War and Its Ideologies: A Social-Semiotic Theory and Description

Description

Ideology is so powerful it makes us believe that war is rational, despite both its brutal means and its devastating ends. The power of ideology comes from its intimate relation to language: ideology recruits all semiotic modalities, but language is its engine-room. Drawing on Halliday’s linguistic theory – in particular, his account of the “semiotic big-bang” - this book explains the latent semiotic machinery of language on which ideology depends. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxiii Language, Linguistics and Ideology (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 1-31 The Quest for Meaning in Twentieth Century Linguistics (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 33-54 Ideology in a Socio-semiotic Linguistic Theory (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 55-80 War and Violence: Etymology, Definitions, Frequencies, Collocations (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 81-106 Ideology in the Act of Meaning (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 107-140 A Counter-Ideology: War as Violence (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 141-159 Configurative Rapport: The “Existential Fabric” of War (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 161-195 Language in the Legitimation of War (Annabelle Lukin)....Pages 197-201 Back Matter ....Pages 203-283