Talking in Clichés

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