Language and power

Navigation Introduction Grammar in the media

Home page What do the examiners say?
Contents What is it all about?
Forum Persuasive techniques in language
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Comment Grammar and advertising
Mail me Semantics and advertising
Author Pragmatics and advertising
Discourse structures in advertising
Finding more
Influential power - politics
Political rhetoric
Parliamentary language
Special lexis in politics
The sound bite
Influential power - media
Lexis and semantics in the media
Pragmatics in the media
Structures in media texts
Influential power - culture
Instrumental power - law
The lexicon of law
The structures of legal language
Advocacy
Instrumental power - education
Classroom management
Instrumental power - business
Special lexis in business
Buzzwords
Forms of address in business
Business discourse structures
Corporate language
Specimen exam questions
Example texts with interpretation
Printing and copying this guide
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Introduction

This guide is written for students who are following GCE Advanced level
(AS and A2) syllabuses in English Language. This resource may also be
of general interest to language students on university degree courses,
trainee teachers and anyone with a general interest in language
science.

On this page I use red type for emphasis. Brown type is used where
italics would appear in print (in this screen font, italic looks like this, and
is unkind on most readers). Headings have their own hierarchical logic,
too:

Main section headings look like this

Sub-section headings look like this

Minor headings within sub-sections look like this

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What do the examiners say about this subject?

In preparing this topic area candidates should study:

conversational analysis; stylistic analysis of texts; historical
and contemporary changes, as appropriate. In particular
they should examine:

influential power (e.g. advertising, politics, media,

culture)

instrumental power (e.g. law, education, business,

management)..

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What is it all about?

One obvious feature of how language operates in social interactions is

its relationship with power, both influential and instrumental. Neither rule
nor law, neither discipline nor hierarchy sanctions influential power. It
inclines us or makes us want to behave in certain ways or adopt
opinions or attitudes, without obvious force. It operates in such social
phenomena as advertising, culture and the media. (Strictly, we are not
coerced into buying what the advertiser shows us, nor will we suffer any
penalty for our "sales resistance".) Instrumental power is explicit power
of the sort imposed by the state, by its laws and conventions or by the
organizations for which we work. It operates in business, education and
various kinds of management. (In many, but not all cases, if we resist
instrumental power, we will be subject to some penalty or in trouble.)

Note: instrumental here does comes from the same root as

the instrument we play to make music - they are related
etymologically. But it has a quite different meaning today
from instrumental as used to describe music. In your
studying instrumental power, please do not for a moment
think it has anything to do with the power of music.

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In some spheres of social activity, such as politics or law, both kinds of
power may be present at the same time:

we are subject to laws (enforced by penalties), but

some legal processes, such as trial by jury, rely on attempts to
persuade.

Politicians impose laws, taxes, and bureaucratic systems (instrumental

power) but seek to influence us to endorse their policies or turn out to
vote for them (influential power). They may wish to influence us to use
our collective power to return them to office, where they will use their
executive power to direct some aspects of our lives - a curious paradox
of our system of parliamentary democratic representation. (That is they
get us to give them the power to tell us what to do and how to live. And
we really do have the choice, collectively, as we show when we vote for
a change of government.)

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In looking at how power is exercised through language, you should be

able to refer to real examples you have found, and explain these texts.
But you should also have a theoretical approach that will enable you to
interpret language data you are presented with in an exam. Among
other things, you should look at pragmatics and speech act theory, lexis
and semantics (forms and meanings), forms that include or exclude
(insiders or outsiders), structures (at phrase, clause and discourse
level), forms of address, phatic tokens, as well as structural features of
speech, which may be used to exercise or establish power. And in some
contexts, you will need to be able to show how rhetorical devices are
used to influence an audience

Consider, for example, how conversational maxims may be adapted for

reasons of expedience, rather than integrity. Does all power corrupt in
language, as (according to Lord Acton) it does generally?

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Persuasive techniques in language

Simile and metaphor | Mixed metaphor or simile | Extended metaphor |

Allusion | Lists of three | Repetition | Parallelism | Puzzled or redundant
questions | Alliteration | Wordplay

This guide looks at the different subjects that examiners specify, but
there are many techniques that are common to various contexts. In this
section you will find some guidance on these. As well as looking for
them in texts that you study, you may try to use them in texts that you
produce - for example in original writing or editorial writing tasks.

Simile and metaphor

You may think of these primarily as devices in poetry, but they abound,
consciously or unintended, in almost all spoken and many written texts,
as when political reporters talk of a "raft" of measures.

Satan (Andy Hamilton) in an episode (from 2001) of Old Harry's Game

(a radio sitcom set in Hell) remarks of one of the characters that he is
"shaking like a Millennium Bridge" and of another that he has "the
willpower of Bill Clinton at a cheerleaders' convention". The first is a
simile, the second a metaphor. Both were topical in 2000, and exploit
assumed attitudes in the audience - that we know (and are amused by)
the engineering problems of the Millennium Bridge (good to look at,
perilous to walk on) and the reputation of President Clinton.

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George W. Bush uses it for more serious effect when (in a State of the
Union address) he describes the American faith in freedom and
democracy as "a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations." You
will find these techniques not only in grand and serious contexts. If you
want to collect metaphors, listen to soccer reports on Radio 5 - some of
the summarizers even have their own favourite stock of images. Stuart
Hall can be relied on for these, whether he is using the dead metaphor
"School of Science" for Everton FC or likening the soccer player Emile
Heskey to a wildebeest.

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Mixed metaphor or simile

Careless speakers or writers may mix metaphors inadvertently, but

some authors do it intentionally. Even Shakespeare does this, as when
Hamlet proposes "to take arms against a sea of troubles" - presumably
both the playwright and the Prince realize that this is a strange action.
The audience sees it as a metaphor of an impossible struggle. (W.B.
Yeats used this idea in a poem called Cuchulain's Fight With the Sea)
Mixing metaphors can have comic effects, as when a character in Mel
Smith's 1989 film, The Tall Guy, remarks of an attractive woman that:
"She's like a hungry leopard in full bloom." In fiction, mixing metaphors
in dialogue is a stock way to make the reader question the intelligence
of a character.

In other contexts it may come from the attempt to compare or relate

things others have said. Many years ago, the late Enoch Powell,
warning about the future effects of large-scale immigration referred to
rivers of blood running in the UK. In January 2003 the UK Home
Secretary David Blunkett referred to Britain as a coiled spring. In Any
Questions (a radio programme in which various experts answer
questions from the audience), Jonathan Dimbleby, the host, first said,
(summarizing others' comments), "the country's like a coiled spring and
this could spill over..." then asked, [is] "David Blunkett's coiled spring a
tributary of Enoch Powell's river of blood?" Mr. Dimbleby appears to
have seen that this is an inelegant mixing of metaphor, but his main
purpose was, in posing the question, to relate the statements of others,
who chose the original images.

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Extended metaphor

In rhetoric, a speaker may return to or develop a metaphor, to make an

argument seem more compelling. In John F. Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural
Address to the American people, we find an extended metaphor of
lighting a fire to give light to the world:

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour
will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can
truly light the world."

Allusion

Another powerful technique is to refer to, or even quote, a powerful

phrase that the audience may already know. There is some risk in this,
as the author needs to be sure that enough of the audience will be
aware of the allusion or reference, unless the quoted phrase works well
even if its origin is not known. In the lines quoted above, Kennedy
seems to allude to the image, in St. John's gospel, of Jesus as "the light
of the world".

Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, borrowed an image

from John Gillespie Magee's poem High Flight to explain the disaster in
1986 when the Challenger space shuttle exploded:

"We will never forget them (the crew), nor the last time we saw them
this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye,
and slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God."

(Magee's poem begins: "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth"
and ends "...I've...Put out my hand and touched the face of God.")

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In commenting on language data, you may find it hard to detect allusion

- in a way it is almost impossible unless you know what it is to which the
speaker or writer alludes. On the other hand, there are many
contemporary texts in which a young person has more chance of
detecting a reference than an older one. A good example is a short
feature (in the Guardian newspaper's tabloid supplement) that purports
to be an extract from a chat forum, but is really a spoof. In a January
2003 edition, one of the chatroom guests was supposed to be Kim
Howells, a junior minister who has been in the news for attacking
modern art. He rebukes the other users of the chatroom for their non-
standard spelling, adding: "I blame Mrs. Dynamite". The author intends
the reader to be amused by the way "Kim Howells" tries to show an
awareness of youth culture, yet reveals his ignorance in changing the
title from Ms to Mrs ("Ms Dynamite", as younger readers will know, is
the stage name of the rap singer Niomi McLean-Daley.)

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Lists of three

Three-part structures and lists are memorable and resonant in many

kinds of text. Here are some examples:

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three...

St Paul, 1 Corinthians 13.13 (King James Version, 1611)
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that
everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no
insignificant person was ever born.
George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, 2001
If you're a daring designer, a budding botanist or simply green-fingered,
we want to hear from you
Alan Titchmarsh, Gardeners' World Live, BBC TV, June 2001

Lists of three are not so common in unprepared speaking, but you

should look out for them in any language data you have to study.

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Repetition

A useful rhetorical device is to repeat a key idea or phrase - this may

seem crude, but it may lodge in the minds of the audience. We see it in
a speech made by Harold Wilson, during the 1974 UK General Election
campaign:

"This election is not about the miners; not about the militants; not about
the power of the unions..."

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Parallelism

Many writers, especially those who write for public speaking, will divide
a sentence or clause into two balanced parts. This was the basic
principle of poetry in much of the ancient world. There are almost
limitless examples in the pages of the King James Bible, which was
translated to be a version for public reading. Sometimes the second half
echoes or develops the first half - this is synonymous parallelism.
Sometimes the two halves are opposed or contradictory, and this is
antithetic parallelism or simply antithesis.

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Synonymous parallelism

We see this in some lines from George W. Bush's Inaugural Address,

where he refers to US history as:

"...the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not
possess, | to defend but not to conquer."

In this example the thought of "to protect but not possess", is carried
further by "to defend but not to conquer". In speaking these lines, there
will be a pause after "possess".

For a more familiar example, look at the British National Anthem:

"God save our gracious queen, | long live our noble queen."

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Antithetic parallelism or antithesis

The first example comes from a speech of Winston Churchill, in which
he challenges the Luftwaffe (the German air force): "You do your worst -
and we will do our best".

A celebrated example comes from Kennedy's Inaugural Address

(quoted above):

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not, what your country can do for
you. | Ask what you can do for your country."

And we can see antithesis in George W. Bush's images of America's

"faith in freedom and democracy", first as a rock, then, by contrast, as a
seed:

"Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and

democracy was a rock in a raging sea. | Now it is a seed upon the wind,
taking root in many nations."

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Puzzled or redundant questions

If you wish to make a statement, it may be a good idea to ask a

question or series of questions to introduce it. This is a common
technique in information leaflets, which often pose the question from the
reader's viewpoint - "How can I protect my baby from common
infections?" and so on. It can also be powerful in political rhetoric - "How
can a Labour government raise standards in education?" leading to an
exposition of the party's policy. For example, Welcome to the Labour
Party, a booklet which gives information to new members, contains
pages where statements are introduced by questions, each set out as a
section heading, such as:

"How can I get involved?",

"What happens at local policy forums?",
"Do I have to go along to a local policy forum to have my say?"
and
"What is the future?"

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Alliteration

Using the same initial consonant is a common ploy of poets and

advertisers. It can be irritating if it's overdone, but makes lines quotable
or memorable. In George W. Bush's inaugural speech we note "faith in
freedom" and "rock in a raging sea". Winston Churchill, in his speech
about the Luftwaffe addresses the Nazi leaders and refers to the Nazi
party as "the grisly gang who work your wicked will".

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Wordplay

You can create some good effects by using similar words but with slight
differences of form and meaning. Andy Bodle in a listings article for the
film Rancid Aluminium does this by describing the film as "part arthouse,
part shithouse". Here are a couple of examples. The first comes from
Dorothy L. Sayers' Introduction to her translation of Dante's great
narrative poem, Purgatory:

"Between the bishops who assure us that the family is the one and only
seedbed of all the virtues, and the psychiatrists who warn us that it is a
hotbed of all the vices, we hardly know how to advise any child to enter
upon the hazard of existence."

The second comes from Vladimir Nabokov's essay "On a book Entitled
Lolita". This is an appendix to his novel of the same name. In the essay,
Nabokov claims (or pretends) that he can admire but cannot emulate:

"...the accuracy of judgment of those who pose the fair young mammals
photographed in magazines where the general neckline is just low
enough to provoke a past master's chuckle and just high enough not to
make a post-master frown."

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Influential power - advertising

Broadly speaking, advertisers persuade their audience to adopt

attitudes to lifestyle, products and services. It is rare to find advertising
that seeks to influence explicitly or directly. Less rare are
advertisements in which the link to a product or service is implicit or
ambiguous. Consider a TV advertisement (May 2000) which depicts
Aimee Mullins a model (who is also a paralympic athlete, sprinter, and
double below-the-knee amputee) preparing for the finale of a fashion
show for Alexander McQueen - the advertisement was made for an
Internet service provider, FreeServe, but did no more directly to
advertise FreeServe than show the company name and logo. There is
an oblique link to the name of the company in the idea of the model's
freedom to run with the wild animals depicted in the fashion show. At the
same time the advertiser skilfully links a possibly un-sexy technical
service with ideas of beauty, fashion and positive discrimination.

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Advertising has a lexicon, which may change over time, but is fairly
stable - new, improved, proven and other qualifiers are seen as reliable.
David Ogilvy in Confessions of an Advertising Man (quoted by Shirley
Russell; Grammar, Structure and Style, Oxford, 1994, p. 177) identifies
a basic lexicon of qualifiers such as: new, good, crisp, better, fresh,
natural, fine, free, and of verbs such as: buy, give, taste, go, look, feel
and use. Special registers (technical, scientific or pseudo-scientific) may
be used for appropriate products. Torque, BHP, valve, ABS for cars or
keramides, pro-B, hypoallergenic in personal hygiene products. Look
out for special lexical uses according to product, image and target
market. "Pot Noodle - everything else is just pants". Pants is (or was in
2000) fashionable as a mild term of disapproval among young people
(especially young men) who may be supposed to want food which is
inexpensive, quick to make, and needs no special preparation or
utensils.

