Language and the complex of ideology: a socio-cognitive study of warfare discourse in Britain

Undertakes a systematic analysis of the workings of ideology in discourse, using an interdisciplinary approach that links language, cognition and society.

Through examination of two corpora - a collection of British newspaper articles and a set of political speeches - the author examines Britain's involvement in the Iraq War (2003), and critically assesses the language practices which constructed a pro-war ideology under Tony Blair's premiership.

Drawing on a constellation of concepts from van Dijk's socio-cognitive model, this book carries out both qualitative and quantitative analyses and conceptualises discourse as a nonlinear, highly discursive and socio-cognitive phenomenon.