Political Language And Politics In Language

Invisible Man is the first novel written by the American black writer Ralph Ellison (1914-1994). It is a record of a Negro's fruitless Odyssey from the South to the North of America in search of success, recognition, and identity.Invisible Man's merits not only lie in its profound theme, but also in its particular language style. In the novel, speech acts like wanton interruptions, evil provocations, vicious curses, arbitrary statements, groundless accusations and despotic orders keep violating such communication maxims as the"Cooperative Principle,"the"Politeness Principle"and the"Coordinate Principle."The author undoubtedly has chosen to do so in order to highlight the conflicts between races, classes and politics. Yet an English that is full of rude utterances and political concepts, when compared with the polite, gentle, euphemistic and indirect English which is usually heard or read, is not at all common nor normal in everyday social life.The thesis is aimed at a study of the causes and roots of the said language style, which are held to be politics, political purposes and political efforts, and, while doing so, pragmatics in the field of stylistics is used as a tool.