Meta-Messages, Speech Acts, and Symbolic Violence

• In Event: Intersectional Approaches to Language and Culture

Abstract

Through the lens of symbolic violence, this proposal explored the messages, meta-messages, and speech acts of the question “You know what I mean?” based on a group of TESOL teacher candidates’ interpretations. 18 students, including three males and 15 females, who were enrolled in a two-year MA TESOL program at a private metropolitan university in the United States, participated in the research. A critical discourse analysis of the participants’ interpretations reveals that this utterance was interpreted as a real question that requires an answer, a rhetorical question with an embedded answer, and a threat that silences the listener. The authors argue that locutionary muting and illocutionary acts of silencing are forms of symbolic violence. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are addressed.

Authors

• Min Wang, SUNY New Paltz

• Huili Hong, Vanderbilt University

• Hui Li, Shanghai University of Sport

• Shuangshuang Xu, Wenzhou-Kean University