Power Talk : Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse

Joanna Thornborrow examines discourse, power and ideology by introducing new perspectives on the relationship between social structures of power and interaction. She argues that if a clearer understanding of the relationship between language, discourse and social institutions is to be obtained, the linguistic processses in the negotiation of social roles and identities must be examined more closely rather than just focus on and emphasize the ideological issues.

The concept of social power, who holds it and how they use it is a widely debated subject particularly in the field of discourse analysis, and the wider arena of sociolinguistics.

In her new book,Joanna Thornborrow challenges the received notion that power is necessarily held by some speakers and not by others. Through the detailed analysis of communication and interaction within a range of institutional settings, she examines power as an emerging, negotiated phenomenon between participants with different status and goals.

Written in a clear style which combines attention to technical detail with accessibility, Power Talk includes:

• a comprehensive introduction to the theme of power including the analytic approaches to power in language
• a wide-ranging discussion of theory and practice
• and, in-depth contemporary case studies.

is the first book to focus on the topic of power in situated interaction across a range of contexts. As such, it makes a timely, and important contribution to the debate surrounding social power and language use, and will be of value to both students and researchers alike.