Deontological issues, language ideologies and reflexivity in linguistics

‘Native’ competence vs scientific knowledge?

Valelia Muni Toke | Laboratoire d’Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS & Université Paris 7

Given the fact that ‘native’ speakers and linguists both can be considered as experts in language, the specificity of their knowledge(s) of language needs to be described. The reflexive discourses they respectively produce seem to indicate a difference in the perception of temporality (speakers tend to stress the loss of an ideal language throughout the ages, whereas linguists tend to see scientific findings as positively oriented towards progress) and in the capacity of acknowledging ignorance. In this respect, the present paper analyzes two kinds of data: Guidelines produced by linguists acting as experts for language analysis in asylum cases, and elicited interviews collected in the field within an anthropological framework.

Keywords: linguistic anthropology, native speaker, expertise, knowledge of language, social need and applicability of science, political epistemology, metapragmatics

Published online: 24 October 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.2.2.05mun

Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Alvarado, Marco Espinoza

2019. EL ‘NATIVOHABLANTISMO’ EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN DE LAS LENGUAS INDÍGENAS: EL CASO DEL MAPUDUNGUN EN CHILE. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada 58:2 ► pp. 795 ff.

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