Oppositional meaning and language theory: textual creation of meaning relations in English

This project investigates how writers and speakers create opposites which are not normally part of the conventions of the language. This may be in a persuasive text (e.g. political propaganda or advertising copy) or may present a particular, binary view of an everyday situation (e.g. description of labour in pregnancy or a poetic reference to a marriage breakdown). After extensive collection and documenting of examples of textual opposites, the research draws together some of the implications both for language theory (is there a coded 'core' of the language?) and for human society (the place of language in avoiding conflict in the modern world.