Language and Conflict: A Neglected RelationshipSue Wright Multilingual Matters, 1998 - 65 pages The three essays on language and conflict presented in this text area a result of a growing awareness that researchers in discourse analysis and sociolinguistics and in the peace and conflict resolution field have much to say to each other. In Dan Smith's analysis the idea of conflict brings us inexorably to nationalism, then to identify and thus to language. Language is unlikely to be the central cause of conflict, but it may contribute to the ways that nationalsim and armed conflict unfold. Paul Clinton argues that the declaration of war is a linguistic act, that military operations can only be set in motion and continued by verbal activity and that all political institutions are ultimately constituted by forms of language and communication. In the final essay in the text Sue Wright examines the relationship between nation building (including linguistic unification) and the propaganda which justifies human and economic sacrifice, and permits total war in the Clausewitzian sense. All three essays argue that the political influence, significance and effect of linguistic borders and the discourse manipulation of language are factors in conflict which should not be ignored |
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argued argument armed conflict army Aston University bilingual Bosnia-Hercegovina Bosnian government C1 and C2 Cambridge causal causes century channels Chechnya Chilton citizens civil Clausewitz Cold War community of communication concept conceptualisation conflict and conflict conflict parties conflict resolution construction cooperation Croatian Croats decoding devolution dialect continuum discourse analysis economic elites empirical enemy English ethnic cleansing ethnic difference ethno-linguistic nationalism Europe European example factors France French Gellner German identity ideology internal conflicts involved Katičić Lallans language and conflict language difference leaders linguistic linked London means metaphor military mobilisation monolingual nation building national language nationalist negotiations organisations Peace Research political population possible prisoner's dilemma quangos recognised Redoing Corpus Planning regions Republic role of language Rwanda Serb Serbo-Croat Smith social society sovereign speakers speech acts strategies structure SUE WRIGHT territory third party tradition underlying University Press violence violent conflict warfare wars Welsh Welsh language western Wright Yugoslavia