Opposition in Discourse

<p>In this important book Lesley Jeffries introduces a phenomenon which has not been given the attention it deserves - the contextual construction of oppositional meaning. These are opposites not recognisable as such out of context but that are clearly set up this way in the text concerned. <p/>The significance of oppositional meaning is well-known and has been discussed by scholars for millennia from Philosophy to Politics. But the main emphasis has always been on the conventional opposite: the opposite recognised by lexical semantics. <p/>Starting from socio-cultural viewpoints moving to original research and then concluding with a new theoretical formulation this book introduces and consolidates a significant new approach to the analysis of oppositional meaning. It closes with a discussion of the importance of constructed opposition in hegemonic practice and makes a case for the inclusion of opposition as a central tool of critical discourse analysis. It is now essential reading for researchers and graduates in stylistics linguistics and language studies.</p>