Linguistic dissociation: A general theory to explain the phenomenon of linguistic distancing behaviours

Abstract

Abstract Across diverse yet largely unconnected reports, including language-focused research studies, psychotherapeutic case studies, literary biographies, and journalism, evidence exists of people distancing themselves from previously acquired linguistic resources, such as accents, dialects, and even named languages. In this article, I begin by discussing a selection of those reports, before arguing that there is a general process shared by these varied cases: linguistic dissociation. I then unpack my definition of linguistic dissociation, a relatively enduring psychosocial process in which an individual or group distances themselves from a set of linguistic practices already within their repertoire because those practices have come to connote a state of significant intersubjective disharmony, or contrasubjectivity. I construct a theoretical framework supported by related concepts—affective valence, evaluative conditioning, contrasubjectivity, prosubjectivity, and undesire—that provide a common theoretical vocabulary for discussing the phenomenon of linguistic dissociation and act as sensitizing tools for identifying and understanding heretofore unexamined linguistic distancing behaviours in other individuals and groups. I conclude by posing questions that future work on linguistic dissociation might answer.