‘What the papers say’: linguistic variation and ideological difference

Abstract

The differences between 'terrorists' and 'freedom fighters', between 'Rhodesians' and 'Zimbabweans', mark, each one of them, a comprehensive, systematic kind of difference in thinking about specific matters. Sometimes a difference in wording is significant only in very specialized or restricted discourse. Some systems are so comprehensive and universally used that their existence is scarcely noticeable. This chapter investigates some examples of the presence in newspaper discourse of some of these more visible systems, and the part they play in perception of social matters. The examples were chosen for what they could show about the linguistics of ideological or theoretical processes, and this is one of the main reasons why they are concerned with perceptions of social violence. The example is from the coverage in the English national daily press of events at the end of the 1977 Notting Hill Carnival, in London. The chapter summarizes some of the uses and limitations of linguistic theory in the study of ideology.

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