Introduction
These accompanying pages aim to challenge students at a more advanced level and feature a complete four-unit chapter which includes activities, a reading and suggestions for further work.
Web Strands
Extra Passages
About the Book
Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students.
Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries and key readings – all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible ‘two-dimensional’ structure is built around four sections – introduction, development, exploration and extension – which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained.
Language and Power:
- offers a comprehensive survey of the ways in which language intersects and connects with the social, cultural and political aspects of power;
- provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of the field, and covers all the major approaches, theoretical concepts and methods of analysis in this important and developing area of academic study;
- covers all the ‘traditional’ topics, such as race, gender and institutional power, but also incorporates newer material from forensic discourse analysis, the discourse of new capitalism and the study of humour as power;
- includes readings from works by seminal figures in the field, such as Roger Fowler, Deborah Cameron and Teun van Dijk;
- uses real texts and examples throughout, including advertisements from cosmetics companies; newspaper articles and headlines; websites and internet media; and spoken dialogues such as a transcription from the Obama and McCain presidential debate;
- is accompanied by a supporting website featuring a complete four-unit chapter, along with additional topics, activities and suggestions for further work.
Language and Power will be essential reading for students studying English language or linguistics.
Table of Contents
| A - INTRODUCTION | B- DEVELOPMENT | C - EXPLORATION | D- EXTENSION | |
| 1 | Language and power | Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis | Beginning analysis | Critical Linguistics (Roger Fowler and Gunther Kress) |
| 2 | The discourse of institutions and organizations | Registers of discourse | Exploring Register and Ideology | Bureaucracy and social control (Srikant Sarangi and Steff Slembrouck) |
| 3 | Power and talk | Studying spoken discourse | Power and resistance in spoken discourse | Power and resistance in police interviews (Kate Haworth) |
| 4 | Language and gender | Gender and power: using the Transitivity model | Analysing gender | Masculinity and men’s magazines (Bethan Benwell) |
| 5 | Language and race | The representation of social actors | A workshop on the representation of social actors | Discourse and the denial of racism (van Dijk) |
| 6 | Power and the language of humour | The discourse of humour and irony | Analysing humour and power | Humour and hatred (Michael Billig) |
| 7 | Language and the law | Developments in forensic discourse analysis | Analysing language in the legal context | Forensic Linguistics (Malcolm Coulthard) |
| 8 | Language and advertising | Advertising discourse: methods for analysis | Analysing advertisements | Language style and life style (David Machin and Theo van Leeuwen) |
| 9 | Language in the new capitalism | Language and new capitalism: developments | Analysing the language of New Capitalism | Language in the global service economy (Deborah Cameron) |
| 10 | Language and politics | Studying Political Discourse: Developments | Analysing political discourse | Critical Metaphor Analysis (Jonathan Charteris-Black) |
| Suggestions for Further Reading | ||||
| References | ||||
WEB STRAND |
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| 11 | Evaluation and re-evaluation: Studying language and power | Language and power: extending the analysis | Practicing corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis | Speaking sincerely (Martin Montgomery) |
About the Authors
Paul Simpson is a Professor of English Language in the School of English at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, where he teaches and researches in a number of areas of English language and linguistics.
Andrea Mayr is Lecturer in Modern English Language in the School of English at Queen’s University Belfast, UK.
Superb contribution to the field of applied linguistics. A clear and comprehensive treatment of the role of symbolic power in all uses of language in the 'real world', it engages the reader in both detailed analyses of discourse data and an understanding of their theoretical importance. For undergraduate students, it fosters a language awareness indispensable for a critical general education.
Claire Kramsch, University of California, Berkeley, USA
As well as lucidly introducing a comprehensive range of approaches to the study of language and power, this rich and diverse volume provides numerous fascinating demonstrations of how close linguistic analysis can reveal the complex relationships between language, power, coercion and resistance. This, together with its clear and accessible style, makes it an invaluable classroom text.
Michael Pearce, University of Sunderland, UK
This excellent textbook provides authentic examples with thought-provoking discussions about the way language works in cultural contexts to shape ideologies and create unequal balances of social power.
Suzanne Quay, International Christian University, Tokyo
