Language and Economics: The Linguistic Representation of Economic Consciousness Transformation
Abstract
Language plays a crucial role in the development of a country’s socio-economic spheres. Human capital is shaped by studying together language and economics. Language also provides access to diverse labor markets and increases the chances of securing well-paying jobs. This study analyzes how contemporary Kazakh national economic consciousness changed during the Soviet and post-independence periods. The main issue addressed is the lexical representation of the transformation of economic consciousness and the identification of its cultural and social foundations. To do this, the concepts of "language of economics" or "linguo-economics" were introduced. By making use of a mixed-method research design, the study compared the lexical units documented in Kazakh-language dictionaries across two historical periods, before and after independence, the dynamics of the number of terms used before independence, the number of words and semantic units after independence, and the number of terms expressed through collocations, among others. These units were analyzed within two different modes: the traditional or the cultural mode, and the modern mode. The data comprised electronic texts consisting of 180,148-word usages and 30,000 units related to contemporary Kazakh-language entrepreneurial discourse; and interviews of media figures on economics, trade, finance, and entrepreneurship were collected from the business magazine Forbes Kazakhstan, and their frequency was analyzed. This study clearly illustrates that fostering economic development through language, particular attention must be given to the role of the national language in speech acts related to trade communication within economic discourse.