ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the notion of ‘parasitism’ with the notion of ‘dialogicality’, and suggests how the speech of Michael Huspek’s lumber workers might usefully be reconceptualized in terms of the latter. It provides a more developed perspective than does Huspek on the nature of the processes which are involved in the development and realization of the ‘emancipatory potential’ of the language of particular groups. The chapter presents a case study of a 10 day period during the work-in at the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders on the River Clyde in the West of Scotland in 1971-72. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate an alternative approach to Huspek’s project of a ‘truly emancipatory linguistics’ - one which is based on the attempt to synthesize the insights of Vygotsky and Voloshinov. If one compares the ways in which Huspek on the one hand, and Voloshinov and Bakhtin on the other, conceptualize linguistic processes then there are some striking similarities.
