Mira is the author of Everything socio and eco linguistic. In celebration of the March for Science: Earth Day 2017, I yield the podium to my favorite socio and eco linguist — is there a better way to spend the day than to join me in this audience? No. In all events, allow me to present this esteemed socio-linguini a plaque fashioned from 100% recycled and recyclable electrons. It is an official prize: one bestowed on Mira for inspiring me to write an article on the work of Stephen Keene, Alan Turing and, while we’re at it, George Boole.
Here are the bases for blog-award bestowal:
The candidate must be —
- Enthusiastic
- Wise
- Inspiring
- Scholarly
- Intellectually curious
- Socio-eco-linguistically oriented
- Raises her voice for exploitable (and therefore exploited) sentient beings
- Writes about text analyses
- Appreciates vegan humor
On the other hand, here is a Descartes-Like phrase that does not describe the candidate for blog-award bestowal::
I exploit, therefore I am.
Meine Damen und Herren, darf ich vorstellen?
‘Discourse is shaped by relations of power, and invested with ideologies’.
(Fairclough 1992: 8 in Jaworski and Coupland 1999: 2).
Critical Linguistics: a consciousness-raising tool
According to Tom Bartlett (2010), in the 70s and 80s the study of texts took a political turn in the UK, with the rise of Critical Linguistics (CL) (Kress and Hodge, 1979). The main aim of CL was to reveal how texts can hide or distort important aspects of the events they claim to represent. Analysis focused on grammatical features as well as vocabulary choices. A central aim was to unpackage biases and points of view that were concealed in publications such as newspapers, articles and school books.
One aspect of analysis that is still discussed today is that of agency, the way in which grammar allocates responsibility to participants. Here is an example from Kieran O’Halloran (2003):
- Policeshot 10 people today as violence…
View original post 967 more words
billziegler1947 