Language and society: approaches and distances in times of pandemic

Abstract

The live discusses the social changes resulting from the pandemic, analyzing the way some terms are being use, such as social detachment, and the meaning of these uses, which point to individualistic behavior in the face of the pandemic and a return to Rousseau's idea of the good savage, where society is identify as a problem. Rajagopalan suggests adopting new terms, such as replacing social distance with awareness. The author calls attention to the return of the magic of the “breathed word” during the pandemic, in which the voice takes on a previously forgotten importance. In addition, questioning certain common views in linguistics, he defends a study of language that considers society as an essential and constitutive component of its object, but that leaves space for the action of the agent subject, safe-guarding the possibility of ethical decisions.