Constructed opposition has proved as viable an area of research as traditional antonymy, and a useful tool in looking at ideologically orientated texts. This book investigates 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 positive presentation of groups and individuals subsumed under the first person plural pronouns 'us' and 'we', and the simultaneous marginalization 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 and stylistics.
1. Introducing constructed opposites in news discourse
2. Lexical semantic approaches to opposition
3. The role of syntactic frames in opposition triggering
4. The role of conceptual relations in opposition triggering
5. Case study 1: The ideological function of clustered oppositions in the representation of anti-war protestors
6. Case Study 2: A comparison of the role of constructed oppositions in two news reports of a Countryside Alliance protest march
7. Oppositions and Ideological Cohesion
8. A new approach to studying the construction of 'us' and 'them' in News Discourse
Bibliography
Index
