How We Talk About Animals, and Why it Matters: The Power of Discourse (Bloomsbury Advances in Ecolinguistics)

What kind of language do we use to name and describe the animals that feature in our lives?What names do we give to animals as individuals and groups, and how do these influence our perceptions of them?How do our descriptions of different species overlap with the words we use about categories of people?Answering these questions and more, this book presents evidence from an extensive research project into how animals are represented in contemporary English.It draws on a multi-million word corpus of texts from a wide range of sources, as well as interviews with professional communicators about animals and focus groups involving people with different experiences of, and attitudes towards, animals in various contexts.Language about animals is explored thematically, focusing on topics such as names, descriptions, places, communication and ethics.The book highlights both what we know from scientific research about the huge diversity of animals’ capacities and lifestyles, and how the language