Ethics and Language

Abstract

What people come to describe as ethics usually first appears as social actions in the realm of everyday encounters. This chapter provides an overview of the role of reflection and reflexive language in ethics. It links this discussion to the theories of affordances and heteroglossia, focusing on how language-in particular the constant process of conventionalization of linguistic patterns-provides particular possibilities and constraints that are ethico-moral in nature. The chapter draws on two ethnographic examples about HIV/AIDS disclosure and activism in South Africa, using the concept of transposition to further examine the role of language in the constitution of ethics. It discusses recent work and emerging topics in the study of ethics and language, describing what an ethics-centered approach can contribute to the study of language and communicable diseases; the use of communicative technologies in ethnographic research; and online communication through apps/platforms.