Abstract:

The objective of this article is to try to make a detailed evaluation on the contributions of theFrench sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to the current sociolinguistics and to the practices of the discourse analysis. First is revised the central concept in this program of research, the linguistic marke t and the categories that compose the center of Bourdieu´s sociological work (field, habitus, symbolic violence, etc.). That is made linking the general body of his theory with his specific conception of language. Later on they are studied the limits that Bourdieu´s conceptions impose to the study of the enunciation acts, for the excessive rigidity of their conceptual tools, for the ”reproductivism” of his foundations and for the particular style of his discourse analysis. This analysis is more concerned by being an illustration of his theory that by carrying out a concrete analysis of the linguistic concrete reality. The enormous intellectual contribution of Bourdieu for basing an authentic political sociology of the language (like an analysis of the reproduction of the symbolic powers in the communicative situations) is however limited for the poor role that the particular social actors play in the creation of situations of speech incrusted in social positions. The homology with the economic capital and the excessive ”dominocentrism” of Bourdieu´s work impose restrictions in order to observe and interpret the possibilities of social and linguistics construction of the reality and the resistant action of the popular culture in the everyday lifeworld. Nevertheless, Bourdieu´s legacy constitutes today a main source for the discourse sociological analysis and the study of the social functions of the language.

Author: Luis Enrique Alonso