Linguistik und Öffentlichkeit.

Hintergründe und Funktionen einer fachreflexiven Sinnformel

Abstract

In response to the call for contributions to this special issue, this paper discusses whether “linguistics” and “(the) public” need each other, and if so, why. It is suggested that, although most people usually subsumed under “(the) public” could manage perfectly well without linguistics, “linguistics” does in fact need “(the) public”—but for reasons that are more fundamental than the question might suggest.

The paper argues that “linguistics” and “(the) public” constitute an ideological binary pair employed in academic boundary work, which undergirds linguistic self-conception. The two constructs existentially depend on each other: there is no “linguistics” (as we understand it) without “(the) public”, from which the former distinguishes itself in terms of its perspective on and its knowledge about “language”. Linguists set out to explore or to inform “(the) public”, to whom they feel obliged, but with whom they also have their qualms. “(The) public” thus provides the backdrop that makes the contours of linguistics visible; it is the (constructed) “outside world” that enables linguists to maintain their own professional identities.

The idea is substantiated by the paper, which provides insights into the history of the notion of “(the) public” (Öffentlichkeit) in the German-speaking context and with reference to work on the positionality of our field.