This book draws together a rich variety of perspectives on discourse as a facet of contemporary social change, representing a number of different disciplines, theoretical positions and methods. The specific focus of the volume is on discourse as a moment of social change, which can be seen to involve objects of research which comprise versions of some or all of the following research questions: How and where did discourses (narratives) emerge and develop? How and where did they achieve hegemonic status? How and where and how extensively have they been recontextualized? How and where and to what extent have they been operationalized? The dialectical approach indicated above implies that discourse analysis includes analysis of relations between language (more broadly, semiosis) and its social 'context'. This book draws together a rich variety of perspectives on discourse as a facet of contemporary social change, representing a number of different disciplines, theoretical positions and methods. The specific focus of the volume is on discourse as a moment of social change, which can be seen to involve objects of research which comprise versions of some or all of the following research questions: How and where did discourses (narratives) emerge and develop? How and where did they achieve hegemonic status? How and where and how extensively have they been recontextualized? How and where and to what extent have they been operationalized? The dialectical approach indicated above implies that discourse analysis includes analysis of relations between language (more broadly, semiosis) and its social ¿context¿. Introduction 9(16) Norman Fairclough Section 1 Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics The Contribution of Discourse Analysis to Research on Social Change 25(24) Norman Fairclough Terror in Political Discourse from the Cold War to the Unipolar World 49(24) Paul Bayley Soundbiters Bit. Contracted Dialogistic Space and the Textual Relations of the No. 10 Team Analysed through Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies 73(22) Alison Duguid When is it Reasonable to Cooperate? Tony Blair's Statement on the Iraqi Crisis 95(24) Douglas Ponton A War of Words: A Linguistic Analysis of BBC Embed Reports during the Iraq Conflict 119(24) Caroline Clark Section 2 Language Variation and Social Change Globalisation and Discursive Changes in Specialised Contexts 143(30) Maurizio Gotti Language in Fiction: Italian at Work in Italian American Novels 173(20) Fred Gardaphe Whose Language Counts? Language Policy in the United States and Contemporary Social Change 193(20) Patrizia Ardizzone Scots in Institutional Discourse: ``Walcome til the Scottish Pairlament Wabsite'' 213(20) Marina Dossena Multilingualism and Language Variation in the British Isles: The Case of the Bedford Italian Community 233(26) Siria Guzzo Linguistic Choice in Contemporary Educational Reform 259(22) Martin Solly Section 3 Language, Social Cognition and Ideology Comments on Context and Conversation 281(36) Teun A. Van Dijk Italy: Two Episodes in the History of a National Brand 317(14) Robert Viscusi Ideology, Language and Gender Identity in a Detective Story 331(24) John Douthwaite Perspectivity in Human Rights Treaty Ratification: The Convention on the Rights of the Child 355(26) Giuseppina Cortese G. W. Bush's Public Speeches to the Nation: Exploiting Emotion in Persuasion 381(26) Federica Ferrari Section 4 Media/Multimedia Analysis of Social Change Key-words and Emotions: A Case Study of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry 407(26) Marina Bondi Petitioner or Partner? Constructions of European Integration in Polish Print Media Debates on the EU Constitutional Treaty 433(26) Amelie Kutter Gendered Discourses in a Contemporary Animated Film: Subversion and Confirmation of Gender Stereotypes in Shrek 459(28) J. W. Unger Jane Sunderland De-stereotyping Otherness: A Multimodal Script Analysis of Semiotically Expressed Humour 487(20) Giuseppe Balirano The Ubiquitous Machine: Visual Texts in the BBC Coverage of the Iraqi Conflict 507(24) Maxine Lipson Quick Temper, Hot Blood: The Filmic Representation of Italian-American Speech and Rhetorical Strategies 531(18) Ira Torresi Notes on Contributors 549