Linguistic fetish: the sociolinguistics of visual multilingualism

Linguistic fetish refers to the phenomenon of using languages for symbolic (fetishised) rather than utility (instrumental-communicative) purposes in commercial texts. In such a context, form takes precedence over content, which may or may not be relevant to, or understood by, the target audience. In this chapter, building on and extending my previous work in this area (Kelly-Holmes 2010, 2005, 2000), I explore linguistic fetishization as a sociolinguistic practice, using a range of examples from a variety of media and contexts. The chapter starts by examining current thinking on visual multilingualism in sociolinguistics, before moving on to examine the commodification of such visual language in contemporary consumer culture using the notion of linguistic fetish. I then go on to examine three cases of linguistic fetish in visual multilingualism – the foreign language visual; the minority language visual; and visual English – and attempt an assessment of their sociolinguistic implications.