Moral Talk: Stance and Evaluation in Political Discourse

ISBN-13: 9780367734732 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 216 str.

Joe Spencer-Bennett

Opis

This book is about moral talk in contemporary British political discourse, drawing on speeches, debates and radio phone-ins. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, Spencer-Bennett explores the language people use to communicate moral judgement and highlights the relations between the things that people say, the contexts in w

Spis treści

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction







Moral talk: forms, functions and value





Emotivism





Moral philosophy and moral talk





Post-crisis Britain, the moral economy and moral panic





Outline of the book












2. The social, ethical and political lives of language







Introduction





Social life of language





Michael Meacher’s speech





Ethical life of language





Political life of language





Conclusion












3. Form: what counts as moral talk?







Introduction





Stance, evaluation and moral talk





Quotability





Specificity





Determinacy





Checklist





Conclusion












4. Function: what does moral talk do?







Introduction





Evaluative language, stance, fact and value





Hobart and the multifunctionality of moral talk





Cotext





Situations and ideologies





Cameron’s speech





Eric’s call





Conclusion












5. Moral systems and ethical life







Introduction





Moral systems and ethical life





The linguistic distinction





Moral systems, ethical life and radio phone-ins





Modest moralising





Conclusion












6. Critiquing moral talk

Introduction

What is critique?

Bias

Power

Illegitimate power

Immanent critique

Moral realism

Veracity

Explanatory critique

Lay normativity

Conclusion

7.? Critiquing interpretation

Introduction

Interpretative agency

Language ideologies

Hymes’ ethical sociolinguistics

Emotivism as a corporate technology

Emotivism in political communications

Linguistic expertise and arguments for emotivism

Conclusion

8. Conclusion

Introduction

What is moral talk?

What does moral talk do?

What is moral talk good for?

Methodology: the field, the meta-field, and the armchair

Theory: linguistic interpretivism and moral realism

References

Index

O autorze

Joe Spencer-Bennett is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Birmingham. He has published articles in the journals Discourse & Society, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language & Communication and Social Semiotics. His research concerns the ethical and political life of communication.