Advertising borrows and adapts structures and forms from texts of all
kinds. Many broadcast advertisements are dramatic, with a narrative
conducted through dialogue. Others may show a narrative by images
alone, to the accompaniment of music and/or a voiceover. Can you
think of examples? Puns, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme
and other kinds of comic or poetic wordplay are common in advertising.
Ambiguity, irony and allusion (reference) are also powerful techniques.

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Advertising and special lexis

Advertising often makes use of short texts - whether in print or

broadcast media - where every word has to work hard (in this respect
very much like poetry). It is very common for the advertiser to use words
that belong to some other special lexicon, as if to establish a rapport
with the target audience. So a 2002 television advertisement for John
Smith's Bitter (beer) opens as if it were a broadcast of an international
diving event (the advertisement appeared shortly after the 2002
Commonwealth Games). After divers from other countries execute
technically perfect dives, the British diver jumps in, making a great
splash and almost losing his trunks, to rapturous applause and perfect
marks from the judges. The commentator utters the phrase, which is the
slogan of the campaign: "top bombing". The non-standard noun,
bombing, suggests something which is typically male, fun and demotic -
it is unpretentious, aimed at people who have traditional ideas of bitter
as a down-to-earth and blokeish drink, in contrast to continental lagers
or drinks with other social pretensions.

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It is very easy to find special lexis in any advertisement. But in

explaining how it works, you will need to think about how far the
copywriter is using a particular register, or feature of style, which in turn
is related to the product brand and image, and the attitudes or values of
the audience. Look at the following examples of extracts of text from
adverts, culled from a quick look through a selection of newspapers and
magazines (the product and the producer appear in parenthesis after
the advertisement text):

The British Airways Sale. Go on. Take off. (Reduced-price

flights/British Airways)
Imagine a healthier fitter you. (Tanita body fat monitor)
Move Mountains. (Sim City 4 PC/Dixons)
Not so much a price as an invitation. (Flights to Spain/Iberia
Airways)
Every year 39,200 women are newly diagnosed with breast
cancer. (Medical insurance/AXA PPP healthcare)
Go Mobile. (Voyager laptop computer/Evesham Technology)
A win, win, win, win, win, win situation. (6 months' free business
banking/Barclays)
Demon slashes all broadband set-up fees. (Broadband Internet
service/Demon)
Not even the taxman can catch it. (Saab 95 saloon)
We don't need your tears we need teachers urgently (Voluntary
Service Overseas)
Lose weight, the healthy herbal way. (Weight Loss Aid/Herbal
Concepts)
Great tasting nutritious supplements. (Build-Up Nutrition/Nestl)
Helps reduce and overcome smoking at your own pace.
(NicoBloc)
Always on call. (Day & Night Nurse)
Technology with style. (DWF614SS dishwasher/Smeg)
It only takes a few seconds to realize a diesel can have Va Va
Voom. (Renault Clio)
Kurt Geiger for her. Paul Smith for him. Tax-free prices for you.
(Airport shopping/BAA)
Authentically French mellow cheese. (Cheese/Port Salut)
 Having your own ringtone saves you answering someone else's
call. (Call Sign/BT)

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Look for the lexical words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). What
ideas do they suggest? Does the text suggest the ideas of good value
(low price), of style, status, sophistication, convenience, fitness and so
on?

The Iberian Airways advertisement repeats the idea found in many

airline ads of good value, while at the same time suggesting something
personal about visiting Spain, through the noun "invitation" - which we
associate with parties and celebrations.

The advertisement for BAA's Airport shopping works in a similar way: it

refers to the low (tax-free) prices, yet targets its audience very precisely
by naming the fashionable brands on sale - if we do not know what Kurt
Geiger or Paul Smith makes, then the advert will pass us by. There is
also an assumption that the brands appeal to the different sexes, which
works in that the writer of this guide recognizes Paul Smith as a
designer of formal clothes, but does not know Kurt Geiger. (The
advertisement also has a three-part structure to point up the special
lexis.)

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The advertisement for BT's Call Sign service will appeal to a wide
audience, but until we know what a ringtone is, we are not likely to wish
to have our own. The meaning of the noun is self-explanatory - but here
it moves from its original context of use (mobile phones) to the related
context of fixed telephones - so the advertisement targets householders
rather than predominantly young people with spending money.

The Barclays advertisement uses a phrase that is a clich or buzzword

among business people: a "win-win situation" implies an arrangement
that benefits people at either end, and challenges the received wisdom
that if X gains then Y loses. So in using the phrase, the advertiser keeps
to a register familiar to the business customer, while printing the
adjective six times to indicate the number of months for which the free
offer runs.

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"Technology with style" is one example of a pattern familiar here - that

suggests that the product has two things that the audience may think to
be normally contradictory or oxymoronic (the idea of "having your cake
and eating it"). Sometimes the opposition is of price and quality (as in
the claim that good food costs less at Sainsburys). Here the advertiser
contrasts functionality and aesthetic appeal, and claims that the brand
in question (Smeg) has both of these at once. Similarly the
advertisement for NicoBloc combines the idea of efficaciousness (it
works) with that of its not being too difficult for the would-be non-smoker
to stop smoking. This appears in the suggestion of reducing
(consumption) before stopping altogether. The verb "overcome" has
connotations of victory in battle, rather than the breaking of a habit or a
simple change in behaviour. These is probably very apt, since the target
audience for this advertisement may well have an extreme view, and
see the attempt to stop smoking as akin to a great military action. (The
advertisement comes from Healthy Times a magazine distributed, free
to readers, by the retail chemists UniChem - so the audience has
already been targeted. Advertisements for products that help people
stop smoking do of course appear in more general contexts, as in TV
advertising.)

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This same contrast also appears in the Renault Clio advertisement - but
here the lexis is more explicitly making the distinction, in diesel and Va
Va Voom. The adjective diesel has immediate denotations of the known
properties of this engine type - the engine has a longer life, is more
dependable and gives better fuel economy, but takes longer to reach
high speeds. The advertiser wants to suggest that the car nonetheless
has a combination of style, flair, power and youth appeal (not normally
associated with diesel engines). Rather than use any of these words,
Renault has invented its own compound abstract noun - Va Va Voom.
This is alliterative, and has an interesting sound - being quite
memorable. The advertisers develop the image by association with, for
example, the soccer player Thierry Henry - who is French, but lives and
works in England, and is exceptionally talented and athletic. At the
same time, M. Henry is shown in situations that suggest a caring and
feminine side - with pets, sitting at home among soft furnishings, for
instance. In this way the advertisements appeal to potential drivers of
both sexes, and are highly specific to one make and model of car. By
inventing the word, the advertisers are able to adapt it so that it carries
exactly the suggestion they wish to make to the audience - it should
have no prior negative connotations. One of the advertisements
playfully suggests that the new term is part of the standard English
lexicon by asking what is the French for Va Va Voom?
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Grammar and advertising

Does advertising have distinctive grammar? Yes - in several ways. First,

advertising, like poetry, often allows the author more licence to depart
from standard forms than in other kinds of text. And second, it makes
use of short forms, of what Professor Crystal calls minor sentences.
There is a connection with pragmatics, therefore, in that the advertiser
makes very great assumptions about the audience. It is acceptable to
puzzle or intrigue in ways that would not be at all appropriate if the
audience really depended on the advertisers' information.

One very common technique is for the author to set nouns and noun
phrases or verbs on their own, where the reader or listener supplies the
missing elements by conjecture - rather as in interpreting notes, so that,
for instance, "does what it says on the tin" is understood as "this product
meets the claims that are printed on the side of the tin". This form may
sometimes but not always resemble the forms used in headlines, so
that it is especially suitable for adverts in newspapers. Here are some
examples taken more or less at random from a trawl through some daily
newspapers (January 2003):

Happy New Rate

Deals to remember
Currys sale/Free delivery plus Buy now pay 2004
EMAIL, INTERNET & TEXT MESSAGES
Winter welcome
Free servicing for 3 years
Summer seats on sale
new year new fares
The confidence to succeed
Precious metal for precious little

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On their own, these do not tell you how typical they are. A casual mental
count suggests that, in these newspapers, the advertisements in which
the first line (or text nearest the top of the display box) is not a
grammatically complete structure (sentence or main clause) outnumber
those that are complete in a proportion of at least three to one. But a
more complete survey from a bigger sample would be a suitable task for
research. Among the few complete structures are:

i want extra MONEY

 Apply now
How do you see yourself?
Look at the clues
Travel with Eurotunnel from just 5

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In the 1960s advertisers would often use grammatical conversion,

taking a brand name (a noun) and using it as adjective, adverb or verb.
This tendency has recently returned as in these examples:

That's so Suzuki
How refreshing, how Heineken

There is no attempt to alter the form of the word to correspond to its

grammatical category, such as by adding an affix like -ish, -ic or -esque,
nor of using an extra word: "that's so like Suzuki" "how like Heineken".

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Semantics and advertising

In the UK, there are some state controls on what advertisers may or
may not claim about their products. Advertisers, therefore, often exploit
the possibilities of connotation (suggested meaning) rather than strict
denotation (stated meaning) and imply that products have various
merits, without saying so explicitly.

One common way of doing so is to use pseudo-technical lexis or

scientific names for everyday things. However, this is not desirable in all
contexts. In cosmetic and pharmacological products, most advertisers
will use scientific lexis to suggest efficacy, as in these examples:

"Perle de Caviar draws the essential elements of long-lasting beauty

and a youthful complexion from the depths of the ocean...trace
elements, amino acids, mineral salts, iodine and plankton. Combining a
perfect balance of these precious elements, each Perle de Caviar
product provides an intense thalassotherapy treatment designed to
hydrate and regenerate."

"one simple tablet helps safeguard your diet with botanicals, natural
caratenoids, vitamins and essential trace minerals...Advance your
beauty regime with Perfectil - because true radiance starts from
within."
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"Regime" elevates the use of cosmetics to something complex, while

the symbol suggests that there is something technically sophisticated
in the product. It may really simply denote the registration of the trade
name to protect against misuse. This pseudo science is not simply
found in the advertisements proper but in the joined-up marketing, so
that people who apply and demonstrate the products are "beauty
therapists" - which may imply similar learning, academic qualifications
and status to, for example, speech therapists or physiotherapists. The
"beauty therapist" wears a white garment like a lab coat, implying some
kind of likeness to a pharmacist. Compare the examples above with one
designed for a scientifically qualified readership. This is an
advertisement for Xalatan a 0.00%5 eye drop solution of latanoprost,
licensed for use in March 2002, and advertised in The Pharmaceutical
Journal of November 2002. The advertisement includes details of nine
references to the product in published scientific sources, followed by
detailed prescribing information, divided under standard headings such
as Presentation, Indication, Dosage and Administration, Contra-
indications, Precautions, Side Effects, Interactions, and information
about the drug's effects in Pregnancy, Lactation and for Driving,
Overdosage, Pharmaceutical Precautions, Legal Category, Packaging
Quantities and Basic NHS price and details of the Product Licence
Number and Holder. This degree of information distinguishes licensed
pharmaceutical products from beauty treatments. In the latter case, the
advertisers might wish us to believe that Laboratoires Garnier and the
Ponds Institute are comparable to medical research institutions. In the
west, Ponds appears to have dropped references to the fictitious
institute - a search on the Web leads to some amusing spoofs, though
the Ponds Institute is still used in advertisements in the developing
world. A register of pharmaceutical laboratories in France (at
www.pharmaxie.com) does not show Laboratoires Garnier under entries
for the letter g.

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In relation to food and drink, however, advertisers are usually keen to

stress its naturalness. So while the product packaging will list all
additives, flavourings and colourings, advertisements will identify the
brand and basic food content, as in "Filippo Berio/The World's Finest
Olive Oil/Filippo Berio/Olive Oil/Pure Genius" - the brand name and the
principal ingredient appear twice, along with the adjective "pure", to
suggest the idea that there is nothing but the natural oil in the bottle that
the advertisement depicts. A full-page advertisement for Cobra beer, in
Sainsburys Magazine for January 2003, shows lots of blank space, a
small photograph of two bottles of Cobra, the Web site address, and this
text: "If you like Cobra,/drink Cobra" and "The less gassy bottled beer
that puts you under no pressure".

There are some exceptions to this rule of thumb, however - vitamins

and mono-unsaturated fats, for example - which advertisers do
sometimes mention.

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Pragmatics and advertising

Advertisers occupy the spaces where we are typically attending to other

things - watching television, reading or browsing a magazine on the way
to work, looking at posters on an underground train, platform or
escalator, or from a car, bus or bicycle. They will try to appeal to all our
senses and different language processing faculties at the same time. It
is quite common for a TV advertisement to feature any or all of these at
the same time: musical track, sound FX, voiceover, dialogue spoken by
character or celebrity in or out of role, static text, moving text or text
spelling out letter by letter on screen, with or without extra graphic
embellishment.

What we do, if anything with these, may vary from person to person -
but is something one can research. You can do this, for example, by
showing advertisements to people (categorizing the people by whether
they have seen the advertisement before, and how often, as well as by
other things like sex and age), then asking them whether they think the
advert contains an example of each of the kinds of text that the
researcher has identified. (It is possible to add some that are not there,
as distractor questions, to eliminate some kinds of respondent.)

A very good pragmatic approach is to consider the position and

viewpoint that the audience is being asked to adopt. This can be
something very simple, as in an assumption that we all want to save
money. This assumption is very widespread among advertisers and
marketers. Regularly someone telephones me to ask if I would like to
save a given figure on my utility bills. My stock response is to say that I
do not wish to save this amount (or even a lot more) to change
something with which I am currently content, thinking it a fair price for a
reliable service. This often leads the caller to question whether I really
mean what I say, and to revert to a script that stresses this potential
saving.
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By no means all advertisements make this assumption. Others assume

that the reader or listener has anxieties about his or her self-image, and
that he or she can become more attractive by wearing the watch or
clothes advertised, or driving a different car. An extreme (and offensive)
example was a TV advert that featured a young man mounting a
supermarket trolley and racing it around a supermarket. A female
voiceover spoke the phrase: "Inadequate car". (The advert is offensive
in suggesting that the choice or ownership of a marque of car is the
measure of a human being.) Various advertisers of mobile phones try to
persuade existing owners that they need to replace a model that is not
stylish and a likely cause of ridicule, as in an advertisement series
(shown on UK television) for Phones4U. In these adverts the comedian
Paul Merton speaks a voiceover: "We'll find the right phone for you".
Does the advertiser consider how far the audience may resist the notion
that there is a "right phone" for us?

