The notion of language as a fetish imagines languages such as English as bearing all kinds of extra-linguistic properties: As a product or service, as a commodity or resource which speakers exchange, as a mythical “thing” which does this or that to people, and even as a cause of social suffering. In this chapter we offer a critical engagement with the notion of fetishism as it relates to a larger current body of work on language, language policy, and political economy, in respect of language alienated and fetishised in standard forms; the recasting of language not as a social product, but as a form of legal property, owned and traded by individuals; and the necessity of fetishised forms of language in the functioning of the “free” market. We present the notion of fetishism as consisting in illusions which exist not in theory but in practice, and call for greater attention to be given to the fetishism of languages in the practice of the market. We further argue that calls for policy to develop critical reflexive awareness in speakers, while certainly important, are not in themselves sufficient for confronting fetishistic notions of language.
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