Oppositions and ideology in news discourse

Abstract

This book discusses how binary oppositions are constructed discursively and the potential ideological repercussions of their usage in news reports in the British press. The focus is particularly on the ways that a variety of common syntactic structures can contribute to the positive representation of groups and individuals subsumed under the first person plural pronouns 'us' and 'we', and the simultaneous marginalisation of groups designated as 'they' or 'them'. Exploring the dynamic relations between the linguistic system and language in context this is a key publication for those involved in discourse analysis (including critical discourse analysis) and stylistics.