Language and Power: An Introduction to Institutional Discourse (Advances in Sociolinguistics)

This title offers an overview of the field of institutional discourse, introducing the key theorists. How language is used in institutions and the language of power are key concerns of both sociolinguistics and social theory. The ways in which individuals talk in institutional settings, is very different to their ordinary conversation, with different interplays of social interaction and relations of power. Institutional discourse also varies from other types of professional interaction.

This is a book about Aristotle's philosophy of language, interpreted in a framework that provides a comprehensive interpretation of Aristotle's metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology and science. The aims of the book are to explicate the description of meaning contained in De Interpretatione and to show the relevance of that theory of meaning to much of the rest of Arisotle's philosophy. In the process Deborah Modrak reveals how that theory of meaning has been much maligned.

Word frequency plays a prominent role in many scientific and applicational fields. The book presents innovative methods in research and new results important for language and text characterization. Based on a general theory, surprising interrelations are shown between word frequency and other linguistic properties. Interrelations between previously known methods and new characteristics such as the h-point and other measures developed in the book are investigated. Furthermore, new statistical tests are introduced.

This collection of papers explores the theme of phonological strength. The general notion of strength plays a central role in explaining a variety of apparently disparate phonological effects relating to language acquisition, tone and pitch accent patterns, as well as segmental distribution. The authors analyze data from a wide range of languages and from a number of current theoretical perspectives.

All communication involves acts of stance, in which speakers take up positions vis-à-vis the expressive, referential, interactional and social implications of their speech. This book brings together contributions in a new and dynamic current of academic explorations of stancetaking as a sociolinguistic phenomenon. Drawing on data from such diverse contexts as advertising, tourism, historical texts, naturally occurring conversation, classroom interaction and interviews, leading authors in the field of sociolinguistics in this volume explore how linguistic stancetaking is implicated in the representation of self, personal style and acts of stylization, and self- and other-positioning.