Linguistics Colloquium: Talk by Prof. John Petrovic

A lot of recent literature considers the so-called commodification of language. While many authors cite Karl Marx in this vein, there is little engagement with Marxist theory. This leads to misreadings of the commodity form and concomitant notions, such as appropriation and dispossession. From a Marxist lens, it seems that language can be subject to neither process and applied linguists should turn to more productive analytical lenses such as Bourdieuan notions of capital (although, this too, derives from Marx) or racio-linguistics.

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