A more objective approach to pragmatics might be to consider what

grammatical person or form of address advertisers use, if they try to
speak directly to us. Do they use imperatives ("Look at the clues"), do
they make statements ("We don't serve lobster in the directors' dining
room") or do they plant noun-phrases ("Free servicing for 3 years") and
leave us to work out what to do about these?

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Discourse structures in advertising

Advertising is highly derivative and imitative (if not parasitic or

plagiarizing) in the genres, text types and structures it uses. In effect,
any kind of text that exists for any other purpose may be the blueprint
for an advertisement. (This is not a one-way relationship: dramatic
narratives and comic animations often borrow structures and techniques
that first appeared in advertising. And there are many examples of
television or print fiction that started life as advertisements - the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 1990s or Torchie the Battery Boy in
the 1960s.)

A very common general approach (for any broadcast medium and

cinema) is to create narratives - which may be self-contained or
episodic. While the advertiser may not wish to point out that these are
narratives, this is not always the case. A series of advertisements for the
BMW Mini car uses the format of stories with a plot consisting of three
or four statements, read as voiceover with accompanying action - the
subject of each sentence is usually "New Mini", and each example ends
with: "The end. It's a Mini adventure". At the opposite extreme would be
a series of advertisements produced by the agency McCann Erickson
for Nescaf's Gold Blend brand of instant coffee. This campaign ran
from November 1987 to 1993, containing twelve episodes released at
the rate of one or two a year. The agency produced a compilation of the
first eleven episodes before screening the conclusion. The "story" was
adapted as a romantic novel, entitled Love Over Gold.

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An even longer-running series featured the OXO couple "Katie" and

"Philip", in a series of domestic scenes. The Gold Blend series may
have prompted the advertisers of the Renault Clio to make a series of
advertisements featuring a French father and daughter ("Papa" and
"Nicole") into a more coherent narrative, ending with a wedding, which
sends up the classic film The Graduate. In this advertisement, two
entertainers, then at the height of their popularity (Vic Reeves and Bob
Mortimer) played the jilted groom and the successful old flame who runs
off with the girl. A Channel 4 poll showed this series to be the most
popular of all UK TV adverts, while other studies have claimed that the
series was the most successful in terms of the audience's ability to
identify the product advertised.

As styles of TV broadcast have developed (say lifestyle programmes or

reality shows), so advertisements have moved to emulate them. So we
see the home makeover and DIY show mirrored by advertisements for
Homebase, in which Neil Morrissey and Lesley Ash appear as a couple
(loosely resembling the characters they played in the sitcom Men
Behaving Badly) while post-watershed documentaries about sexual
behaviour clearly have inspired the campaign (starting in 2002) for Pot
Noodle ("It's dirty but you want it") in which a young man visits various
clubs and asks young women in underwear or bondage gear whether
they "do" Pot Noodle, or in which a young woman (seemingly a
girlfriend) accuses the young man of indulging in his Pot Noodle habit.

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Finding more

You can find many advertisements by going to the Web sites of the
various agencies, or looking for named directors of commercials. But
two big portals worth visiting are:

www.adflip.com - Adflip claims to be the world's biggest archive

 of advertising
scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess - Ad*access is a vast historical
archive of adverts.

As a critique of advertising, you should look at Adbusters, at

adbusters.org/home.

Influential power - politics

The features of political language vary, as do its purposes. Where

politicians interact with society generally, their purposes may be, to
persuade voters with a party loyalty to turn out to vote; to move a
floating voter's party allegiance, or to make us adopt general political or
social attitudes, so we support a given policy. Politicians may also use
particular language forms when answering journalists' questions. Where
politicians engage in language interactions with other politicians, they
may use other particular forms - either loosely or under the rule of an
arbiter, such as the Speakers in the UK House of Commons and the US
House of Representatives. And finally, a contemporary feature of
political language use is what is known as "spin" - providing information
to the media in such a way as to favour a desired interpretation, not
explicitly stated.

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Political rhetoric

Persuasive language techniques, especially in speech, take their name

from the Greek noun for a professional speaker, rhetor (the Latin
equivalent is orator). Many of these techniques are found in written
records of speeches in the ancient world - such as Jesus' use, in
Matthew's and Luke's gospels of parable, antithesis and patterned
speech which even survive translation into English:

"Blessed are those who mourn, | for they shall be comforted. Blessed
are the pure in heart, | for they shall see God."

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We have similarly ancient records of political speeches, such as those

of Demosthenes, that show the use of techniques that are as effective
today, as they were in the past. Max Atkinson, of Oxford University,
suggests that political speechwriters consistently rely on a range of
powerful techniques:

alliteration,
 allusion,
antithesis (inversion),
asking questions and suggesting answers,
lists (especially of three items),
metaphor (especially extended metaphor),
parallelism,
parenthesis,
repetition and
redundant questioning.

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To see these in action, you should look at examples of speeches written

for politicians, and find out how these work. Obtaining example data for
this purpose is very easy. You can use the official record of the UK
House of Commons. (This is called Hansard after Thomas Curson
Hansard, who began producing reports unofficially, and put his name to
the record in 1829. Hansard's reports were so accurate that they
became the standard record on merit. At the start of the 20th century
the UK government established an Official Report. It dropped the
Hansard name, but popular usage preserved it, and in 1943 the name
was officially reinstated, even though the report now has no connection
with the Hansard family.) Hansard's reports are available in print and on
the World Wide Web, as are records of proceedings in the parliaments
of many other countries (which also use the name Hansard). In the UK,
the BBC has a digital television channel (BBC Parliament) that
broadcasts debates and meetings of select committees - from which
you can make recordings and transcripts. The federal government and
state governments in the USA also publish the text of speeches, such
as the President's Inaugural Address and State of the Union speeches.

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Once you have found your transcript, what can you do with it? One
exercise is to look for rhetorical techniques in action. Consider this
extract from a speech made by the late Harold Wilson, the Labour
leader, before the 1974 UK General Election:

"This election is not about the miners; not about the militants; not about
the power of the unions: it's about the disastrous failure of three and a
half years of Conservative government which has turned Britain from
the path of prosperity to the road of ruin."

What is Mr. Wilson doing here? We find

repetition of the formula "not about", and

 antithesis between "is not about" and "it's about".

"Path of prosperity" and "road of ruin"

repeat the same form,

use alliteration and
are related metaphors.

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In John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address from January 20, 1961, we find

an extended metaphor (of lighting a fire to give light to the world) and a
concluding antithesis:

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour
will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can
truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not, what your
country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

The last two sentences use many of the same lexemes, but transpose
(switch) the subject and the indirect object. (You can find the whole text
of the speech and an audio recording [Real Audio] to download at the
JFK Library and Museum, hosted by the University of Massachusetts
Department of Computer Science at:

www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary

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For a humorous allusion, consider Margaret Thatcher's:

"To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite modern
catchphrase the 'U- turn', I have only one thing to say: You turn, if you
like; the lady's not for turning!"

There is wordplay on the homophones U-turn/you turn, and a reference

to Mrs. Thatcher's "Iron Lady" nickname, while the final phrase is a
painful pun on the title of Christopher Fry's play (about a witch): The
Lady's Not for Burning.

Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, borrowed an image

from John Gillespie Magee's poem High Flight to explain the disaster in
1986 when the Challenger space shuttle exploded:

"We will never forget them (the crew), nor the last time we saw them
this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye,
and slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God."

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Now look at these longer extracts (from which some of the examples
above come), and see if you can find other ways in which the writer (not
the same person as the speaker, usually) uses specific techniques to
achieve particular effects.

"In the long history of the world only a few generations have been
granted the rle of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
do not shrink from this responsibility; I welcome it. I do not believe that
any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
endeavour will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from
that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not,
what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your
country."

John F. Kennedy

"Suddenly the nation has been plunged into a midwinter election. You
must be asking why has Mr. Heath decided to make a desperate run for
it. It can't be because of the dispute with the miners. Mr. Heath can't be
asking you to vote him back so that he can make an honourable
settlement with the miners. No, Mr. Heath is making a run for it, in the
hope that the smokescreen of the miners' dispute - a dispute that he
has deliberately stoked up - will distract you from the real issues. This
election is not about the miners; not about the militants; not about the
power of the unions: it's about the disastrous failure of three and a half
years of Conservative government which has turned Britain from the
path of prosperity to the road of ruin."

Harold Wilson

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"I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises: you start with far-
fetched resolutions; they are then pickled into a rigid dogma cold. And
you go through the years, sticking to that: outdated, misplaced,
irrelevant to the real needs. And you end in the grotesque chaos of a
Labour council - a Labour council - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city,
handing out redundancy notices to its own workers. I'm telling you now:
no matter how entertaining, how fulfilling to short-term egos - I'll tell you
and you'll listen - I'm telling you, I'm telling you - you can't play politics
with people's jobs and people's services."
Neil Kinnock

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were

watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to
understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of
the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance,
of expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the faint-
hearted. It belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us
into the future and we'll continue to follow them. We will never forget
them, nor the last time we saw them this morning, as they prepared for
their journey and waved goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of earth,
to touch the face of God."

Ronald Reagan

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Parliamentary and unparliamentary language

In the UK Parliament, a range of special language features marks

proceedings. These include:

a special lexicon and forms of address,

disallowing personally abusive epithets
use of special structures
Parliamentary privilege - freedom from liability for slander
rules for taking and holding turns
procedures for supportive and explicatory interventions
submission to the arbitration of the chairman or woman, the
Speaker and Deputy Speakers.

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David Crystal (Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p.

378) suggests also that maxims of conversational theory do not apply to
parliamentary dialogue. Other participants or commentators do not
assume that speakers are telling the truth, are speaking clearly or with
relevance. This may need some clarification. In some ways, debate is
like social conversation - people speak in sequence, respond to each
other and develop ideas. And outside of occasions when MPs adopt
ritual enmities (Prime Minister's Question Time or the presenting of a
new draft bill, say), the speakers may follow cooperative rules and
observe conversational maxims. But they have other motivations than
the success of the conversation - and (in pragmatic terms) may want
the exchange not to be successful, that is in coming to an
accommodation. For an exhaustive discussion of how different
theoretical models usefully explain parliamentary discourse, have a look
at Chris Christie's Politeness and the Linguistic Construction of Gender
in Parliament: An Analysis of Transgressions and Apology Behaviour at
www.shu.ac.uk/wpw/politeness. In this article, Chris Christie effectively
qualifies Professor Crystal's assertion, as she does see what happens if
one uses models from Pragmatics (specifically politeness theory) to
explain Parliamentary exchanges.

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Special lexis in politics

Forms of address in parliament | Parliamentary privilege | Voting |

Parliamentary rules for turn taking | other rules

The UK parliament has a special lexicon - something you will find in the
political systems of many states. This includes terms denoting the
institutions, practices and officials of the parliament - things like bench
(back bench, cross bench, front bench), Black Rod, speaker, under-
secretary, whip (noun and verb).

This lexicon is very extensive (there are many guides available to

explain the meanings of terms). Some are descriptive and more or less
self-explanatory, such as: Committee of Selection, Disclaiming a
Peerage and Prime Minister's Questions (though here we need to know
that the questions are asked of or to, but not by, the Prime Minister, who
gives the answers). Others are opaque - we need to know more
information in order to understand the meaning, as with: 1922
Committee, Another Place, Chiltern Hundreds, Hansard and I Spy
Strangers. You can find explanations of these and other terms on
various A to Z guides, but if you want to know the meaning of these
particular terms they are as follows (Hansard is explained above):

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1922 A committee made up of all backbench Conservative

Committee MPs; when the party is in opposition, frontbench MPs
apart from the leader may attend.

Another When members of the Commons wish to refer, in

Place debate, to the House of Lords, or where peers (in the
Lords) wish to refer to the Commons, they refer to
"another place" or "the other place", rather than
 naming the house.

Chiltern An office appointed by the Chancellor of the

Hundreds Exchequer. MPs cannot voluntarily give up their seats
during a Parliament, so if one wants to resign, he or
she applies for this office (which is normally granted)
and is immediately disqualified from being an MP

I Spy Anyone who is not a member or official of the

Strangers Parliament is a stranger. An MP can interrupt
proceedings with the cry: "I spy strangers". This
forces the Speaker to put a motion that strangers
withdraw (from the public Strangers' Gallery). If the
motion is passed (very rare) the proceedings continue
in private.

