Language for and against Democracy: Ideologies and Metalinguistic Discourse in Poland and Beyond

This project focuses on metalinguistic discourse, a specific type of discourse that is explicitly concerned with language, in the construction of democracies. In the contemporary world, where populism and extremism are sweeping Europe and other continents, polarising societies, threatening social peace, and undermining new and old democracies alike, research into how democracies can be promoted and protected, but also undermined is needed more than ever. This study derives from the socio-constructivist paradigm, positing that discourse, that is ‘language in use’ or ‘language in action’, plays a key role in the construction of the socio-political world, and assumes that metalinguistic discourse refers to language on the one hand and the socio-political world it constructs on the other. In other words, language has the potential to represent other socio-political issues, including political regimes. A concept that allows for a systematic study of such symbolic meanings of language in metalinguistic discourse is language ideologies, defined as systems of ideas about language. While many scholars highlight the capacity of language ideologies to represent social structure and power structures and observe the relationship between language ideologies and political ideologies, my research is the first systematic study into the role of language ideologies in constructing political regimes. In this project, I study language ideologies in the professional discourse of Polish linguists and scholars in related disciplines, produced in four recent and critical periods of Polish history: the last two decades of communist authoritarianism (1970–1989), the period of liberal democracy building (1989–2015), democratic backsliding (2015–2023), and democratic restoration (since 2023). This study thus examines metalinguistic discourse produced by actual experts of language, who, since the discipline of linguistics systematically discusses language, consistently employ language ideologies. In addition, scholars belong to the elites, enjoying the position of power, meaning their ideas about language can be influential. In this way, the study contributes to the deconstruction of linguistics as a discipline, uncovering its inherently ideological and political nature. This research shows that language ideologies can serve to support or challenge specific political regimes, democracy in particular. The frequent and significant regime changes in the last few decades make Poland a great case to study the role of language ideologies in constructing democracy, however, the findings of the study are relevant and illuminating for other cultural and political contexts. The purpose of this Fellowship is to maximise the impact of my PhD research into the role of language ideologies in supporting and challenging democratic regimes, and to develop it further. The ultimate goal of the Fellowship is to advance my research profile, paving the way for a successful career as an independent researcher in Applied Linguistics. To achieve this, I will: 1) further develop my strong publication record to maximise impact of my PhD research; 2) develop and submit a funding application for a project examining the role of language in the current democratic backsliding to the ESRC New Investigator scheme; 3) enhance my research skills to develop my research profile; 4) disseminate my research findings to academic and non-academic audiences and expand my network and international profile. Since this project has implications for the understanding of the process of democratic backsliding, it is of interest to a range of potential academic and non-academic beneficiaries, including politicians and policymakers, journalists, teachers and educators, civic organisations, think tanks, and charities.