article 3 - Haviland

What is Haviland’s main argument?

U.S. legal institutions rely on language ideologies—especially referential transparency—that distort meaning and harm non-English speakers.

What is referential transparency?

The false belief that words carry clear meanings on their own, no matter the language.

What is the “verbatim theory” of translation?

The belief that languages correspond word-for-word and can be translated directly without loss.

What is linguistic paranoia?

The fear that when others speak a language you cannot understand, they must be insulting or plotting something.

Mixtec case:

A Mixtec-speaking defendant was misunderstood because the court assumed translation was simple and literal, ignoring cultural and linguistic differences.

What language rights does the legal system allow?

Limited rights that treat non-English speakers as handicapped individuals in need of aid, while privileging English speakers.

What is propositional detachability?

The assumption that the “propositional content” of a sentence can be detached from the form/language and still carry the same meaning.

How do anthropologists view language differently?

As culturally embedded, contextual, and impossible to fully detach from social meaning.

Language ideology

Cultural beliefs about what language is and how it works.

Hispanic Women Fired for Speaking Spanish

Hispanic women were fired because their employers treated Spanish as suspicious and threatening — a result of linguistic paranoia and the ideology that English is the only acceptable, transparent language in public spaces.