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Below is a list of further words and phrases which have a special

meaning in the context of Parliament. How many do you know? Check
the BBC's, or Parliament's own, A to Z guide to find out what they mean.
Go to:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament or
www.parliament.uk/works

Adjournment debates Green card

Amendments Green Paper
Annunciators Guillotine procedure
Another place Hansard
Any hours motion Hybrid Bills
Autumn Statement I Spy Strangers
Backbencher Journal of the Commons
Below the gangway Journal Office
Bills Leader of the House
Bisque Lobby System
Black Rod Lobbying
Blocking motion Lord Chancellor
Budget Lord Privy Seal
Budget briefcase Lords Commissioners
Budget leaks Lords Spiritual
Cabinet Lords Temporal
Cabinet committees Mace - Commons
Cabinet Office Secretariat Mace - Lords
Cabinet reshuffles Maiden Speech
Casting vote Ministers
Censure Motions Motions
Central Lobby No-Confidence Motions
Chairman of Ways and Means Nodding Through
Chairmen's Panel Oaths
Chancellor of the Duchy of Ombudsman
Lancaster Order Book
Chancellor of the exchequer Order Paper
Chief whip (government) Orders in Council
Church commissioners Orders of the Day
Civil list Overseas Office
Clauses Pairing
Clerk of the Parliaments Parliamentary Private Secretaries
Closure (PPSs)
Coalition Parliamentary Privilege
Command papers Parliamentary Questions
Committee office Points Of Order
Committee stage Portcullis
Constituency Prime Minister's Questions
Consultation papers Printed Paper Office
Contempt of Parliament Private Bill Office
Cross Benches Private Bills
Crossing the Floor Private Member's Bills
Deputy speaker Private Notice Question
Dilatory motion Privilege
Disclaiming a peerage Privileges Committee
Divisions Privy Council
Draft bills Privy Councillors
Early Day Motion Prorogation
Expulsion Public Accounts Committee
Father of the House Public Bill Office
Filibustering Queens Speech
First Reading Quorum
Foreign Secretary Reading Clerk
Free vote Readings of Bills
Frontbench Recesses and Recalls
Grave disorder report stage
Green card Royal Assent
Green Paper Second Reading
Guillotine procedure Select Committees
Hansard Serjeant at Arms
Hybrid Bills Shadow Cabinet
I Spy Strangers Speaker
Journal of the Commons Spillover
 Journal Office Standing Committees
Leader of the House Standing Orders
Lobby System Starred Questions
Lobbying Statutory Instruments
Draft bills Table Office
Early Day Motion Ten Minute Rule Bill
Expulsion Third reading
Father of the House Unparliamentary language
Filibustering Usual channels
First Reading Vote Bundle
Foreign Secretary White Paper
Free vote Woolsack
Frontbench Writs
Grave disorder

Forms of address in parliament

Forms of address may confuse the outsider. Simple forms include my

honourable Friend, the honourable Gentleman/Lady or the honourable
Member for Finchley. These denote an MP simply - other members are
supposed to know who represents each constituency (electoral area). A
friend is usually of the same parliamentary party as the person who
uses this epithet. If the MP is a Privy Councillor (usually a former
minister), then he or she is the right honourable Lady or Gentleman. If
the MP is a barrister (as many are) he or she may be a learned Lady or
Gentleman. The Speaker and Deputy Speaker chair debates. Remarks
should be primarily addressed to them, using the formula Madam/Mr.
Speaker or Madam/Mr. Deputy Speaker...For example, here is a
comment from Hansard for 21 January 2003, in which Mike O'Brien
(Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs) refers to Ann Clwyd: "I pay tribute to the work of
my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley". (In Hansard "hon." is the
standard abbreviation for "honourable".)

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Directly addressing another person with the second person pronoun

("You") is disallowed and may earn a rebuke from the Speaker, as in
this exchange:

Mr. Prescott: Now we see the picture. The hon. Member for North
Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) said, "We're against congestion charging."
Mr. Gray: I am.
Mr. Prescott: You might be - perhaps that is new new Conservatism -
 but you should have a chat to your mate on the Front Bench.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. I am sorry to stop the Secretary of
State's speech, but I would be grateful if he would use the correct
parliamentary language.

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In this case the Speaker signals his disapproval and calls Mr. Prescott
to attention with the call: "Order". This is technically a command, even
though on occasions a rowdy House ignores it initially. Interestingly, he
says nothing about the "mate on the Front Bench" - so Mr. Prescott
might have escaped rebuke, had he said, "the honourable member for
North Wiltshire should have a chat with his mate on the Front Bench,
the [right] honourable member for X". Mr. Prescott's error is to use
second person "you", and speak directly to Mr. Gray.

However, in choosing among possible alternative forms in a given

context, speakers may illustrate pragmatic rules or principles - perhaps
using a polite formula to cover hostility or aggression, while in a
naturally friendly exchange a less explicitly courteous form may be
acceptable. Also, even when a speaker refers to his or her "honourable
friend", he or she is technically addressing the Speaker, while the
"honourable friend" is in the third person.

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Parliamentary privilege

In the House of Commons speakers may assert things which elsewhere

would allow others to sue them for libel - this is Parliamentary Privilege.
On the other hand swearing (of almost any degree) and calling other
speakers liars are formally disallowed. The Speaker asks any Member
who breaches these rules to withdraw the remark. If he or she persists,
the Speaker may ban the offender from the House for a given period.
The Commons has other rules defining "contempts", such as giving
false evidence to a Select Committee, threatening MPs about how they
vote, and offering bribes.

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Voting

To vote, members go through a lobby. If they support a motion, they go

through the Aye ("yes") lobby; to oppose it, they enter the No lobby. To
give the result, the Speaker states the number of votes for Aye and No,
and says that either the Ayes or the Noes have it.

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Rules for turn taking

In a debate, the Speaker of the House calls MPs to take a turn. The
holder of the turn may allow another speaker to interrupt his or her
speaking. The new would-be speaker may ask, "Will you give way?"
The MP who is speaking may agree to this, using the form: "I will give
way". Etiquette dictates that the new speaker should make a brief
contribution before allowing the first speaker back. This is a highly
formalized version of turn taking. Of course, on many occasions, the
person who has the floor will refuse to allow the interruption, for reasons
of time or policy.

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Other rules

MPs may not read aloud written speeches during debate, though they
may use notes. They are not allowed to read newspapers, magazines
and letters. They may not make use of visual aids, such as diagrams
and maps.

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The sound bite

Short slogans, like those in advertisements, often mark the speech of

politicians answering questions from journalists (or their opponents).
These are repeated in such a way as to persuade the listener of their
truth or reason. For example, in defending policies which apparently
increased unemployment in the UK but raised the value of the currency,
Mrs. Thatcher coined the phrase: "There is no alternative". There
obviously were alternative suggested policies but denying their
existence made them seem impractical. Whether or not they were really
impractical is not the linguist's concern: we are interested in the
linguistic means by which Mrs. Thatcher justified her dismissal of them.

A very simple but effective sound bite is the name New Labour. "New" is
well known as an effective qualifier in advertising, and the UK Labour
Party in the 1990s was keen to distance itself from the (supposedly
unelectable) Labour Party of the 1980s. Constant repetition of the name
made it stick. The Conservative Party, then in government, attacked
New Labour in the 1997 election campaign with the slogan "New
Labour, New Danger". Arguably, this reinforced the idea that Labour had
changed and helped the party win the election.

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Influential power - media

(broadcast, print, new technologies)

While any text may be influenced by the maker's preconceptions and

world view, many media texts arise from an explicit intention of
promoting given values or attitudes, whether sincerely, because the
author believes in them, or cynically, to attract an audience. As students
of language, you have no interest in this - your concern is the language
features in which these attitudes are embodied or expressed. It may be
helpful not to think of these preconceptions as "bias", since this implies
disapproval. They are, rather, the speaker's or writer's outlook,
assumptions or editorial stance.

You should be aware that certain media texts proclaim and admit these
underlying attitudes - opinion columns or current affairs broadcasts
explicitly adopt such a stance. But others, such as reporting, may aspire
to neutrality, yet display the author's value systems by choices of lexis
or current metaphors. For example:

Do we read of refugees, economic migrants or asylum seekers?

Are they bogus, and are they passing through open (or about-to-
be-open) floodgates? (How often do you meet floodgates in a
literal, rather than metaphorical sense?)
Are those who resist the state guerrillas, freedom fighters or
terrorists?
Does a writer introduce ideas of legality to confer (dis)approval,
so "legal" intoxicants (alcohol, tobacco) are distinguished from
those that are illegal, and so referred to as drugs.

New media texts may reveal very different attitudes, but in similar ways
- they, too, have distinctive lexis and metaphors. Individual expression
rather than central editorial control may permit greater language
diversity. Perhaps influential power is less monolithic, but appears in
trends and fashions. There is plenty of space for critics - the World Wide
Web abounds with sites that proclaim why X sucks, where X is a
powerful business corporation.

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Lexis and semantics in the media

Lexical choices reflect shifts in subjective meaning or connotation or

contemporary attitudes, so that they carry a sense of approval
(approbation) or disapproval (pejoration). They may also be
euphemistic, appearing as an acceptable substitute for some word or
phrase that the writer or speaker thinks too strong or direct - as when
the inadvertent killing of soldiers by their own allies or compatriots is
"friendly fire", and the killing of civilians is "collateral damage".

Political correctness (as a linguistic rather than social attitude)

represents an attempt to find neutral terms. While PC language is often
a subject for ridicule, it arises from a sensitivity to the connotations or
implications of more common forms.

It is worth paying attention to recurring forms - how often does anyone

talk about addressing the issues (in the loose sense of talking about
things or sorting them out).

Context is very important - some areas of the media will use traditional
and quite literary forms to suggest seriousness and dignity, as, say, on
Alistair Cooke's Letter from America, broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Presenters of children's programmes on BBC1, BBC2 and CBBC will
use forms closer to those of everyday speech among young people - or
will they? Perhaps this is generally true, but they will have their own
taboos - so they will not normally refer to sex, violence, gambling and
alcohol, or swear and blaspheme.

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Pragmatics in the media

We can apply the theories of pragmatics to language use in the media -

but should note some special features of how they work. A simple
example might be a political interview, broadcast on radio or television.
What the listener or viewer might miss is an understanding of how far
the speakers are aware of the wider audience, and how far the
questions and answers are, or are not, spontaneous, as the interviewee
may have seen them before the interview is recorded.

Another complicating factor is the effect of editing, where an interview is

recorded for later broadcast - this can remove the sense of two or more
people observing the cooperative principle or exhibiting politeness.

In the case of broadcast texts generally, one should consider the

relationship between the author or the publisher and the audience. Take
news broadcasts, for example. We are familiar with the convention of a
newsreader's sitting down at or behind a desk, but not all newsreaders
do this. Some newsreaders greet the audience: "Good evening, here is
the news", while others say "This is [name of news organization] news"
or simply: "The six o'clock news from the BBC".

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Even things like the newsreaders' clothes may be important - suits and
ties are common (for men) in the west and in the developing world, but
in some countries newsreaders wear traditional or culturally significant
clothes. This is something very easy to study: record a series of
broadcasts on radio and TV over a day or two - if you have digital TV
and radio, you can record bulletins from a much wider range. Then
study each and note down how they do certain things. For example:

The newsreader(s)

How many are there - one, two, more and of what sex?
What do they wear?
Do they sit, stand, move, stay still and so on?
Do they acknowledge each other?
How do they introduce reports from other correspondents?
How do they address the unseen audience?

Conventions of presentation

Do we see filmed footage (on TV news)?

Do we see any graphic images or captions?
Do we see text giving people's names?

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These are just a few ideas - you should be able to think of many more.
Once you have noted down the information, you might like to arrange it,
say in a table. Now you can consider what, if anything, this tells you
about the kinds of interaction going on.

To take one example Channel 4's seven o'clock (p.m.) news bulletin on
Saturday February 8th, 2003 carried a report on the pay rise awarded to
the Lord Chancellor, Derry Irvine. To show the value of this rise
(22,000), the broadcaster used on-screen graphics showing what this
amount would buy (a teacher's salary, so many bottles of claret and
other things), while displaying an animated image of a fruit-machine
bearing the name: "Derry's Jackpot". Leaving aside the question of how
the viewer may feel about the news story here, we may consider how
the use of these techniques affects that view. The image of the fruit
machine may be significant to some parts of the audience, but may give
offence to others, who disapprove of gambling.

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We may ask whether the broadcaster should use any images or

animations to suggest the idea of an unmerited benefit and whether the
fruit machine animation makes the story clearer. Should the story be left
to speak for itself? Or is some kind of editorial slant inevitable?

We can apply similar considerations to other spoken media texts - say

the way in which a programme host talks to a guest on a phone-in quiz
or similar activity. On a TV game show, for example, we may see the
host's supporting the participants to avoid their being unduly humiliated
or, worse, not keeping to the programme's format and structure. Recent
broadcasts, of the so-called "Reality TV" genre, are quite different - in
many of these, there is no such protection or nurturing of the
participants. Instead they are subject to insult by the hosts or other
participants.

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Grammar in the media

It is relatively easy to study grammar, by looking at very specific

features of language data such as verb tenses and pronoun choices -
these can become conventional in certain forms or genres, and harden
into a kind of style. So, with broadcast news, we will be familiar with the
forms in:

"Fifty-three people died when their bus collided with a train in central
China early this morning..."

The clause structure is subject + verb (past imperfect tense) +

adverbial. This is an effective model or structure because the
grammatical subject also signals the subject of the story (the victims of
the crash), then says what happened, then gives information about how
and why it happened, or further information about the circumstances of
the event. If we look at

"The Prime Minister flew to France this afternoon for a meeting with
President Chirac..."

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we can see that this is more or less the same structure. Some kinds of
text, like reportage, use formulas like this, because the writers work at
speed and are meant to publish the story rather than create literary
work.

Do persuasive media texts have distinctive grammatical forms that

reinforce their tendency to persuade? Perhaps. What might these be?
Well, I have just used one in the two previous sentences - taking what
might be declarative sentences and recasting them as questions and
answers.

Qualifiers can be used, as their name implies to qualify the meaning of

verbs and nouns - so that our view is affected - which really takes us
back into semantics and stylistics.

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Structures in media texts

Are there distinctive structures for persuasive texts in the media? First,
we may want to identify what such persuasive media texts might be.
Some are easy to name, as they are explicitly intended to alter our view
- as with party election or political broadcasts, editorials in newspapers
and campaigns, such as the campaign in 2001 by the News of the
World (a UK Sunday newspaper) to introduce "Sarah's Law" (the
equivalent of the US Megan's Law, here named after murder victim
Sarah Payne), such that families could know the identities of convicted
paedophiles living near them. Other texts may have less obviously
persuasive qualities - such as a documentary broadcast that leads the
audience to some kind of position or view. Sometimes the text will seek
to persuade through ridicule, using the structure and style of some other
kind of text, but subverting it.

