You should click on the context links to read the documents listed and fill in the gaps on the worksheet to help you build up an understanding of the features that speakers and writers use to manipulate your thoughts and behaviours. This list is not an exhaustive one; you may see other examples and language features as you are working through this exercise. You should record these additional examples/ features at the bottom of your sheet so that you can discuss these with your teacher and your class.
| Context | Example | Name of feature / description of feature | Purpose of the language feature | How is it intended to manipulate? |
|
|
“we cursed through sludge” | Connotative/ emotive words | To give a negative image of the environment | The writer wants his audience to feel sorry for the plight of the soldiers |
| “ Dulce et Decorum est” | “like a devil's sick of sin” | Simile | To create a strong visual image | The writer is using this exaggerated image to try to convince the audience of the total lack of glamour involved in war |
| Imperatives | ||||
| Strong verbs | ||||
| Tony Blair’s speech | “brutal states”/ “tyrannical states” / “barbarous rulers” | |||
| Tony Blair | “deep divisions of opinion”/ “disarm him by force”/ “deal with present threats with resolve” | Euphemisms | ||
| Tony Blair | freedom, democracy, security | Abstract nouns | ||
| Tony Blair | “disorder and chaos” | Collocation | To exaggerate | |
| Helen Clark’s speech | “…Resolution 1441 …by unanimous resolution of the Security Council” | Jargon | To suggest knowledge and authority | |
| Helen Clark | “I regret that a solution could not be found” “…agreement could have been reached..” | Passive verbs | To avoid naming the agent of the action | |
| Saddam Hussein’s letter | “the criminal Bush/”the infidel, criminal, cowardly occupier” | Hyperbole | To label the enemy | Hussein wants to engender hate in his audience for Bush |
| Saddam Hussein’s letter | “Resist/ Boycott him” | |||
| Keith Locke’s statement | “..unleash a murder machine…” | Dysphemism | To offend or embarrass by a less sensitive choice of word | |
| John le Carre’s essay in Britain’s Sunday Herald | “worse than McCarthyism, worse than the bay of Pigs….” | Allusion | ||
| John le Carre | “the hounding of non-national US residents…” | |||
| Winston Peters’ speech | “Clark V Canute” | |||
| Winston Peters | “the clinical diagnosis… is megalomania” | |||
| Polysyllabic words | ||||
| Inclusive pronouns |
Published on: 08 Dec 2010
