusses critical approaches regarding these deontic powers, especially in the context of plain English movements. The fourth focuses on the issue of the actual power of language itself. The final section identifies several attractive opportunities offered by the language-power theme to teach ESP

Epistemology · Intentionality · Sociology · Computer Science · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · linguistics and terminology studies · Philosophy

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