Moral Talk: Stance And Evaluation In Political Discourse

Description: This book is about moral talk in contemporary British political discourse, drawing on speeches, debates and radio phone-ins. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, Spencer-Bennett explores the language people use to communicate moral judgement and highlights the relations between the things that people say, the contexts in which they are said and the circulating ideologies about meaning and morality. This is key reading for students and scholars studying language, politics and critical discourse analysis, within linguistics and anthropology.

Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Moral talk: forms, functions and value Emotivism Moral philosophy and moral talk Post-crisis Britain, the moral economy and moral panic Outline of the book The social, ethical and political lives of language Introduction Social life of language Michael Meacher's speech Ethical life of language Political life of language Conclusion Form: what counts as moral talk? Introduction Stance, evaluation and moral talk Quotability Specificity Determinacy Checklist Conclusion Function: what does moral talk do? Introduction Evaluative language, stance, fact and value Hobart and the multifunctionality of moral talk Cotext Situations and ideologies Cameron's speech Eric's call Conclusion Moral systems and ethical life Introduction Moral systems and ethical life The linguistic distinction Moral systems, ethical life and radio phone-ins Modest moralising Conclusion Critiquing moral talk Introduction What is critique? Bias Power Illegitimate power Immanent critique Moral realism Veracity Explanatory critique Lay normativity Conclusion 7.? Critiquing interpretation Introduction Interpretative agency Language ideologies Hymes' ethical sociolinguistics Emotivism as a corporate technology Emotivism in political communications Linguistic expertise and arguments for emotivism Conclusion 8. Conclusion Introduction What is moral talk? What does moral talk do? What is moral talk good for? Methodology: the field, the meta-field, and the armchair Theory: linguistic interpretivism and moral realism References Index

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