Introduction

This chapter sets out the author's rationale for looking at money and briefly outlines some of the great variety of work that has been undertaken by linguists in the domain of money and economics. It highlights the author's reasons for using proverbs, documents some of the various definitions of proverbs and their persuasive power, rhetorical uses and applications, and describes the link between proverbs and ideology. The chapter introduces the difference between money objects and money systems and exchange value and use value, and explores the connection that money has to both trust and power. It also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book is about money and language, and using linguistic tools, it examines language that ordinary people engage with and produce around money and financial exchange. It uncovers some of the prevailing ideas and ideologies we have about money by analysing the language we use to talk about it.