Language, Ideology, and the Human: New Interventions redefines the critical picture of language as a system of signs and ideological tropes inextricably linked to human existence. Offering reflections on the status, discursive possibilities, and political, ideological and practical uses of oral or written word in both contemporary society and the work of previous thinkers, this book traverses South African courts, British clinics, language schools in East Timor, prison cells, cinemas, literary criticism textbooks and philosophical treatises in order to forge a new, diversified perspective on language, ideology, and what it means to be human. This truly international and interdisciplinary collection explores the implications that language, always materialising in the form of a historically and ideologically identifiable discourse, as well as the concept of ideology itself, have for the construction, definition and ways of speaking about 'the human'. Thematically arranged and drawing together the latest research from experts around the world, Language, Ideology, and the Human offers a view of language, ideology and the human subject that eschews simplifications and binary definitions. With contributions from across the social sciences and humanities, this book will appeal to scholars from a range of disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, law, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy and political science.

"Language ideologies" are cultural representations, whether explicit or implicit, of the intersection of language and human beings in a social world. Mediating between social structures and forms of talk, such ideologies are not only about language. Rather, they link language to identity, power, aesthetics, morality and epistemology. Through such linkages, language ideologies underpin not only linguistic form and use, but also significant social institutions and fundamental nottions of person and community. The essays in this new volume examine definitions and conceptions of language in a wide range of societies around the world. Contributors focus on how such defining activity organizes language use as well as institutions such as religious ritual, gender relations, the nation-state, schooling, and law. Beginning with an introductory survey of language ideology as a field of inquiry, the volume is organized in three parts. Part I, "Scope and Force of Dominant Conceptions of Language," focuse on the propensity of cultural models of language developed in one social domain to affect linguistic and social behavior across domains. Part II, "Language Ideology in Institutions of Power," continues the examination of the force of specific language beliefs, but narrows the scope to the central role that language ideologies play in the functioning of particular institutions of power such as schooling, the law, or mass media. Part III, "Multiplicity and Contention among Ideologies," emphasizes the existence of variability, contradiction, and struggles among ideologies within any given society. This will be the first collection of work to appear in this rapidly growing field, which bridges linguistic and social theory. It will greatly interest linguistic anthropologists, social and cultural anthropologists, sociolinguists, historians, cultural studies, communications, and folklore scholars.

This systematic introduction to the concept of point of view in language explores the ways in which point of view intersects with and is shaped by ideology. It specifically focuses on the way in which speakers and writers linguistically encode their beliefs, interests and biases in a wide range of media. The book draws on an extensive array of linguistic theories and frameworks and each chapter includes a self-contained introduction to a particular topic in linguistics, allowing easy reference. The author uses examples from a variety of literary and non-literary text types such as, narrative fiction, advertisements and newspaper reports.

Examining the ways in which the media represents language-related issues and how it shapes and constructs what people think language is, this book offers a multilingual survey of the construction of language in and by the media. Tackling the big issues of identity, gender, youth, citizenship, politics and ideology across a range of mediums including television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet, Language in the Media brings together an international team of experts to examine how the media gives language distinctive forms and values. This is an essential text for students and researchers of sociolinguistics or language and communication. At a time when trust in the mainstream media is at an all-time low and world leaders are using new media to deride so called 'fake news', this classic text offers insight and critical analysis into the key issues surrounding the relationship between language, the media and its audience.

In this text, ten linguistic anthropologists integrate two often segregated domains: politics and language. It addresses the role of language ideologies in state formation, nationalism and the maintenance of ethic groups, as well as the creation of national, ethnic and professional indentities.

Together with its sister volume on Descriptive Cognitive Approaches, this volume explores the contribution which cognitive linguistics can make to the identification and analysis of overt and hidden ideologies. As a theory of language which sees language as the accumulation of the conventionalised conceptualisations of a given linguistic and/or cultural community or sub-group within it, cognitive linguistics is called upon to make its own inroads in the study of ideology. This volume offers theoretical approaches and first discusses the philosophical foundations of cognitive linguistics. The question whether cognitive linguistics is not an ideology itself is not tabooed. The speaker’s deictic centre is the anchoring point, not only for spatial, temporal or interactional deixis, but also for cultural and ideological deixis. Cognitive linguistics is also confronted with a severe Marxist critique, but the potential convergence between the two ‘philosophies’ is highlighted as well. Further the question is raised to what extent the central nervous system and the grammatical system of a language impose sexually biased, and hence ideological representations on cognition. Finally, linguistics itself is seen as a potential bearer of ideological deviations as was the case with the ‘politics of linguistics’ in Nazi Germany, and even with the quest for the Indo-European homeland in comparative and historical linguistics throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th century.

This is a collection of previously unpublished articles by established as well as promising young scholars in Japanese language and gender studies.

Language and tradition have long been relegated to the sidelines as scholars have considered the role of politics, science, technology and economics in the making of the modern world. This novel reading of over two centuries of philosophy, political theory, anthropology, folklore and history argues that new ways of imagining language and representing supposedly premodern people - the poor, labourers, country folk, non-europeans and women - made political and scientific revolutions possible. The connections between language ideologies, privileged linguistic codes, and political concepts and practices shape the diverse ways we perceive ourselves and others. Bauman and Briggs demonstrate that contemporary efforts to make schemes of social inequality based on race, gender, class and nationality seem compelling and legitimate, rely on deeply-rooted ideas about language and tradition. Showing how critics of modernity unwittingly reproduce these foundational fictions, they suggest new strategies for challenging the undemocratic influence of these voices of modernity.

Together with its sister volume on Theoretical Cognitive Approaches, this volume explores the contribution which cognitive linguistics can make to the identification and analysis of overt and hidden ideologies. This volume shows that descriptive tools which cognitive linguistics developed for the analysis of language-in-use are highly efficient for the analysis of ideologies as well. Amongst them are the concept of grounding and the speaker's deictic centre, iconographic reference, frames, cultural cognitive models as a subgroup of Idealized Cognitive Models, conceptual metaphors, root metaphors, frames as groups of metaphors, mental spaces, and conceptual blending.The first section 'Political metaphor and ideology' discusses topics such as Nazi Germany, discrimination of Afro-Americans, South Africa's "rainbow nation," and the impeachment campaign against President Clinton. The second section, on cross-cultural "Otherness" deals with cultural clashes such as those between the Basque symbolic world and the general European value systems; between the Islam and the West, determining its treatment of Iraq in the Gulf War; and between Hong Kong "Otherness" and centuries of Western dominance. The third section deals with 'Metaphors for institutional ideologies' and concentrates on the globalisation of the North and South American markets, on insults in (un)parliamentary debates, and on the Internet being for sale.

This volume critically examines the effects of the spread of English from colonialism to the ‘New World Order’. The research explores the complex and often contradictory roles English has played in national development. Historical analyses and case studies by leading researchers in language policy studies reveal that deterministic relationships between imperial languages, such as English, and societal hierarchies are untenable, and that support of vernacular languages in education and public life can serve diverse ideologies and political agendas. Areas and countries investigated include Europe, North America, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. The role of theory in language policy scholarship and practice is critically evaluated. A variety of research methodologies is used, ranging from macro-sociopolitical and structural analyses to postmodern approaches. The work collectively represents a new direction in language policy studies.