Tracking the language that’s used at any one period of time is an excellent way of understanding the mind-set of that time. This is one of the reasons that the ‘Word of the Year’ tradition has become so popular – it offers a succinct way of reflecting back on the defining trends and concerns of […]
Tag: politics
Political blowjobs, or The power of expletive-filled personalised number plates
Blowjobs have played an occasional but important part in political history. The most notable recent example, of course, involved Bill Clinton. It was his equivocation over the nature of his relations with Monica Lewinsky that led to him being impeached on perjury charges. A century before Clinton, another president had an even more decisive oral […]
Storytelling in politics and news reporting [video]
As the Trump chronicles and the Brexit saga both stumble inexorably on, how does news reporting shape events into stories? And is there a relationship between the use of narrative as reporting technique and the ‘fake news’ phenomenon? As part of a series of interviews I did for our new module on Language Studies, here […]
Unparliamentary language, or The benefits of swearing in politics
If Theresa May were to stand up at the dispatch box and, in a fit of rage, call Jeremy Corbyn a ****ing ****, we can assume that by the end of the day her political career would be in a certain amount of jeopardy. For one thing, parliament has very strict rules about etiquette. As […]
