ABSTRACT

This book is about moral talk in contemporary British political discourse, drawing on speeches, debates and radio phone-ins. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, Spencer-Bennett explores the language people use to communicate moral judgement and highlights the relations between the things that people say, the contexts in which they are said and the circulating ideologies about meaning and morality. This is key reading for students and scholars studying language, politics and critical discourse analysis, within linguistics and anthropology.

chapter 1|18 pages

Introduction

chapter 3|29 pages

Form: what counts as moral talk?

chapter 4|36 pages

Function: what does moral talk do?

chapter 5|25 pages

Moral systems and ethical life

chapter 6|19 pages

Critiquing moral talk

chapter 7|27 pages

Critiquing interpretation

chapter 8|12 pages

Conclusion