What are the structures for these texts? Editorials may be a few
hundred words in length - a headline, a simple introduction, an
elaboration of argument with examples, leading to a simple conclusion.
While the lexicon and style may vary according to the target readership
of the newspaper, the structure is more or less the same for different
kinds of newspaper. The party election or political broadcast in the UK is
limited in time to a few minutes - so the writers have developed
structures like extended advertisements. The extract below comes from
a 1994 party political broadcast for the Labour Party, which had a
running time of 4 minutes 40 seconds:

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LABOUR PARTY POLITICAL BROADCAST, 21st SEPTEMBER

1994
[Opening shot: Time-lapse photography of the sun rising over the
Palace of Westminster]
TONY BLAIR: [voice-over] It is an honour to lead this party. I accept
it with excitement..
[cut to shots of Blair reviewing papers in the back seat of a car]
.. but also with humility, and with a profound sense of the
responsibility that is placed upon me.
[cut to someone adjusting the rear-view mirror to show Blair]
[Cut to Radio Two studio]
VOICE-OVER: [station identifier] Radio Two - Jimmy Young
JIMMY YOUNG: And in the studio with me now, the new Leader of
the Labour Party, Tony Blair. Good Morning Tony.
TONY BLAIR: Good Morning Jim.
[Cut to vox pops]
VOX POP 1: Tony Blair has a sense of vision.
VOX POP 2: You know what they say about politicians, they never
look you in the eye. He certainly does.
VOX POP 3: I feel I can trust him.
[Cut to Blair talking to camera; caption "The Rt.Hon. Tony Blair MP
Leader of the Labour Party"]

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This is more complex than a newspaper editorial. The editorial has a

common theme, but also may have a reasonably clear argument, using
examples to illustrate it. In the broadcast, there is still the common
theme, but there is not a simple or clear line of argument, rather a
series of elements that are assembled loosely. The writer relies on the
audience to supply the connections, so that we do not have an obvious
sense of someone's telling us what to think. The image of the sunrise
and the recording of Tony Blair's accepting the leadership of the party
both suggest the idea of change - in 1994 the Labour Party was trying
to persuade the British electorate to return Labour to power. We can see
how the writer first shows Tony Blair or has him speaking on a voice-
over, but does not have him speaking straight to camera until some way
into the broadcast.
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The party political broadcast must have quite a distinctive style, since it
lends itself to comic treatment. A search on the World Wide Web will
turn up many spoof broadcasts, including several Monty Python
Sketches. The extract below comes from a broadcast (November 2001)
of the ruling People's Action Party of Singapore and published on the
party's Web site at www.pap.org.sg. It is far simpler than the Labour
broadcast above:

My fellow Singaporeans
ECONOMIC PROSPECTS
In two days' time, you will be casting your votes. Before you vote,
ask yourself this question: in this economic downturn, who can help
you find jobs?
Nobody can say when our economy will recover. The US is fighting a
war against terrorism - in Afghanistan and in the US itself. If the war
goes badly, the global recession could drag on. Singapore could
then take one and a half to two years to recover. This is why I have
called for elections now, as I want your strong mandate for our
programme to save and create jobs for you.
JOBS TODAY, JOBS TOMORROW
I am especially concerned for older Singaporeans. They have
families to look after. They find it harder to find and fit into new jobs.
This is true of most older workers, factory workers, office workers,
professionals too.
How do we help you? First, let us try to save existing jobs. Next, let
us help retrenched workers find new jobs. Thirdly, for the longer
term, we must create more jobs.

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This broadcast is no more than a speech - we do not (on the Web

document) have an indication of what might be shown on TV or if it is a
radio broadcast only, but it seems to be the text of a speech by the
leader. In the Labour broadcast, Tony Blair eventually speaks about the
economy and jobs - but here the speaker moves straight to these
subjects, without any real preliminaries. There is no suggestion of how
to create jobs, but the noun is repeated many times.

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Influential power - culture

The notion of a canon of classic works of art has not gone away, but is
in creative tension with alternative contemporary visions. We cannot
readily call these modern since this label has been appropriated for
works from the early 20th century, and post-modern smacks of the
1980s. Some works, hailed in the moment of publication or exhibition as
masterpieces, are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, most developed
societies allow space for vigorous public debate about art and culture.
And we are comfortable with a distinction between popular, lowbrow or
commercial music, writing and so on, and serious, classical or highbrow
art.

Culture, especially popular culture, exerts a massive influence on how

people think and see the world. And this is reflected in a range of
language forms. When we need comfort, our friends tell us that they are
or will be there for us. Unless we are pedantic we do not ask where
there is. Soap operas and advertisements present us with tidy versions
of real life scenarios and the language forms we need to understand or
endure them: a lexicon for our troubles and problems, helpful phrases
and even extended discourse structures or paradigms for coping. "Have
a good cry" we are told, because we "have to grieve" (a metaphor of
pressure which must be released before it does harm, often appears).

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"You owe it to yourself" or "because I'm worth" it express positively

attitudes that seem far less attractive when called selfish or narcissistic.
The fictional trial of a character for a topical crime (rape, wife beating,
road rage) may provoke intelligent reflection leading to greater
understanding. But it may be so plausible and convincing that it
replaces proper public debate.

What kinds of persuasive texts might there be in the general category of

culture? These would include satire, polemical writing, poetry and
theatre.

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Instrumental power - law

While some legal processes are used to enact power, others are
devised to allow lawyers to persuade a judge or a jury, within an
adversarial system of persuasion. This has its own distinctive language
forms, and is much more constrained by rules than other kinds of
persuasion - so much so that failure to obey the rules can overturn the
decisions of a court. David Crystal (Cambridge Encyclopedia of the
English Language, p. 374) distinguishes between the language of the
legislature (Parliament) which institutes a legal text (sets down the law
in written form) and the language of the judiciary (law courts and
judges) which interprets and applies it.

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The lexicon of law

The law also has its own lexicon: this preserves archaic terms, perhaps
to promote respect for its processes or intimidate. While this continues
to be acceptable in criminal law, in April 1999 civil courts saw a change
in their lexicon.

A Mareva injunction (which prevents the sale of assets during

litigation) became a freezing injunction,
in camera became in private,
a minor or infant became a child,
a plaintiff became a claimant,
inter partes became with notice,
ex parte became without notice, while
pleading was replaced by statement of case.

These changes were made on the recommendation of Lord Woolf, the

Master of the Rolls, whose own title reflects the archaic origin of much
legal lexis.

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The Norman Conquest established French (which included many Latin

loanwords) as the language of law and politics. Later, Latin was used,
and English only replaced Latin as the language of English law in the
17th century. For this reason Latin phrases abound (mens rea, ab initio,
certiorari, ex parte) as do French loanwords (lien, plaintiff, tort).

To show the difference between areas where one is under obligation

and those where one has some room to choose, the law makes use of
modal verbs such as may, must, shall. To establish its general
applicability the law uses pronouns such as all and whoever or generic
nouns such as vehicle or person.

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To "simplify" or "modernize" the language of the law seems desirable,

but may be problematic. Ordinary people may have a better sense of
understanding and therefore more respect for laws expressed simply
and plainly. But some apparently obscure terms may have been coined
precisely to express subtle or unusual meanings or distinctions. And if
the law uses the common register, then an updated term may itself
become obsolete, as its common meaning misleads people about its
legal sense. Fiona Kerr, who used to practise law, gives this example of
what she calls "the difference between lawyer-speak and normal
language":

The general public use "murdered" interchangeably with "killed", no-one

ever says "he manslaughtered him"...Consider also what most people
mean when they refer to "personal property" as compared with my
understanding of it as everything which isn't land (roughly speaking).
When Mrs Bloggins does her own will and leaves her personal property
to the nice lady who looked after her cat whilst she was in hospital, she
may intend to leave her collection of tin ornaments and a few skirts, but
is she intending to also bequeath her savings to said nice lady or did
she intend to leave them to her son, along with the house? Only a
Judge can decide and by the time he has, there won't be any savings
left for the winning litigant to spend - and the loser could be in debt.

The structures of legal language

Law is often expressed in lengthy sentences marked by lists of items to

ensure that nothing is missed out which the law should cover, so we
know later whether or not it applies in a certain case. Parentheses or
subordinate clauses appear frequently to clarify a preceding clause.
Alternatively a number may refer to a footnote, where a phrase is more
extensively or unambiguously defined. Legal documents are notorious
for hyper-complex syntax, with several degrees of subordination of
clauses. They also allow, often without clarifying punctuation, lengthy
adverbial phrases, such as:

And any such release settlement discharge shall as between you and
the undersigned be deemed to have been given or made upon the
express condition that it shall become and be wholly void and of no
effect if the assurance security or payment on the faith of which it was
made or given shall be void...

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While literary texts (such as Dickens' or Hardy's novels) suggest that in

earlier times ordinary readers could process complex syntactic
structures, and understand their meaning, modern readers or listeners
may find this troublesome. Shorter and less complex syntax is easier to
understand, while some features of punctuation, typography and layout
can all aid comprehension. It is not so much that lawyers in the past did
not know how to make themselves understood. They perhaps never
intended to do so.

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Advocacy

Advocacy, as practised by barristers in criminal courts, can be

contrasted with advertising. In one case, there are no rules, while
approaches change and are expedient - advertisers do whatever works.
Advertisers are constrained by some standards and a code of practice.
But advocates in the law courts are subject to very precise rules about
evidence, kinds of argument and turn taking, among other things, in a
forum (the court) over which a judge presides.

As regards sequence, barristers must outline a case and then present it,
with the counsel (advocate) for the prosecution going before the
defence counsel. The prosecution must prove its case beyond
reasonable doubt; the defence, as barristers and judges often remind
juries, does not have to prove anything - it is enough to discredit the
prosecution or show that the prosecution has not proved the case
beyond reasonable doubt. Each side may question its "own" witnesses,
but the other side may subsequently cross-examine (question) them.
Each side must sum up its case, and the judge must also sum up the
whole proceedings and advise the jury about how to arrive at its verdict.

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In asking a question of a witness, an advocate is not normally allowed

to invite the witness to agree with a version of events the advocate has
described - that is, by asking leading questions. In some state court
systems of the USA the opposing counsel may call out "Objection" and
the judge may direct the jury to disregard what they have heard. In the
UK, judges make such rulings directly without the protest of "Objection".

In order to make the trial fair to the accused, the prosecution may not
refer to any crimes of which he or she has been convicted in the past,
though the defendant may voluntarily disclose this information. (This is
changing in English law.) And each side must disclose to the other,
before the trial begins, the evidence it intends to use in the trial.

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Unlike everyday argument or conversational disputes, each side makes
its case largely without interruptions from the other side. Each may take
as long as the evidence it presents allows - it is up to the judge to
decide if something is not relevant and stop a line of questioning or
argument. The closest thing to interruption is the chance to challenge a
witness's testimony in cross-examination. The advocates do not at any
point interrupt each other. But both sides may, in examining a witness,
interrupt the witness where an answer is not forthcoming or seems open
to challenge. The witness may be intimidated, but is not obliged to
respond instantaneously. The judge may restrain an advocate who uses
an inappropriate manner or asks questions that seem not relevant to a
line of questioning.

The fundamental principle of advocacy is so familiar that its strangeness

is often overlooked - that is, that experts in argument (advocates)
compete, under known rules, to secure conviction or acquittal for
another person. On occasions, in both criminal and civil trials, people do
represent themselves - but this is very rare. Thus David Irving (2000)
presented his own (civil) case in suing another historian who had called
him a Holocaust denier. (He lost the case, so anyone may now describe
Mr. Irving as a Holocaust denier, without risk of libel.)

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A jury has a difficult task, in attending both to the detail of a witness's

evidence or an advocate's interpretation, as well as to the whole case
presented by either side. Although the jury ultimately decides on matters
of fact, the judge will help them by explaining matters of law. Thus, a
verdict may depend not only on what the accused did or did not do, but
also on the offence of which he or she is accused. In England and
Wales, for most criminal offences, a verdict of guilty is represented as
beyond reasonable doubt. The presiding judge may help the jury with
the meaning of reasonable. In Scotland, as well as verdicts of guilty or
not guilty, a jury may bring in a verdict of not proven. This allows them to
indicate their uncertainty - the accused is not convicted, but does not
walk away clear of suspicion. According to Fiona Kerr:

"A guilty verdict means that the conduct complained of must have
matched the conduct covered by the charge and that the conduct must
be proved beyond reasonable doubt."

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In studying the language of the law, you may think primarily of those
who speak and write it, but be aware also of listeners or readers. In the
case of a jury, a very unusual kind of listening (and reading) is required.
The jury is able to make requests of the judge, for example, to look
again at a record of some part of a trial, but its discretion is limited by
what the judge allows or thinks appropriate. Jurors may make notes,
and keep these with them for the duration of a trial - these notes stay in
court or the jury retiring room (a special room where jurors meet to
consider a verdict, or in some kinds of break during a trial). Once the
jury reaches a verdict, these notes are destroyed.

One interesting expression of courtesy is the legal fiction that every

judge knows all the law. A barrister who wishes to correct a judge on a
point where his or her knowledge is not complete may use a form such
as, "As your lordship well remembers". Fiona Kerr notes that:

"the Barrister may well be supplying the Judge's ignorance but

everyone pretends that every Judge has an encyclopaedic knowledge
which is frankly unrealistic. Their Lordships have to deal with every
aspect of Law and there's no way they know that much, so Counsel tells
them the arguments and the law as if they know it already, even if they
don't."

The barrister supplies the relevant information but effectively offers it to

the judge for endorsement in a manner that signals deference. This may
be the origin of "with respect". At some point in the past it may have
been necessary for a speaker to exhibit real deference while correcting
a superior - since discourtesy would have led to a loss of honour or
reputation, as well, perhaps, as advancement that would be in the gift of
the person to whom the "respect" in question was due. Nowadays the
function of "with respect" (an implied correction by one with better
information) remains, but its literal denotation (showing respect to one
who deserves it) may be lost.

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Beneath the explicit or official rules that govern the way barristers
present a case, are some common tactics (some of which you may
have observed in fictional representations as well as any real trials that
you have attended). Fiona Kerr observes:

There's the day-to-day code of insults with which you are probably
familiar, such as "with respect" (i.e. you're wrong), "with great respect"
(i.e. you are completely wrong) and, ultimately "with the greatest
respect" (i.e. you are an utter fool)...

Nobody says "I put it to you" but they do a lot of being...sympathetic,

appearing to agree with the witnesses and leading them by the nose to
agreeing certain propositions before turning them around so that
logically they ought to also agree with a proposition which affects the
current case (or "instant" case as lawyers would put it); deliberately
provoking a witness so that he loses his temper (case effectively over,
particularly with regard to violence charges but useful anyway, as the
witness will give an unstable impression and also say things he would
otherwise avoid saying)... The perfect question is the one which damns
either way. The questions to avoid are any to which you don't already
know the answer. Witnesses are coached but only by the Defence. The
Prosecution Barrister won't even meet the witnesses, including the
victim, until the day and then doesn't deal with them directly except in
Court. It's all part of being impartial. The State wants justice for the
accused, guilty or innocent, the Defence is paid to win!

