Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 421 g
The Use and Abuse of Language Today
Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 421 g
ISBN: 978-1-138-15966-2
Verlag: Routledge
Today there is a reawakening interest in how language affects our lives. It comes with every threat to our safety and every promise of better times. It is a burning issue among minorities and a running debate between the attackers and defenders of our schools. Our deepest problems all are entangled with it: What shall be the official speech of emerging nations like Zambia and the Philippines, or even in certain areas of established ones like Belgium and Canada? What kind of English should be taught, or should there be no standard at all? How is government to make its regulations understandable? What are the verbal persuasions of television doing to our children? Which way does information flow, what are its biases, when does it inform and when conceal, and who benefits? Are the people who consider themselves experts in these matters as expert as they pretend to be? We feel adrift in a sea of words, and would welcome and a chart and a compass.
Language – The Loaded Weapon offers a glimpse of what the recent study of language is beginning to tell us about these things. It explains in simple terms the essentials of linguistic form and meaning, and applies them to illuminate questions of correctness, truth, class and dialect, manipulation through advertising and propaganda, sexual and other discrimination, official obfuscation and the maintenance of power, and – most pervasive of all – language as the vital agent with which we build our worlds. Explaining language has been Dwight Bolinger’s life work, and as his invigorating new book amply shows he believes that what is true and important can also be made clear and pleasurable.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Acknowledgments VI
Preface Vil
I. Lo the shaman 1
2. The nonverbal womb IO
3. Signs and symbols I7
4. Above the word 25
5. Appointment in Babylon 38
6. Stigma, status, and standard 44
7. We reduced the size because we didn't
want to increase the price 58
8. Guns don't kill people, people kill
people 68
9. A case in point: sexism 89
IO. Power and deception 105
I I. Another case in point: the jargonauts
and the not-so-golden fleece 125
12. Rival metaphors and the confection of
reality I38
I3. A last case in point: bluenoses and
coffin nails 156
14. School for shamans 166
I 5. An ecology of language I82
Notes to chapters 189
Further reading 202
Index
