Abstract
This work studies manipulative use of language that can be called "deliberate failure of communication"; I characterize this kind of manipulation and show that it can be found in the discourse of marketing experts and legal professionals. Relying on relevance theory, I show that manipulation of this kind takes advantage of what van Dijk calls the "context model" of the addressees. I exemplify two ways in which the context models of some of the discourse's participants might be misused in order to manipulate them. One way is exemplified by a text from an advertisement, the other by a text from a criminal court file. I propose, finally, that the analysis supports van Dijk's view that social, discursive, and epistemic inequalities reproduce one another in a kind of vicious circle. It suggests, in van Dijk's terms, that manipulation by deliberate failure of communication is a discriminatory use of language employed by elite groups in order to reproduce their social power.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 502-516 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Pragmatics and Society |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Communication failure
- Context models
- Legal discourse
- Manipulative discourse
- Relevance Theory
- Unspoken assumptions
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language