Reply to Fairclough: Discourse and interpretation: conjectures and refutations

Language and Literature 1996 5 (1) 57-69 © Addison Wesley Longman Ltd 1996 0963-9470/96/05106057/$03.50 Norman Fairclough and I disagree about a lot of things. That much is obvious. But let me begin my comments by acknowledging the importance of his contribution to our thinking about language and society. He has brought to our attention a whole range of issues about the dialectical interplay of language and social life, not as matters for detached academic debate but as immediately implicated in practical and political affairs. He has alerted us to how language can be exploited in the manipulation of opinion and the abuse of power. His work is impressive in scope and purpose. It is highly stimulating for those who share his views, highly provocative for those who do not, and is to be valued on both counts.