Talking in Clichés
The Use of Stock Phrases in Discourse and Communication

A spirited and engaging linguistic and social re-imagination of the role and nature of clichés in communication and interaction.

Stella Bullo (Author), Derek Bousfield (Author)

9781108471633, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 November 2022

275 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

For decades, social perspectives, and even academic studies of language, have considered clichés 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 clichés 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 clichés, 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 clichés 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.

Abbreviations
1. On Clichés
2. Clichés in discourse
3. Clichés as argumentative strategies
4. Clichés as social cognition
5. Clichés as politeness strategies in evaluation
6. Clichés as identity markers
7. Concluding remarks
8. Appendix 1: Clichés in news comments
9. Appendix 2: Clichés in corporate mission statements
10. Appendix 3: Clichés in evaluation
11. Appendix 4: Clichés as identity markers in The Apperentice BBC's reality TV show.

Subject Areas: Dialect, slang & jargon [CFFD], Language acquisition [CFDC], Sociolinguistics [CFB]