At War with Words

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2003

At War with Words

Edited by: Mirjana N. Dedaic and Daniel N. Nelson

Volume 10 in the series Language, Power and Social Process [LPSP]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110897715

Overview
Contents

About this book

In a new era of global conflict involving non-state actors, At War with Words offers a provocative perspective on the role of language in the genesis, conduct and consequence of mass violence. Sociolinguistics meets political science and communication studies in order to examine interdependence between armed conflict and language. As phenomena attributed only to humans, both armed conflict and language are visible on two axes: language as war discourse, and language as a social policy subject to change by the victorious.

In this unique volume, internationally known contributors provide original data and new insights that illuminate roles of text and talk in creating identities of enemies, justifications for violence, and accompanying propaganda. Incorporating contexts from around the world, this collection's topics range from a radio talk show hosts' inflammatory rhetoric to the semantic poverty of the lexicon of mass destruction. The first eight chapters discuss war texts. How does language serve as a vehicle to incite, justify, and resolve an armed conflict? Case studies from the US to China, and from Austria to Ghana detail such a progression to, through, and from war. The book's second part reflects the understanding of language as a symbol of power achieved by a victorious side in war. Five chapters discuss cases from Okinawa, Croatia, Cyprus, Palau, and Northern Ireland.

Edited by a sociolinguist and a political scientist, At War with Words includes chapters by Michael Billig, Paul Chilton, Ruth Wodak and a dozen other prominent linguists and communications scholars. This book will be of interest to linguists, media scholars and political scientists, but is also accessible to any reader interested in language and war. Teachers will find particular chapters useful as course material in discourse analysis, language policy, war and peace studies, conflict resolution, mass communication, and other related disciplines.

Author / Editor information

Mirjana N. Dedaić is affiliated with Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
Daniel N. Nelson is Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Reviews

"At war with words contains many excellent essays, including important contributions by prominent scholars, but the wide range of material included means that the book will likely be remembered more for its individual parts than for their sum. Taken together, these books lay the foundation for research into questions that, unfortunately, seem more pressing with each passing day."
Kerim Friedman in: Language in Society 4-2005

Topics

i-vi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Preface: Language as forms of death Michael Billig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xix
Notes on contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxiii
Introduction: A peace of word Mirjana N. Dedaić Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. War discourse
Liberal parasites and other creepers: Rush Limbaugh, Ken Hamblin, and the discursive construction of group identities Kathryn Ruud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Threat or business as usual? A multimodal, intertextual analysis of a political statement Suzanne Wong Scollon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Deixis and distance: President Clinton’s justification of intervention in Kosovo Paul A. Chilton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
The language of atomic science and atomic conflict: Exploring the limits of symbolic representation Robert E. Tucker and Theodore O. Prosise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
The politics of discontent: A discourse analysis of texts of the Reform Movement in Ghana Kweku Osam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
When guilt becomes a foreign country: Guilt and responsibility in Austrian postwar media representations of the Second World War Alexander Pollak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Remembering and forgetting: The discursive construction of generational memories Gertraud Benke and Ruth Wodak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
II. Language wars
Attitudes towards linguistic purism in Croatia: Evaluating efforts at language reform Keith Langston and Anita Peti-Stantić Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Wars, politics, and language: A case study of the Okinawan language Rumiko Shinzato Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Language choice and cultural hegemony: Linguistic symbols of domination and resistance in Palau Kazuko Matsumoto and David Britain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
“Keep your language and I’ll keep mine”: Politics, language and the construction of identities in Cyprus Marilena Karyolemou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
Advertising for peace as political communication Renée Dickason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385
American warriors speaking American: The metapragmatics of performance in the nation state Mark Allen Peterson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	421
Conclusion: Word peace Daniel N. Nelson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	449
Name index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	463
Subject index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	469

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Edition: Reprint 2012
Pages
- Front matter: 24
- Main content: 479
Keywords: Gesprächsanalyse; Krieg; Politik; Sprachgebrauch

eBook

Published: February 13, 2012
ISBN: 9783110897715

Hardcover

Published: July 17, 2003
ISBN: 9783110176490