Talking in Cliches: The Use of Stock Phrases in Discourse and Communication

Description

For decades, social perspectives, and even academic studies of language, have considered cliches as a hackneyed, tired, lazy, unthinking and uninspiring form of communication. Authored by two established scholars in the fields of Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Discourse Studies and Pragmatics, this cutting-edge book comprehensively explores the perception and use of cliches in language from these complementary perspectives. It draws data from a variety of both written and spoken sources, to re-interrogate and re-imagine the nature, role and usage of cliches, identifying the innovative and creative ways in which the concepts are utilised in communication, interaction, and in self-presentation. Observing a rich, complex layering of usage, the authors deconstruct the many and varied ways in which cliches operate and are interdependently constructed; from the role they play in discourse in general, to their functions as argumentative strategies, as constructs of social cognition, as politeness strategies, and finally as markers of identity.

Stella Bullo is a Researcher in Discourse Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of Evaluation in Advertising Reception (Palgrave, 2014). Her work on health discourse has been featured in BBC Radio World Service, The Conversation and The New York Times. Derek Bousfield is Head of Department and Reader in Pragmatics and Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University. Prominent publications include Impoliteness in Interaction (John Benjamins, 2008) and Impoliteness in Language (co-edited with Locher, De Gruyter, 2008).