Apolitical Linguistics Doesn’t Exist, and It Shouldn’t

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the implications of privileging value-based political research agendas in linguistics and affirms the impossibility of neutral and objective scientific linguistic research. Instead, the author argues that linguists must cultivate a practice of transparency, noting not only their positionalities but also in their political motivations, relationships with the language communities they investigate, and ensuring access to investigative work beyond the academy. In this way decisions about research questions, frames, and interpretations become clearer. Using the traditions of research on African American language (AAL) as a case study, the author argues that linguistic researchers must become transparent about the political goals of their research in order to progress the field in ways that disrupt colonial frames of power. Specifically, the ways in which political transparency has been enacted as Black feminist praxis is reviewed, and several provocations are provided toward a transparency-based approach in linguistics that resists formerly constructed categorizations of linguistics as either theoretical or social. Finally, the chapter discusses the benefits of this practice through an example of a value-based research project, which applied African American English (AAE) research traditions to an exploration of Dominican language practices. Through this application, the author argues for a Hemispheric Black Community of Practice approach to the study of Caribbean Spanish, ultimately destabilizing the generative and variationist approaches that have dominated the study of Caribbean Spanish in linguistic traditions. Este capítulo analiza las implicaciones de privilegiar las agendas de investigación basadas en valores políticas en el campo lingüístico y afirma la imposibilidad de una investigación lingüística científica neutral y objetiva. En cambio, la autora argumenta que los lingüistas deben cultivar una práctica de transparencia, teniendo en cuenta no solo sus posiciones (ver Lin 2015; Clemons y Lawrence 2020 para referencia a estas llamadas) sino también sus motivaciones políticas, relaciones con las comunidades lingüísticas que investigan y garantizar acceso al trabajo más allá de la academia. De esta manera, las decisiones sobre las preguntas de investigación, los marcos teóricos y las interpretaciones se vuelven más claras. Utilizando las tradiciones de investigación sobre la lengua afroamericana (AAL) como estudio de caso, la autora aurgumenta que los investigadores lingüísticos deben practicar una ética de transparencia sobre los objetivos políticos de sus investigaciones. Así podemos progresar en el campo de manera que rompa los marcos coloniales de poder.