ABSTRACT
The fragmented nature of Michael Huspek’s contribution may go some way to explaining why it has received surprisingly little wider discussion and critical assessment. Huspek has attempted to develop a critical linguistics with an emancipatory intent - a ‘truly emancipatory linguistics’. For Huspek a ‘truly emancipatory linguistics’ can only be based on concrete-empirical analysis of the ‘emancipatory potential of language as manifested in speakers’ everyday discourses’. The chapter argues that a critical analysis of the aspect of Huspek’s work helps to clear a path for further development. Huspek takes his initial cue from the sociolinguistic debates of the early 1970s on the relationship between language use and social disadvantage. Huspek’s main study is of a group of male industrial lumber workers located in a large industrial city in the north-west of the USA. Their work consists primarily of the assembly and packing of large wooden crates used for transporting materials for house construction.
