According to the critical linguistics school of thought linguistic and social processes are connected. For the critical linguists there can be an interrelation between language and how it is used to create and reinforce a cultural stance. Other language analysts such as Bell (1991) believe that there are gaps in this way of thinking. Bell (1991), for example, questions whether the clearly definable relationship between a linguistic choice and a specific ideology as described by critical linguists such as Kress (1983) can, in fact, exist. For Bell (1991: 214), ‘The belief that there is ideological significance in every syntactic option, and that, we can identify uniquely what it is, is hard to sustain’. One aspect of discourse is that it can, in specific contexts (e.g. educational texts, newspapers, magazines and other media), have the effect of reconfirming and reinforcing established cultural attitudes and stances. These stances can be inherent to the existing ‘status quo’ and can be detected in discourse through the study of specific linguistic devices used in text that aim either explicitly or implicitly to support and regenerate the existing concepts of ‘common senses’ in a given culture, or society. The first part of this study analyses some examples of the implicit assumption in discourse written for Australian educational purposes. Specifically, the analysis in chapter one discusses one example of presupposition that can be seen in an educational text: the way that this reference book implicitly protects and promotes its own culture and the difference in the way the discourse refers to other cultures (nations), and implicit assumptions that are made regarding cultures that are different, or that it has less understanding of. The study then discusses the interrelation between cultural presupposition and language from the point of view of ‘critical linguistics’, to the political speeches of two Australian politicians from the 20th and 21st centuries. It analyses the rhetorical strategies adopted in taking a stance and in creating alignment between speaker and addressee. The political speech as a discourse genre is analysed by focussing on specific aspects of language used by the speakers to create consensus in the a given addressee group. The latter part of the study focuses on identification and analysis of implicit assumption in political discourse in English and the ways in which discourse can be constructed to maintain and reinforce existing cultural biases. Specifically, it describes the relationship between language and ideology in relation to speeches and interviews given by politicians during two decisive phases of the Howard government in Australia (illegal immigration, Iraq war). The analysis also takes into consideration aspects of the language used by the media at the time. Here the focus is on identification and analysis of implicit assumption in the discourse of the media in English and the ways in which, through language, the media can reinforce existing cultural biases and in some contexts work towards constructing a sense of ‘common sense’ within a given culture sharing the same language. The examples used in this analysis concentrate on aspects of the language used by the Australian media during two critical phases of Australian government policy (illegal immigrants, Iraq war). Thus, one way in which the culture and the sense ‘common sense’1 of a nation becomes fixed is through it’s language. The English language, throughout the centuries, evolved to characterize the English nation, or the beginnings of the English nation. This idea of an English nation for centuries developed only gradually and largely began to be formulated around the era of Henry VIII and later in the Elizabethan era. Authors such as Shakespeare contributed to this with their works written in the vernacular of the time. Shakespeare began to fix the idea of nation and nationalistic feeling in his plays during the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of his plays told the stories of heroic English kings and queens: the leaders of an evolving nation.

Language and Nation

APPLEFORD, Gines
2010-01-01

Abstract

According to the critical linguistics school of thought linguistic and social processes are connected. For the critical linguists there can be an interrelation between language and how it is used to create and reinforce a cultural stance. Other language analysts such as Bell (1991) believe that there are gaps in this way of thinking. Bell (1991), for example, questions whether the clearly definable relationship between a linguistic choice and a specific ideology as described by critical linguists such as Kress (1983) can, in fact, exist. For Bell (1991: 214), ‘The belief that there is ideological significance in every syntactic option, and that, we can identify uniquely what it is, is hard to sustain’. One aspect of discourse is that it can, in specific contexts (e.g. educational texts, newspapers, magazines and other media), have the effect of reconfirming and reinforcing established cultural attitudes and stances. These stances can be inherent to the existing ‘status quo’ and can be detected in discourse through the study of specific linguistic devices used in text that aim either explicitly or implicitly to support and regenerate the existing concepts of ‘common senses’ in a given culture, or society. The first part of this study analyses some examples of the implicit assumption in discourse written for Australian educational purposes. Specifically, the analysis in chapter one discusses one example of presupposition that can be seen in an educational text: the way that this reference book implicitly protects and promotes its own culture and the difference in the way the discourse refers to other cultures (nations), and implicit assumptions that are made regarding cultures that are different, or that it has less understanding of. The study then discusses the interrelation between cultural presupposition and language from the point of view of ‘critical linguistics’, to the political speeches of two Australian politicians from the 20th and 21st centuries. It analyses the rhetorical strategies adopted in taking a stance and in creating alignment between speaker and addressee. The political speech as a discourse genre is analysed by focussing on specific aspects of language used by the speakers to create consensus in the a given addressee group. The latter part of the study focuses on identification and analysis of implicit assumption in political discourse in English and the ways in which discourse can be constructed to maintain and reinforce existing cultural biases. Specifically, it describes the relationship between language and ideology in relation to speeches and interviews given by politicians during two decisive phases of the Howard government in Australia (illegal immigration, Iraq war). The analysis also takes into consideration aspects of the language used by the media at the time. Here the focus is on identification and analysis of implicit assumption in the discourse of the media in English and the ways in which, through language, the media can reinforce existing cultural biases and in some contexts work towards constructing a sense of ‘common sense’ within a given culture sharing the same language. The examples used in this analysis concentrate on aspects of the language used by the Australian media during two critical phases of Australian government policy (illegal immigrants, Iraq war). Thus, one way in which the culture and the sense ‘common sense’1 of a nation becomes fixed is through it’s language. The English language, throughout the centuries, evolved to characterize the English nation, or the beginnings of the English nation. This idea of an English nation for centuries developed only gradually and largely began to be formulated around the era of Henry VIII and later in the Elizabethan era. Authors such as Shakespeare contributed to this with their works written in the vernacular of the time. Shakespeare began to fix the idea of nation and nationalistic feeling in his plays during the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of his plays told the stories of heroic English kings and queens: the leaders of an evolving nation.
2010
9788854836679
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11580/16693
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