ABSTRACT
We have seen that the style of a text is affected by what the speaker or writer is trying to do in writing or speaking (the genre), by who is being addressed and in what tone (tenor) and by the medium. Now we look at the effect of ideology, the wider conception of life and values which seems ‘natural’ to the speaker or writer. Sometimes this relation is clear enough, as when a woman calls herself Ms, when the head of a meeting is called the chair, or when someone says terrorist rather than freedom fighter referring to the same person. Even if thought of as dictionary entries, these particular terms tend to suggest not only a context, but wider ideological positions in relation to it. They have, as it were, an ideological ‘charge’. Other words like this are exploitation and law and order, which seem to belong with left and right positions respectively if cited on their own.
