Language is a Manipulator

Student Worksheet

You should click on the context links to read the documents listed and fill in the gaps on the worksheet to help you build up an understanding of the features that speakers and writers use to manipulate your thoughts and behaviours. This list is not an exhaustive one; you may see other examples and language features as you are working through this exercise. You should record these additional examples/ features at the bottom of your sheet so that you can discuss these with your teacher and your class. 

Context	Example	Name of feature / description of feature	Purpose of the language feature	How is it intended to manipulate?	
“Dulce et Decorum est” 
(see http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/dulce.txt)	“we cursed through sludge”	Connotative/ emotive words 	To give a negative image of the environment	The writer wants his audience to feel sorry for the plight of the soldiers 	
“Dulce et Decorum est”  (see http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/dulce.txt)	“like a devil's sick of sin”	Simile(see http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/S/simile.html)	To create a strong visual image 	The writer is using this exaggerated image to try to convince the audience of the total lack of glamour involved in war 	
	 	Imperatives (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_vmood.html)	 	 	
	 	Strong verbs (see http://www.antimoon.com/terms/verb.htm)	 	 	
“Pride and Prejudice” (see http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dome/8242/Austen/Pride/Chap1.htm)	“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.”	Irony (see http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/I/irony.html)	To mock a social attitude	Jane Austen is making fun of society’s attitude to marriage and she wants us to laugh at it	
“Pride and Prejudice” (see http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dome/8242/Austen/Pride/Chap1.htm)	“Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of…., sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice ….She was a woman of mean understanding ….uncertain temper	 	To characterise	 	
Tony Blair’s speech (see http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3327.asp)	“brutal states”/ “tyrannical states” / “barbarous rulers”	 	 	 	
Tony Blair (see http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3327.asp)	“deep divisions of opinion”/ “disarm him by force”/ 
“deal with present threats with resolve”	Euphemisms (see http://www.wordreference.com/english/definition.asp?en=euphemism)	 	 	
Tony Blair (see http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3327.asp)	freedom, democracy, security	Abstract nouns (see http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/abstractnoun.htm)	 	 	
Tony Blair (see http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3327.asp)	“disorder and chaos”	Collocation (see http://www.shunsley.eril.net/armoore/lang/semantics.htm#12)	To exaggerate 	 	
Helen Clark’s speech (see http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.cfm?DocumentID=16266)	“…Resolution 1441 …by unanimous resolution of the Security Council”	Jargon (see http://www.arches.uga.edu/%7Ebryan/AAVE/lexicon.html)	To suggest knowledge and authority	 	
Helen Clark (see http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.cfm?DocumentID=16266)	“I regret that a solution could not be found”
“…agreement could have been reached..”	Passive verbs  (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html)	To avoid naming the agent of the action	 	
Saddam Hussein’s letter (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,946805,00.html)	“the criminal Bush/”the infidel, criminal, cowardly occupier”	Hyperbole (see http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/H/hyperbole.html)	To label the enemy	Hussein wants to engender hate in his audience for Bush	
Saddam Hussein (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,946805,00.html)	“Resist/ Boycott him”	 	 	 	
Keith Locke’s statement (see http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/speech6127.html)	“..unleash a murder machine…”	Dysphemism (see http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/11/19/features/moe1911)	To offend or embarrass by a less sensitive choice of word	 	
John le Carre’s essay in Britain’s Sunday Herald (see http://www.sundayherald.com/30700)	“worse than McCarthyism, worse than the bay of Pigs….”	Allusion (see http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/terms/1terms.html#Allusion)	 	 	
John Le Carre (see http://www.sundayherald.com/30700)	“the hounding of non-national US residents…”	 	 	 	
Advertisement 1 (see http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/BH/BH13/BH1382-150dpi.jpeg)	“Beauty begins with the skin”	Alliteration (see http://www.learn.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=Unit&WCU=3442)	To create a sense of harmony	By repeating the ‘b’ sound the advertiser is creating a smoothness which is intended to be transferred to the consumer’s image of the product	
Advertisement 1 (see http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/BH/BH13/BH1382-150dpi.jpeg)	“If your skin is youthful …..correct it	Parallel structure 	 	 	
Advertisement 2 (see http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/BH/BH22/BH2255-150dpi.jpeg)	 	Rhetorical question 	 	 	
Advertisement 2 (see http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/BH/BH22/BH2255-150dpi.jpeg)	“sweet, clean and pure”	 	 	 	
Winston Peters’ speech (see http://www.nzfirst.org.nz/content/display_item.php?t=1&i=1096)	“Clark V Canute”	 	 	 	
Winston Peters (see http://www.nzfirst.org.nz/content/display_item.php?t=1&i=1096)	“the clinical diagnosis… is megalomania”	 	 	 	
Richard Prebble’s press release (see http://www.act.org.nz/item.jsp?id=24523)	“gobbledegook”	 	 	
 	 	Polysyllabic words (see http://www.wordreference.com/English/definition.asp?en=polysyllable)		
 	 	Inclusive pronouns 		

 	 	 		

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)