Phenomenology as Methodology for Narrating Gender Perceptions on “Linguistic Violence” as Domestic Violence

Reality may be deemed as a subjective construct especially if one considers the role of context as a means of situating and defining experiences. The lived experiences of an individual must be at the core of the interpretation and understanding of social phenomena. Whether interpreted as being negative or positive, even within the study of linguistics, credence must be given to the significance of context in shaping meaning within the ambits of communication (Nouraldeen 2015). The way in which one perceives the world is often expressed in language that is often the object of a response of sorts. A renowned philosopher of the twentieth century, Wittgenstein not only significantly contributed to logic and metaphysics but presented his views on language and the manner in which humans should exist in the world. In his work Philosophical Investigations, he does not consider language as a tool for communicating thoughts and wishes but as a tool to enact the function that varying expressions carry out distinct tasks (McGinn, 1997/2002). Language is a social habit that is played out in daily life through “language games” that suggest that words are a matter of how they are used and not merely what they represent as lexical items (Rayner, 2014). The interwoven nature of language then highlights that “language is closely related to the world, history, culture and society” (Ismail 2017, p. 121) and so it ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it, and the context in which you say it. Words are how you use them (Wittgenstein as cited in Aly Ismail 2017, p. 120). This study then focuses on “the wide horizon of human linguistic activity” (McGinn 1997/2002, p. 39) and not just “particular linguistic elements in isolation from both the field of language and the actual employment of this language by speakers” (p. 39), as language becomes a force of violence because of the context of abuse in which it exists. Language then, must not just be considered in communicating one’s state of mind, but how it affects “the other” even as it relates to eliciting a response from the receiver (McGinn, 1997/2002). In other words, it is not only what is said, but the how of what is said, that is paramount when the context of the interaction ensues.