Language and conflict
Subtitle: a neglected relationship
By: edited by Sue Wright.
Contributors: Wright, Sue, 1947-
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Clevedon; Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 65
Subjects: Sociolinguistics.; Conflict (Psychology); Nationalism.; Discourse analysis.
Other titles: Current issues in language & society.
Description: "In Dan Smith's analysis the idea of conflict brings us inexorably to nationalism, then to identity and thus to language. Language is unlikely to be a central cause of conflict, but it may contribute to the ways that nationalism and armed conflict unfold. Paul Chilton argues that the declaration of war is a linguistic act, that military operations can only be set in motion and continued by verbal activity and that all political institutions are ultimately constituted by forms of language and communication. Sue Wright examines the relationship between nation building (including linguistic unification) and the propaganda which justifies human and economic sacrifice and permits total war in the Clausewitzian sense. They argue that the political influence, significance and effect of linguistic borders and the discourse manipulation of language are factors in conflict which should not be ignored."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Three essays, one each by Paul A. Chilton, Dan Smith, and Sue Wright.
Issued also as vol. 4, no. 3 (1997) of the journal Current issues in language and society.