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This lecture, which is also open to non-Anglicists, focuses on one, if not the main function of language in the public communication of modern societies, namely the persuasive one: How do people (or institutions) get others to do things they would not do on their own? This question is discussed in structural (information processing in the media, typical communicative situations), functional (reaching from advertising to manipulation and demagogy) and formal terms. This last perspective is the central one: Which aspects of linguistic systems in vocabulary and word-formation as well as sentence structure are particularly suited to bolster one’s OWN and to weaken dissenting positions in a more or less noticeable way?
BOLINGER, D. (1980): Language. The Loaded Weapon, London: Longman.