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Instrumental power - education

There are power structures in education, from nurseries to universities,

but these are often concealed from those who are subject to them.
Schools often produce codes or summaries or lists of rules, but these
may have only a local or relative force, since the school itself is subject
to laws that protect the interests of different groups. We can perhaps
helpfully distinguish educational institutions (other than officer training
colleges for the police and armed forces) from the armed services,
which have explicit published regulations, a clear hierarchy of
command, and tribunals to resolve the few disputed cases that defy this
system. In recent times some UK schools and universities may have
required parents or students to give assent to a code of rules or "home-
school agreement", but there is no universal model for these, and few
parents or students would accept that attending a school has the same
force in imposing rules, as joining the army or police service.
Educational establishments have some powers of last resort, such as
temporary or permanent exclusion but otherwise have very much to
derive their power from the consent of those who are governed.

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Traditionally, schools have exerted power on their students, but we can

also see how power lies with the pupils in many situations - at the least
because most of what teachers and parents expect to happen can do
so only with some assent from the students.

Classroom management
What happens if one adult (usually one, though in classrooms today
there may be several adults present) spends an hour - or several hours
in a primary classroom - in the company of between twenty and thirty
young people? Experience suggests that there is a massive variety of
results. In one case, the adult imposes his or her will by various means
on the students, who comply with the adult's lead or, if they defy it, find
themselves excluded or subject to some kind of sanction. In another
case, the children react to the adult in subversive and confrontational
ways (sometimes more actively than the same children would be if left
unattended in a classroom). In yet another case, the adult and children
achieve a kind of equilibrium, where each takes turns, gives way or
takes the lead, and all work productively towards an agreed set of
goals, or give outward assent to the majority who wish to do so. There
will be other situations, and maybe the same group will at different times
approximate more to one position than another - so a class that meets a
new teacher for the first time may do things to "test" his or her
character; while over time, a class may come to like and respect a
teacher, so that he or she can, on occasion, appeal to a perceived
obligation. Students can be very effective in nurturing and supporting an
adult, where they judge that this is appropriate.

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Many of the causes of these relationships are found in the personalities

of the teachers and the learners - but they also lie clearly in the nature
of the language interactions that occur between adult and pupil. And we
can study these objectively. For example, we can investigate

the frequency with which a request takes a given form - direct

imperative (do X) or question (would you do X?),
whether the person making the request uses a name or other
form of address,
whether there is a "please" and "thank you" and so on.

We could also measure objectively whether use of direct commands is

more or less efficient (in the time it takes) than use of requests. We
might wish to relate these things to the age, ability, prior social
experience and so on, of the learners.

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Another thing we might like to observe, and possibly quantify, is the

ability of a student, by speaking in certain ways, to provoke a given
response from the teacher. That is, how far each (student or teacher) is
ready to adopt ritualised or predictable and practised rles in an
interchange: the student presses a particular button, and the teacher
reacts in the expected way. Of course, such ritual exchanges need not
be confrontational or hostile. They may be playful in tone, but serious in
an underlying dialogue. Or they may be very friendly interchanges, in
which all parties are reinforcing an existing social relationship - the
teacher tells a weak joke, the pupils tell him how unfunny he is, then ask
about his sick cat or whether the new baby is still keeping him awake.

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Study of classroom discourse may differ from conversational analysis, in

that one person is trying to establish a rapport with a complete group at
some points, with sub-groups at other points, and individuals at other
times. In any one lesson it is almost impossible to achieve this, but over
a series of lessons it is possible - though without any objective method,
even the best-intentioned teacher may not give a fair allocation of time
to all. Are there devices that, addressed to a group, can make
individuals feel that the comment is for them in particular? Almost any of
the methods of analysis of spoken utterances that come under the
general heading of pragmatics may be fruitful when used to study
language exchanges in the classroom.

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Instrumental power - business and management

There are useful general approaches that we can take in analysing and
explaining language interchanges in various social contexts, but some
features are relevant to one social context more than another. Private
enterprise (in much of the English-speaking world) is regulated by some
laws that, for example, describe and defend the human rights and
welfare of employees, but it is not organized into a universal system, so
that language use can emerge rather as a fashion - and power may
come partly from using the current or the most novel special forms.

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Special lexis in business

Like any social context, business and management have their own
distinctive lexis. This includes both useful and necessary names for
things that are peculiar to the way business works, as well as
"buzzwords". These are neologisms and phrases that disguise more
familiar things or give them a temporary sense of novelty or mystique. In
time they may become seen as clichs or otherwise ridiculous. Let's
look at some real examples. Guru, which denotes a religious teacher
famed for great wisdom, has become compounded into other forms
such as Internet-guru, management-guru, business-guru and so on.
One such management guru is Charles Handy, who has invented a
special set of names for management structures, derived from the gods
and goddesses of classical Greece. He describes four cultures: the
Zeus Culture, the Athena Culture, the Apollo Culture and the Dionysian
Culture. (It is not clear why he uses the noun form as attributive
adjective for three of these, but uses an established adjectival form in
"Dionysian".)

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So what do the names mean?

Zeus Culture: an organization dominated by the personality and

power of one person, often the founder or owner, after the ruler
of the gods.
Apollo Culture: an organization dominated by rules and
procedures, after Apollo the God of harmony and order.
Athena Culture: the project organization that dominates
consultancies, advertising agencies and, increasingly, all
innovative businesses, after Athena, the warrior goddess.
Dionysian Culture: an organization in which the individual has the
freedom to develop his or her own ideas in the way they want -
an artists' studio, perhaps, or a university. They are hard to
manage, these Dionysian places, but increasingly necessary if
you want to employ really creative people.

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In an interview with the BBC, Charles Handy continues:

"What interested me, however, was not the downsizing or the re-
engineering itself, as others began to call it, but the consequences for
our individual working lives. Organizations, it seemed to me, would
increasingly dispense with our services in our mid-lives as they
concentrated on fewer and younger people in their cores, with only a
few wise heads to keep the show on track."

You can find the interview at

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy

In this short extract we see the business-specific terms: "downsizing",

"re-engineering" and "keep the show on track".

Downsizing is now quite well established as a verb that means

reducing the number of employees, and perhaps other features
of the organization (physical premises, costs and so on). It is
self-explanatory but has rather odd morphology, being a
compound of adverb, and noun (size) converted to verb.
Re-engineering is a metaphor whereby the reorganization of
people is likened to a change in a mechanized process - it is
therefore rather impersonal.
Keep the show on track is not confined to business, but used in
many kinds of human activity - it is a metaphor derived from
travelling stage shows. More commonly people say they try to
keep the show on the road. Charles Handy's use of "track" may
come from mixing the phrase with the ending of "back on track".

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Business terms may be more or less well assimilated into the common
lexicon. You can test this by looking for them in different dictionaries and
seeing whether or not they appear as an entry, as with

blue chip (a common stock that has consistently paid dividends

over a long period of time);
bundling (the grouping of several products and/or services into
one package. It benefits buyers by condensing several
purchases into one. Companies benefit by reducing the ability of
consumers to compare individual product prices with those of
competing companies.) The term is very common in relation to
computer software, bundled with a machine for consumers to
buy;
cherry picking (purchasing products individually from a variety of
companies rather than as a bundle from one company)

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At a series of presentations from bidders to supply products to the

Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Broadband Project (October 2000),
each presenter in turn referred to his or her product as "best of breed"
and most described a mutually advantageous arrangement as a "win-
win situation". The former metaphor is taken from the Crufts annual dog
show, but none of the presenters gave any hint of knowing this
provenance, of relating their presentations to it, or even that "breed" is a
biological term, which they were applying to computer networks,
hardware and software products.

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More recently, at a conference (February 2003, East Riding of

Yorkshire), I heard almost every speaker refer to important things as
"key". A frequent collocation was "key drivers" - where "drivers" are
influences or causes ("key drivers of change" and so on). Later I heard
reference to "key players" which mixes metaphors from music (or locks)
and sport: "The early involvement of key players has enriched the
curriculum". Speakers several times mentioned "routeways" in a
metaphorical sense: "All the routeways that they [learners] want" and
"open up the routeways". Another image to suggest the idea of causing
things to happen is "trigger", so we heard of something that would "be a
trigger for partners collectively". "Deliver" is a verb that has become
fashionable to express the idea of making something happen or simply
doing something - so one speaker referred to those who are "actively
engaged with delivering the concept".

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Since the late 1990s "issues" has become an all-purpose noun for
abstract things, in contexts where earlier we might have seen "matters".
It is frequently joined by the verb "address" so that people "address the
issues" - which usually means to talk, think or do something about some
other things. Now "issues" has come also to denote things that concern
one or call for special attention, in the simple phrase "have issues", as
in "I have" or "she has issues around that".

Less common but no less interesting are "event horizon" and

"hedgehog concept".

"As we sit on the brink of this 'event horizon' for equity markets, you
should ask whether this 'black hole' we are entering will deliver us to a
new dimension where bulls run freely, or will it tear the market,
destroying what we've built up?"

Don Wellenreiter, 'Markets at brink of event horizon', Futures, October,

2000

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The term comes from astrophysics, but entered popular use after the
publication of Professor Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. In
the example above Don Wellenreiter continues the astrophysical theme
with "black hole" and "new dimension", then mixes it with the traditional
"bull" image (as contrasted with a bear market) and finally a third idea of
tearing something up. "Hedgehog concept" appears to be derived from
Isaiah Berlin's essay The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953). Berlin writes:
"There is a line among the fragments of the Greek poet Archilochus
which says: 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one
big thing'." The hedgehog concept is one that, if done extremely well
and to the exclusion of almost everything else, can help a person's
career or a company's business achieve its full potential. Here's an
example:

"Walgreens' hedgehog concept is to run the best, most convenient drug

stores with high profit per customer visit," Jorndt continued. "We know
who we are and what we are all about - running drug stores. We work
like crazy to execute it in our stores."

Rob Eder, 'Out-foxing the hedgehog's rivals', Drug Store News, March
25, 2002

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Buzzwords

The notion of "buzzwords" arises from a wish to subvert or ridicule the

pretentiousness and inelegance of much special lexis in business and
management:

...drones and peons are slyly mocking the new corporate culture - and
their cliche-spouting bosses. One of their weapons is an underground
game called buzzword bingo, which works like a surreptitious form of
regular bingo. Buzzwords - 'incent,' 'proactive, 'impactfulness,' for
example - are preselected and placed on a bingo-like card in random
boxes. Players sit in meetings and conferences and silently check off
buzzwords as their bosses spout them; the first to fill in a complete line
wins. But, in deference to the setting, the winner typically coughs
instead of shouting out 'bingo.'

Buzzword Bingo, The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 1998

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Buzzwords are particularly opaque when combined into phrases or

longer structures - as in these examples from a satirical Web site.
These use a basic structure and a range of metaphors:
 "filter it though the cappuccino machine and see if it comes out
frothy";
"run it up the flag pole and see who salutes it";
"throw a crumb in the cage and see if the budgie bites";
"let's put that in the lift and see which floor it stops at".

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It is hard to imagine anyone's using these phrases without a sense of

their playfulness - and it is possible for people to invent new versions,
following this basic formula: "do X and see if/who/what/which" etc. Here
are some more words and phrases:

assets-based assessment or approach

best practices model
democratising of information
grass roots initiated
if you'd like to climb into your helicopters so we can look at that
from above
inclusiveness
infrastructure
leave it up to the man on the coalface
management bandwidth
measurable outcomes
multi-sector
need based or deficit assessment or approach
non-duplicative/reduces duplication
one stop shops
outsourcing
quality of life
reflects cultural diversity/culturally sensitive
scuba in your think-tank
singing from the same hymn-sheet
systems change awareness
window of opportunity

Are these words or phrases useful? Can you think of simpler or more
direct alternatives? Why might people use these buzzwords in
preference to more basic forms?

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Forms of address in business

In the armed services and some other organizations there may be

defined rules for addressing someone by rank, title or name. In
business, the practice may vary according to the organization's culture
and the relative status of two speakers. Two modes of address that may
be distinctive to business and management is the use of descriptive
titles and of initials. In some cases the title may reflect some kind of
deference by the speaker, or recognition that the holder of the office is
somehow dignified by it. Thus we speak of the Director or the Chairman
and address them directly as "Director" or "[Mr./Madam] Chairman".

Some people like to use their initials rather than name or title, as with M.
Gerbeau, the chief executive of the Millennium Dome, who liked to be
known as P-Y:

"Pierre-Yves (he is always called P-Y) Gerbeau is a remarkable man."

BBC profile, December 2000.

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We can also think of the fictitious oil baron J.R. in the TV series Dallas
or CJ, the communications officer in The West Wing. The implication is
that people in the organization know who he or she is, so that use of the
initials is a form of respect or recognition. If one speaker uses title and
last name (TLN), and the other first name (FN) only, we infer difference
in status. The social superior (the FN speaker) may invite the inferior to
use FN in response. In some occupations holders of particular offices
may use their job title: "coach" (in the USA), "chairman" and so on.
Generic titles to indicate status are not as common as they were,
especially in business, where we may speak about the "boss" but are
less likely to address him or her directly as "boss" ("chief" and "guv" are
even less common). Business does not have a series of honorary titles
in the way that the courts and political institutions to, or ranks as in the
armed services - "sir" may still be used, but does not have a very
specific reference.

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Discourse structures in business

Meetings

The guidance below is summarized from an article in the Guardian's

Rise jobs supplement and a Web site (www.speakfirst.co.uk), which
gives guidance on effective presentations:

Fiddling with your tie is "distracting and this, along with the
stuttered 'ums' and 'ers', 'you knows 'and 'I means', will devalue
 your message and make you seem less confident.".
When you're making a point, keep to it and don't digress.
If you're a newcomer in a meeting do not become too cosy.
Deal with interruptions. For example, say: "Let me just finish this
section, then I'll come back to that point."
Ask questions "How often have you...?" "Can you remember a
time when...?"
Use bridge words and phrases "as well as; consequently; in
closing..."
Reiterate - repeat and go over important points. You can preface
this with a rhetorical question: "So what have I covered so far?"
Pausing can be very effective. It gives the audience a chance to
think about what is being said. It also gives the speaker an
opportunity to breathe and think ahead.

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Michael Begeman, an anthropologist and computer scientist of the 3M

Meeting Network, suggests that meetings should follow different
structures, according to their purpose. He suggests that meetings can
be built around three kinds of conversation: for possibility, opportunity
and for action.

