Final answer:
Habermas views language as a tool for coming to agreement through communicative action, highlighting its strategic use in shaping consensus, identities, and group realities, as well as maintaining power dynamics as seen in legal education and other elite contexts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jürgen Habermas’s perspective on language emphasizes its role in fostering consensus and agreement among individuals. According to Habermas, language is not a static system but a communicative action grounded in the process of discussion and deliberation. When we consider the strategic use of language, it involves utilizing language as a means to influence, persuade, and mold consensus within various contexts, such as legal, political, and educational settings. The implication here is that the strategic use of language can sometimes empower or marginalize different social groups, depending on how it aligns with or deflects from their experiences and expectations. This understanding aligns with the postmodernist idea that reality is constructed through the social functions performed by language, indicating that the strategic use of language helps form group identities and realities.
Elizabeth Mertz's work on how law students are trained to “think like a lawyer” illustrates how the mastery of a specialized form of language can be a gatekeeping mechanism, where specific jargon and linguistic strategies create in-group solidarity while excluding those who do not possess this linguistic capital. Thus, the use of language in these contexts isn't just about communication, but also about maintaining power dynamics and shaping the type of discussions that are possible within a particular community.