Meaning, Discourse and Society

Investigates the construction of reality within discourse, considering how meaning is negotiated and knowledge created.

Wolfgang Teubert is Professor of Corpus Linguistics at the University of Birmingham. His previous book publications include Corpus Linguistics: A Short Introduction (2007, with Anna Cermakova), Text, Discourse and Corpura (2007, with Michael Hoey, Michael Stubbs and Michaela Mahlberg) and he was co-editor of Corpus Linguistics: Critical Concepts in Linguistics: A Reader (2007) and Text Corpora and Multilingual Lexicography (2007).

'The power of this exciting new book lies simultaneously within the detailed, continental traditions of scholarship that it brings to many readers for the first time; and the internal skepticism that it impliedly expresses towards the empirical instrumentation available to corpus linguists ... Teubert offers us an erudite and convincing reason for deep reflection before we contemplate discarding even the bath-water of hermeneutics. This book is a unique product of a tradition that combines philosophy, philology and hermeneutics on the one hand with an understanding of the power of corpora as a potential substitute for the experiences of a community during its lifetime ... a compelling read right up to its last paragraph and has my warm recommendation.' Bill Louw, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics '... provides a refreshingly original and long overdue theoretical rationale for the effectiveness and value of corpus linguistics.' Geoff Thompson, Languages in Contrast 'The book is well-organized, inspiring and clear. It will be of great interest to those who view language as social interaction and are therefore concerned with the social contexts in which discourse is embedded.' Jing Chen, Discourse Studies