Towards a decolonial syntax: Research, teaching, publishing

Abstract

In this chapter we argue that syntacticians and the field of syntax have for too long avoided engaging with the colonial legacies and the implicit racist assumptions that have shaped our discipline. We take three key areas which relate to syntax – teaching, research, and citation practices – and explore the ways in which these have been intricately tied up with, or curtailed as a result of, dominant narratives about language, global hierarchies, the idealised ‘native-speaker’ and language as a disembodied object. We present a case study of citation practices in Bantu linguistics where there is an underrepresentation of African scholars in the literature. Beyond the critiques that can be directed at the discipline, as scholars who work in this field, we argue that there can and must be a decolonial syntax. We provide practical steps for action in the form of provocations which we urge scholars to engage with, reflect on, and implement within their praxis.