Power Talk: Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse

The concept of social power, who holds it and how they use it is a widely debated subject particularly in the field of discourse analysis, and the wider arena of sociolinguistics.

In her new book,Joanna Thornborrow challenges the received notion that power is necessarily held by some speakers and not by others. Through the detailed analysis of communication and interaction within a range of institutional settings, she examines power as an emerging, negotiated phenomenon between participants with different status and goals.

Written in a clear style which combines attention to technical detail with accessibility, Power Talk includes:

• a comprehensive introduction to the theme of power including the analytic approaches to power in language
• a wide-ranging discussion of theory and practice
• and, in-depth contemporary case studies.

Power Talk

is the first book to focus on the topic of power in situated interaction across a range of contexts. As such, it makes a timely, and important contribution to the debate surrounding social power and language use, and will be of value to both students and researchers alike.

Joanna Thornborrow is Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University. She is widely published, recently guest-editing a special issue of Discourse Studies with Theo Van Leeuwen on authenticity in media discourse, and is co-author of Patterns in Language: An Introduction to Language and Literary Style with Sh®n Wareing. She is a founder member, and co-organiser, of the Ross Priory Seminar Group on Broadcast Talk.