Scaling Language Boundaries: Inclusion, Commensurability, and a Caribbean Coloniality

Abstract

Drawing on ethnography as well as media and archival sources, this article approaches issues of language and relations of power in Barbados along ideological axes of civilization, modernity, and intelligence. Its particular focus is on the ideologies of social and language boundaries and the semiotic processes of their construction, navigation, and policing. I use the concept of commensurability to engage with questions of inclusion, alterity, and (post)colonial selfhood brought into sharp relief by my Barbadian fieldwork and conversations.