Language as pure potential

Abstract

ABSTRACTLanguage occupies a crucial position in neoliberalism, due to the reimagination of language as commodified skill. This paper studies the role of language ideology in this transformation by identifying a particular ideology that facilitates this process, namely the ideology which views language as pure potential. Neoliberalism treats language as a neutral and abstract tool for communication that can convey information in a transparent, unadulterated way. Under this view, language is a pure medium of potentiality, which can realize any communicative goal that the speaker may want to achieve – thus in turn, a key for unlocking the hidden potential of the individual. For instance, a global language such as English supposedly allows its speaker to move beyond the constraints of her culture and community, reaching many people and traversing multiple markets, no longer stifled by the boundaries imposed by essentialized identity. By obscuring the embeddedness of language in social context, this ideology rationalizes endless investment in language learning, representing the language learner as a responsible neoliberal subject engaging in perpetual self-development. As an illustration of this process, this paper outlines how the ideology of language as pure potential contributes to the hegemonic status of English in South Korea's neoliberal transformation.