Conversations for possibility: The group acknowledges that it has

come together to generate ideas, not to make decisions. Its goal
is to maximize creativity.
Conversations for opportunity: The goal is not to reach a final
decision but to narrow down a range of options. People gather
information, do some analysis, and take positions.
Conversations for action: The goal is to decide, to commit: "We
want to leave this room with our four development priorities for
2004."

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Begeman suggests that the meeting should have what he calls "rules of
engagement" - and translate implicit expectations into explicit
agreements, about timing, and progress.

You can even create rules of engagement about individual behavior. For
example: Before anyone makes a point, that person has to find merit in
the point made by the previous speaker. Or, the senior people in the
meeting can speak only after the junior people have had a chance to
express themselves...It's a pretty simple idea, really. All you are trying to
do is to make the invisible visible, to make the automatic deliberate.
These...rules of engagement give people a chance to design how they
treat one another in meetings.

Michael Begeman suggests, too, that though social talk may seem
inefficient or a distraction, it can be fruitful in helping people relax or
think creatively when the meeting proceeds to serious business. You
can find his article at:

www.fastcompany.com/online/23/begeman.html

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Corporate language

According to "Mr. Nik" at www.btinternet.com/~mr.nik/business,

corporate language is fundamental to business communication
principles. These principles include:

Stating things in a way that makes them hard to argue with.

Stating things in a way that makes you seem important and
knowledgeable.
Making sure what you say can't come back to haunt you.
Repeating what your boss said, but trying to disguise it.
nventing as many phrases for "very good" as possible.
Using warm, fluffy words to fool employees into being happy and
fulfilled.

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This rather facetious description includes ideas familiar from pragmatics

- such as conversational maxims and politeness or mirroring other
people's speech. What "Mr. Nik" does not make clear - but pragmatic
analysis does - is how one does these things. In fact, one need not "try
to disguise" a repetition of what another says, either in content or
manner - since this often is very effective in securing other people's
cooperation.

It is possible to make some employees more contented at work, without

any extra expense to the organization, by a change of job title - ideally
one that suggests a more elevated status, without significant extra
workload.

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"Stating things in a way that makes you seem important and

knowledgeable" is more problematic. Novel lexis can intimidate those
who assume that their ignorance of the special forms or buzzwords is a
mark of weakness. But it can easily excite ridicule among those who
see it as pretentious, and are ready to cut through the vagueness or to
challenge the speaker to use plain or direct forms - or who play
buzzword bingo. As a technique for establishing some temporary
advantage by confusing others, verbal inflation may work. But it does
not help real understanding and collaboration, and impedes exchanges
where people are trying to agree on a course of action to follow.

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Specimen exam questions from past papers

I have not shown the texts used in some of the example questions - for
two reasons:

they come from sources which are protected by copyright, and

teachers may want to use the questions (from real past papers)
for practice exams in school - so they won't want me to have
shown them here.

Question 1

Text D is a transcript of part of a lesson at a primary school. The teacher

is discussing a visit made by an animal expert to the class on the
previous day.

Show by detailed reference to the transcript how both teacher and

pupils demonstrate power in this discourse.

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Question 2

The following text is a transcript of the first part of a BBC Radio 4

interview by John Humphrys on 5 May 2000. He is questioning
Margaret Beckett MP about the local by-election results.

Show by detailed reference to the transcript how both interviewer and

interviewee demonstrate power and control in their discourse.

Note: JH = John Humphrys; MB = Margaret Beckett; () indicates a brief

pause; underlining indicates emphasis in speech; italicised words
between vertical lines indicate simultaneous speech; [laughs] in square
brackets indicates that speaker laughs.
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Question 3

The text printed on pages 6 and 7 is the first two pages from Our
Children's Education - The Updated Parent's Charter, issued by the
Department for Education and sent to every home in England.

Show by detailed reference to the text how it demonstrates power and

authority in its use of language.

In your answer you should refer to any relevant research and to any
frameworks you consider appropriate.

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Question 4

The following text is a page from a leaflet published by Plan

International UK, providing information about how to sponsor a child.

Show by detailed reference to the text how it tries to make the reader
feel powerful.

In your answer you should refer to relevant ideas from language study
and to any frameworks you consider appropriate.

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Example texts with interpretation

Advertising text | political rhetoric | courtroom dialogue | parliamentary

exchanges

First example - advertising

Transcript of an advertisement for Head and Shoulders shampoo,

broadcast on television in the early 1990s.

Scene: A flat. An attractive young woman, with long dark brown hair,
looks towards a door which opens. A young man enters, smartly
dressed. He is holding his hands, which are covered in oil, in front of
him.
WOMAN: Richard! (She is expressing surprise at his arrival -
 perhaps he is late - and his appearance.)
RICHARD: (Explaining both at once) The car!
Richard goes to bathroom to wash oil from hands. He turns the tap
with his elbow and looks in the mirror, noticing the Head and
Shoulders shampoo bottle on the shelf beneath it.
RICHARD: Head and Shoulders? (Half turns to address her over his
shoulder) But you don't have dandruff!
WOMAN: (Shakes hair to let it hang down; smiles to the camera) No
- but I do have great looking hair!

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This advertisement has the discourse structure of TV dramatic narrative

- it resembles a scene from a soap opera (appropriate, given the
product). The advertisement must be brief, so the narrative is
compressed, and carried by the images as much as the dialogue. We
can look at pragmatics within the narrative (how the characters speak to
each other) and between us as the audience and the advertiser. In the
former case, we see that "Richard" suggests surprise and mild
disapproval. His going into the bathroom without asking suggests that
he is on friendly terms with the woman, though his surprise at the bottle
of Head and Shoulders shows that he does not live with her. "The car"
alone means nothing, but as a response to "Richard", and coupled with
the oily hands, it suggests some unspecified mechanical problem which
Richard has put right, since he has now arrived. Moving out of the
advert and looking at its relationship with the audience, we see that the
writer expects us to know the conventions of naturalistic television
drama, so we know how to read the scene.

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The writer uses the common lexicon of everyday speech - with the
exception of the proper noun for the brand name, Head and Shoulders.
The last line of dialogue, however, includes the three-word slogan
("great looking hair") that runs through the whole campaign - which
included similar stories featuring other characters.

This is not a transcript of natural speech, and thus avoids irrelevant or

incomplete utterances - if these were real people, then their
conversation would be exemplary in observing the cooperative principle.
It is, of course, scripted dramatic dialogue. The grammar is marked by
minor sentences - one of one word and another of two, though with
more implied - so "Richard" may suggest "Richard, you're late and your
hands are covered in oil" while "The car" suggests "I'm sorry I'm late,
the car had a problem but I've fixed it now..." The last two lines of
dialogue are more literary - especially the "but" before "you don't have
dandruff" where Richard is effectively responding to the idea that the
woman might have suffered from dandruff, since she is using Head and
Shoulders.

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Second example - political rhetoric

From President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, Friday, January

20, 1961

Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon,

President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today
not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom - symbolizing an
end, as well as a beginning - signifying renewal, as well as change.
For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn
oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters
ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands
the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of
human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our
forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that
the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from
the hand of God.

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We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -
born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter
peace, proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or
permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation
has always been committed, and to which we are committed today
at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it
wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden,
meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to
assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge - and more.

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To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we

pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot
do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do
- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split
asunder.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we

pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have
passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We
shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we
shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom
- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought
power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling
to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to
help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not
because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek
their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the
many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

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To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge

- to convert our good words into good deeds - in a new alliance for
progress - to assist free men and free governments in casting off the
chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot
become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that
we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion
anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this
Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our

last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far
outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support
- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective - to
strengthen its shield of the new and the weak - and to enlarge the
area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary,

we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the
quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by
 science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

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Many familiar rhetorical devices mark this text: antithetic and

synonymous parallelism, lists of three and complex patterning
(structures within structures). There are metaphors, imperative verbs
and parentheses.

The speech opens with a direct address to some special guests and the
audience more generally - both locally present and listening to the
broadcast - it will end by including all of these together as "my fellow
Americans". So the President first shows respect for the status of the
distinguished guests, then cleverly reduces them all to the common
level of citizens of the great republic - making them seem all equal, as
they are before God. At once we see uses of antithetic parallelism. The
first antithesis is in a "not...but" structure. (There are several in this
extract: can you find them all?)

"...we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of

freedom..."

while the next comes in two pairs (end and beginning; renewal and
change)

"...symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning - signifying renewal, as

well as change."

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Conjunctive "for" is used almost adverbially. The written text gives an

indication of the pauses in speech - and President Kennedy completes
sentences (twice) before starting others with "for", that serves as
comment on what precedes it: "For I have sworn..." and "For man holds
in his mortal hands..." We see how the President begins a series of
sentences with the object of the main verb, where the subject is always
"we" (as in the American people) - so each sentence follows the pattern:
To X we say or do A, B and C.

In this section we find a list of six groups of people whom the President
apostrophises: old allies, new (friendly) states, people in huts and
villages (the developing world), sister republics (in Central and South
America) and the United Nations. But the sixth group differs - these are
the potential enemies to whom the President offers a warning. It
appears that he is speaking to these various groups, but this is only a
secondary concern (insofar as his speech will be reported in these
places). In reality he is speaking to the people of the USA here - and
letting them know his view of these other places in the world.

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The language has a stately allusive quality that comes from echoing the
style of the English bible - so we read four times imperative verb
clauses beginning "let" - reminding us of how God said "Let there be
light", while "the word" has an echo of the opening of Saint John's
Gospel. (Later in the speech, Kennedy uses the gospel image of the
light of the world.) "Let the word go forth" and "let every nation know"
could almost (though they do not) come from the Bible - the lexis is
timeless here, and both "forth" and "nation" are words we meet
throughout the Old Testament in versions in the King James tradition,
such as the American Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

As well as the Bible, the President alludes to the Declaration of

Independence in referring to the "rights of man" that come from "the
hand of God". (Note how he speaks of God without hesitation, in vivid
Old Testament terms, as having a hand - whether this is a metaphor or
meant literally.) And he alludes to Rousseau's famous statement (that
man is born free but everywhere in chains), and slightly alters its
application so that the chains do not come from simple political or legal
oppression, but from being poor. He promises: "...to assist free men and
free governments in casting off the chains of poverty..."

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The President uses simple verbal embellishment in the repetition of

sound (alliteration) in lines like: "writ may run" and "dark powers of
destruction". Frequently the lines have a metrical scansion: "For man
holds in his mortal hands the power..." and "...have far outpaced the
instruments of peace..." are both true iambic pentameters. We find other
metres in "...born in this century, tempered by war..." and "...to
strengthen its shield of the new and the weak..." The lexis of the speech
comes from everyday speech - there are no specialist or obscure terms.
And most are simple structurally - like a good poet he uses
monosyllabic and two-syllable words: "Let the word go forth..." opens a
sequence of twenty monosyllables and a solitary two-syllable word
("alike"). His images are vivid and concrete - "the hand of God", riding
the tiger, handing on a torch, casting off chains and strengthening a
shield.
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Third example - courtroom dialogue

Extract from the transcript of David Irving's High Court action against
Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt.

In the High Court of Justice

DJC Irving

-v-

Penguin Books Ltd and Deborah Lipstadt

Extract from DAY 10: Wednesday, 26th January 2000.

MR IRVING: My Lord, the other minor matter concerns once again

the press.

MR JUSTICE GRAY: Yes.

MR IRVING: From today's press coverage - particularly I am

referring to the Times - one gets the impression they are relying
more on hand outs than on their personal experiences in the
courtroom.

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MR JUSTICE GRAY: I saw the report. I did not read it. What about it
are you concerned?

MR IRVING: Purely, that there were things in the article which were
not in the testimony yesterday, and I am not in any way pointing a
finger at the Defendants on this. It may well be there are third parties
who are doing this and providing copies of the Professor's report or
something like that to the press. This clearly disadvantages me.

I am aware of the fact that your Lordship is sitting without a jury, so

this is of less moment, but if it in any way gradually affects or put
wrong guidelines on public opinion and skews public opinion in some
way, then this may indirectly be seen to be affecting the outcome of
this decision.
 MR JUSTICE GRAY: Well, I am afraid that really is a sort of fact of
life that you just have to put up with. Really, what matters here for my
purposes is whether I am going to be influenced by it and, as I have
not read it, I will not be.

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MR IRVING: Very well, my Lord. Clearly, it would be improper for any

of the parties in this case to start putting hand outs to the press in
the way I appreciate the law is on contempt which would
disadvantage the other party.

MR JUSTICE GRAY: If anything that really does disturb you comes

up, mention it, but at the moment I do not think there is anything that
can usefully be done about what appeared or, indeed, should be
done. So I think we might as well get on.

MR IRVING: Very well, my Lord. It will probably assist your Lordship

if I now just in one topic paragraph, so to say, outline what I intend
doing.

MR JUSTICE GRAY: I would find that very helpful.

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MR IRVING: - for the next hour, shall we say? Firstly, there will be no
more traps being sprung. I am sure that the Professor will appreciate
advance notification. There are no more hidden booby-traps or
mines, but I am going to be dwelling briefly on crematorium No. II
still for a while because I believe the Professor wishes to make
certain comments on what I said yesterday.

I then want to have a look at the quality of the eyewitness evidence

that the Professor was relying upon, in particular the witnesses
Tauber and Bimko and Broad.

Then we will move to Auschwitz, the main camp, and have a look at
the alleged gassing facilities there.

MR JUSTICE GRAY: Yes. Thank you for that.

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In this part of the trial before Mr. Justice Gray, David Irving attends to
two kinds of business:
 first, to question the reporting of the trial in newspapers, to ask
the judge to consider the possibility that this may influence the
outcome of the process, and
second, to outline the part of his case that he will present next.

The exchange is marked by formal expressions of courtesy - and, on

David Irving's part, deference to the judge, yet these do not really
interfere with an efficient taking of turns, and a high degree of relevance
in the way the exchanges proceed. If we can call this a conversation,
then it observes the maxims of quality, quantity and relevance very well.
(Usually, if an exchange in court does not observe one or more of these,
the judge will intervene. "Relevance" is perhaps most important;
"quality" and "quantity" may depend more on the judge's discretion and
attitude to the speaker.)

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Beneath this, we can see a struggle for power. David Irving invites Mr.
Justice Gray to make some allowance for reporting of the case (which
Irving believes to be hostile to him) - in effect, he attempts to direct the
judge in his conduct of the trial. Mr. Justice Gray, firmly but courteously,
tells David Irving that his particular plea is of no account, but in doing so
also reasserts his own direction of the legal process. How does this
work?

