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Sociolinguistics and Universalism

  • Jérémie Bouchard ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 2, 2024

Abstract

The discourse on linguistic diversity, relativity and pluralism is currently dominant in sociolinguistics. By extension, arguments for universalism are currently unfashionable in the field, particularly within its interpretivist strand. This paper claims that interpretivist sociolinguistics promotes conflicting, often lukewarm, and at times antagonistic views on universalism as a core emancipatory value. In response, the argument is made that appreciating universalism requires a layered social ontology afforded by critical realism. To build this critique, the paper first surveys how universalism has been neglected by prominent interpretivist sociolinguists to date. It then provides a conceptual account of critical realism’s layered social ontology and its relation to sociolinguistics. A discussion on the nature and importance of values in social science and sociolinguistics follows. Finally, the paper discusses universalism as a core emancipatory value, its critique, and its relation to sociolinguistics.


Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my mother, Myriam Morissette, for her love and support, her tireless work in feminism and secularism in the province of Québec for over forty years, and for reminding me of the centrality of a universalist perspective in critical social research.


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Published Online: 2024-02-02
Published in Print: 2024-06-10

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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