We normally think of the role that language plays in our lives as rather insignificant and self-evident.
However, if we take just one step back, we come to realise that language is by far the most powerful tool at our disposal.
Meaning is choice, which implies that language users select from "options that arise in the environment of other options", and that "the power of language resides in its organisation as a huge network of interrelated choices"*
If we look at language from this perspective, we always have the choice between several options. What we choose largely depends on various contextual factors: Where am I at the moment? Who am I talking to/who am I writing to? What is my relationship to this person or group of people? Needless to say, these questions are only a small selection of parameters that inform our communicative choices.
* Halliday, M.A.K. 2003. Introduction: On the "architecture" of human language. In On Language and Linguistics. Volume 3 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan Webster. London and New York: Continuum.
To achieve this, I draw on a combination of the most recent tools from evaluation research, discourse and forensic text analysis.
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