Irving identifies a connection between mischievous and inaccurate

reporting and public hostility to himself. (This is plausible: he may be a
Holocaust denier or a racist, but it is possible for the reporters to
exaggerate or distort the true account of his racism.) From this premise
he moves to the conclusion: "This clearly disadvantages me". But at
once he contradicts this apparently firm statement with the recognition
that the judge is trying the case without a jury, so the only "public
opinion" that affects the outcome is his (the judge's) own. Mr. Justice
Gray's reply is, on the surface, a firm rebuttal of the possibility of his
being influenced by the reporting:

"Really, what matters here for my purposes is whether I am going to be

influenced by it and, as I have not read it, I will not be."

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There is a hint of ridicule or sarcasm here - as the judge points out what
appears to be a truism or statement of the obvious: he cannot be
affected by what he has not read. In saying this, he is saying rather
more - that it is not for David Irving to alert him (the judge) to possible
abuses or contempts of the court. It is precisely the judge's rle (among
other things) to decide such matters, with the benefit of his expert
knowledge of the legal process. In saying "...that really is a sort of fact
of life that you just have to put up with..." Mr. Justice Gray is drawing a
distinction between a kind of rough treatment that anyone in such a
case can expect to suffer from the press and a serious contempt or
indiscretion in the reporting that might in some way interfere with the
process of the law. (This has happened notoriously in many high-profile
jury trials.) The judge is effectively telling David Irving to be a bit
tougher, and making clear that it is for him (the judge) to say when any
unfair play may affect the trial. Perhaps he is aware of his robustness in
dealing with David Irving's expression of worry, as he attempts some
mitigation - inviting Irving, should anything appear that "really does
disturb him", to mention this. This is formally polite - but seems
insincere, as he has just dismissed Irving's existing account of what
"really" disturbs him. It allows the judge to move onto the real business
of the trial.

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When David Irving offers to outline the next part of his case, Mr. Justice
Gray responds very differently from what has gone before. "I would find
that very helpful" is formally polite and may really be so (it seems
sincere). Now that David Irving is falling into his appointed rle in the
trial, then the judge is happy - not least because the whole process
moves on, whereas the protests about the reporting have threatened to
delay the trial proper.

Given the nature of this trial and the excited reporting of which David
Irving has earlier complained we may be struck by the formal politeness
of the outline, in which Irving expresses a concern to treat his opponent
in the case (the defendant, Professor Deborah Lipstadt) with fairness.
There seems, however, to be some history implied in what he says. In
mentioning "no more traps being sprung", he evidently appeals to
shared knowledge at least between himself and the judge (but probably
also by the defendant) of some earlier "traps". Since he gives the judge
this reassurance, we may ask why? Why deprive himself of a potential
stratagem? One possible reason is that the judge has rebuked him
previously for presenting evidence without giving the defendant's
counsel notice of this. So now he is really reassuring the judge that he
will follow the proper procedures and etiquette - or asking the judge for
an endorsement of the way he proposes to present the next part of his
case. The judge's approval is not, of course, in any sense an approval
of David Irving's case. It is an approval of his complying with the
expected procedure in presenting his case.
Back to top

Irving moves to a very specific outline of points of detail, identifying

particular people whose testimony forms part of the accepted record of
the Holocaust. Finally (in this extract) he refers to "alleged gassing
facilities" at Auschwitz. Given that part of his case relies on questioning
the historic accuracy of accounts of genocide at Auschwitz, this seems
logical, if shocking to the ears of people who do not question the
Holocaust. But it may not help influence the judge's opinion in his
favour, as it is likely to excite a strong emotional reaction. That is, here
his argument is not "there was a Holocaust and Professor Lipstadt is
wrong in saying I denied it" but "I cannot have denied what never
happened" - in effect, he is repeating the denial in court. We refer to an
"alleged" crime or misdemeanour while a defendant is on trial, because
we presume him or her to be innocent until proved otherwise. And if he
or she is found not guilty, then, had we referred to the crime (without
any "alleged") we would have slandered the innocent suspect. But the
gassing of Jews at Auschwitz is not something that we attribute to
anyone on trial now. (There were historic trials, and people were found
guilty of war crimes.) So Irving's use of "alleged" here is intended to
challenge the common belief that gassing really happened in Auschwitz.
It may be enough, of course, for David Irving to show merely that it is
not absolutely certain that the Holocaust happened - as this would make
Professor Lipstadt's accusation seem libellous, as if she has called him
a denier whereas he is really a doubter, only.

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So the surface courtesy may conceal the momentous nature of the trial.
Professor Lipstadt has called him a Holocaust denier because she
wants people to be aware of denial as a technique of historical
interpretation, and, in a real sense, pass a moral judgement or condemn
those who do it. David Irving, meanwhile, intends to submit statements
about history to the same kind of legal scrutiny which applies in trials
where the witness statements are made in court and refer to the
conduct of those being tried.

In representing himself, David Irving does not (apparently) understand

how to conduct his case in all respects. He has a rather shallow sense
of how to do so, by aping the formal address he has noticed from
counsel in observing trials - so we note how he calls Mr. Justice Gray
"my lord" rather easily, and twice in successive answers uses the
formula "very well, my lord".
Back to top

Fourth example - parliamentary exchanges

This is an extract from Hansard. It is a report of Oral Answers to

Questions on Foreign and Commonwealth affairs. The questions are put
to Mr. Jack Straw (Secretary of State) and Mr. Mike O'Brien
(Parliamentary Under-Secretary)

21 Jan 2003 : Column 150

Palestine

Mrs. Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside): Given that the military

wing of the Palestinian Authority, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, claims
responsibility for blowing up and murdering at least 23 Israelis in Tel
Aviv on 5 January this year, does my right hon. Friend accept that
the Palestinian Authority is at the centre of terrorist activity?

Mr. Straw: I have not seen any evidence to suggest that the people
from the Palestinian Authority whom I met were at the centre of
terrorist activity - rather the reverse. They expressed similar horror
and repulsion at such unnecessary and gratuitous killing as anyone
else who is a member of the civilised world. However, I certainly
accept one implication of my hon. Friend's question: a huge agenda
remains for reforming the security sector inside in the Palestinian
Authority. We cannot have a situation where there are nine separate
security organisations, some under effective control by the
Palestinian Authority, but some no more than terrorist organisations
masquerading with the authority of the Palestinian Authority. That
has to be changed.

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Richard Ottaway (Croydon, South): Does the Foreign Secretary

agree that dialogue is the best way to combat terrorism? Bearing
that in mind, why did he decline to meet Mr. Netanyahu when he was
in London?

Mr. Straw: I had already met Mr. Netanyahu, and I gave him a very
good lunch.

Bangladesh
 2. Ms Oona King (Bethnal Green and Bow): What assessment he
has [sic.] made of the situation in Bangladesh. [91781]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and

Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Mike O'Brien): I can confirm what my
right hon. Friend said, because I was at that lunch, too.

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21 Jan 2003 : Column 151

We are concerned by reports of mistreatment of detainees, including

deaths in custody, associated with Operation Clean Heart. We are
monitoring closely the detention of journalists and opposition
politicians, and have urged the Bangladesh Government to ensure
that the due process of law is followed in all cases.

Ms King: Following the reported human rights abuses, may I thank

the British high commissioner in Dhaka, David Carter, for the
representations that he has made? What steps are the British
Government taking to help strengthen democracy in Bangladesh?
Will the Minister continue to raise the tragic case of the British
resident, Surat Miah, who was beaten to death? Will he write to me
on the indemnity Bill?

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Mr. O'Brien: I will pass on my hon. Friend's thanks to the high

commissioner. We are following closely the circumstances in
Bangladesh and particularly the arrests of some journalists and
opposition leaders. We welcome the release of Hussein Chaudry
and others. Democracy means allowing disagreement and debate,
and in Bangladesh that means that the Awami league as well as the
Bangladesh Nationalist party must have the right to voice their
opinions. We have raised our concerns informally with the
Bangladesh authorities, and will continue to do so. I will write to my
hon. Friend on the issue of the indemnity Bill. Surat Miah, who was
killed at Dhaka airport, was a British resident but not a British
national. We have let the Bangladesh authorities know that there is
widespread concern about the case in this country, and we have
made representations in that regard.

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The transcript here uses some conventions, such as "hon." where the
speaker says "honourable". All the participants observe the convention
of indirect speech among themselves, mediated through the Speaker -
so they always use the third person pronouns or a title: not "Do you
agree that..." but "Does the Foreign Secretary agree that..." Where
there is a choice of a pronoun (he/him) or a title, we find the speakers
mostly use the latter. You can check this for yourself. How often does
anyone say "he/she/him/her"? How often does anyone use a descriptive
title in referring to another - Foreign Secretary, (right) hon. Friend,
Minister and so on?

We note that the questioners often open their questions with a

subordinate clause, expressing some condition or qualification of the
question: "Given that the military wing of the Palestinian Authority...
claims responsibility ..." and "Following the reported human rights
abuses..." We note, too, how some of the "questions" are not really
requests for new information, but an invitation to endorse a statement
that the "questioner" makes: "does X accept that/agree that..."

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Mr. Ottaway asks two questions. But the second presupposes that Mr.
Straw has answered the first by agreeing with the suggested statement
- which Mr. Straw plainly has not done. So in Mr. Ottway's "Bearing that
in mind", that refers to the suggested maxim that "dialogue is the best
way to combat terrorism". Mr. Straw does not endorse the suggestion,
nor does he refute it. Instead he evades both questions by saying that
he did not meet Mr. Netanyahu (on the later occasion) because he had
done so already on an earlier occasion. In doing this, Mr. Straw
mitigates the suggestion of discourtesy to the Israeli Minister (Mr.
Netanyahu), by producing evidence of earlier courtesy. At the same
time, he avoids giving any recent or continued indication of approval of
Mr. Netanyahu. In this respect, the mention of the "very good lunch"
becomes relevant. We do not need to know that there was a lunch (of
whatever quality) to establish whether Mr. Straw did or did not meet
him. But the mention of the lunch will appear as a tangible proof that the
meeting happened, and that Mr. Straw recalls this circumstantial detail -
whereas he cannot, or will not, say anything about the content of the
meeting in terms of who said what to whom. The junior minister
supports this account by recalling the lunch. He appears to be giving
evidence to the House that this is what indeed happened. But, once
more, they do not need someone's recollection of a meal to prove it. Mr.
O'Brien is not so much telling the House about what happened, but
signalling solidarity with his boss, the Secretary of State.
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Mrs. King initially asks an open question about the Minister's

"assessment...of the situation in Bangladesh". She does not (as earlier
questioners do with Mr. Straw) immediately invite Mr. O'Brien to agree
with some statement of hers. In allowing him to give an answer that she
has not suggested to him, she may be establishing trust in the
conversation - he can see that he is not having words put into his
mouth. Next Mrs. King secures even more cooperation, in expressing
gratitude to the servant of the crown, the British Ambassador. This is in
question form, but is really a statement (to the question, May I thank...?
no answer of yes or no is possible, except as a comic non-sequitur).
Having secured, Mr. O'Brien's cooperation, Mrs. King moves to a series
of three questions - of which the first is open, but which she effectively
reduces to the two specific requests that follow. That is, she may seem
to ask what (which may be anything at all) the Government is doing
about democracy in Bangladesh. But really she is asking whether Mr.
O'Brien will do two very specific things: to ask the Bangladesh
government about the killing of a British resident, and whether he will
write to her on a particular bill (a proposed piece of new legislation). Mr.
O'Brien answers both questions clearly and fully - observing
conversational maxims of quality, quantity and relevance. He changes
the order, as the second question needs only a yes or no (he says yes -
he will write to Mrs. King). There is more to say about Surat Miah - and
Mr. O'Brien appears to be well informed about the details of Mr. Miah's
death.

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This extract does not support a common view of Parliamentary

exchanges. It does not appear to be aggressive or confrontational, and
we find Mr. Straw and Mr. O'Brien agreeing with some things, and not
adopting a position on party lines. On the other hand, there is a huge
difference between the very serious and informed answer to Louise
Ellman and the seemingly facetious response to Richard Ottaway. Does
Mr. Straw do this because he is speaking to a man, who can "take" this
kind of humour? Or is it a device to evade Mr. Ottaway's trap - which is
to give Mr. Straw two choices, neither of which he can accept:

If he says that he did not want to meet Mr. Netanyahu, he may

offend the Israeli state.
If he expresses approval of Mr. Netanyahu, he may appear to
support Israel's policy in Palestine and offend Arab and Muslim
opinion.
Back to top

When the subject of the questions changes from Palestine to

Bangladesh, the Secretary of State hands the speaking turn to his
Minister - but Mr. O'Brien establishes some continuity with Mr. Straw in
that, before answering Mrs. King's question, he backs up Mr. Straw's
story about the "good lunch".

The exchanges are marked by frequent use of modal verbs "may" and
"will". Generally, the speech is quite expansive - whoever holds a turn is
able to speak at some length without interruption. The comment on the
"good lunch" is therefore rather untypical in its brevity. Either Mr. Straw
has a gift for witty improvisation, or he has anticipated the question and
prepared the answer, whereas elsewhere he and Mr. O'Brien are
developing their responses as he makes them - the component phrases
are sometimes elegant, often familiar collocations, and they are
arranged loosely without elaborate rhetorical patterns. We can see a
string of such collocations in "horror and repulsion...unnecessary and
gratuitous...effective control...terrorist organizations".

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Mr. O'Brien's "made representations in that regard" is an example of a

diplomatic or bureaucratic register - in more demotic speech this
equates simply to a statement that the UK government has asked the
Bangladesh government about Mr. Miah's death. In fact, since it follows
the statement "We have let the Bangladesh authorities know that there
is widespread concern about the case in this country", it appears to be a
repetition of the initial clause - how much difference is there between
letting someone know a thing and "making representations" about it?
Perhaps there is a slight distinction between informing Bangladesh that
people in the UK are bothered about Mr. Miah's death and their asking
the Bangladesh authorities to take some action. Ultimately, "in that
regard" is ambiguous - since it may mean either that the UK
government has "made representations" about Mr. Miah's death in itself
or about the "widespread concern" in the UK over the killing.

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