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Mar 2026

Language

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A podcast about how language matters in business, politics and beyond.

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September 7, 2026Episode 3357 min

Linguistic activism

Ever looked at the wallpaper and suddenly thought: hang on, who chose THAT? Language can be a bit like wallpaper: it surrounds us so completely that we stop noticing it. In episode 33, we get out the metaphorical "scraper". We revisit Covid metaphors, watch misleading headlines get crossed out and rewritten, hear what it's like to live somewhere between academia and activism (jogging bottoms included), and ask that most important of academic questions: so what? From reflecting to reframing to acting, this is an episode about noticing the linguistic wallpaper around us... and perhaps doing a little redecorating. From our blog https://wordsandactionspodcast.wordpress.com/ Early on, Veronika introduces the water metaphor: language is to its users what water is to fish – we are surrounded by it to an extent that we don't notice it anymore. The metaphor is explained further in this position paper: Darics, E., Staschen, O., Drury, M., Chojnicka, J., Mazzoli, M., Olthof, J., Serafis, D., & Wildfeuer, J. (2025). Critical language awareness as a future imperative: seeing the 'water'. Frontiers in Communication, 10, 1623193. As a first example of language activism, Veronika talks about the #ReframeCovid project that started life in the spring of 2020. The team behind the it wrote about it in this article: Olza, I., Koller, V., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., Pérez-Sobrino, P., & Semino, E. (2021). The# ReframeCovid initiative: From Twitter to society via metaphor. Metaphor and the Social World, 11(1), 98-120. Our first interview guest, Zoë Papaikonomou. In her academic persona, our second interviewee, Kelly Vossen, has, among other topics, written about criticisms of the media coverage of the Covid pandemic – that global crisis was a prime case for critical language awareness: Lits, B., Patriarche, G., Tant, C., Vossen, K., & Wiard, V. (2021). Négocier des «choix de société» dans l'espace public: Les critiques publiques sur la couverture médiatique de la crise de la COVID-19. In Journées d'étude Du confinement au monde d'après. Quelles réponses des sciences humaines?. Brussels.Our third guest, Joanna Chojnicka, gives some insights into how to develop an online course on critical language awareness. The free three-week online course "Critical Language Awareness in Action: Change the World One Story at a Time" is available on FutureLearn. And finally, remember that Words & Actions is on both Bluesky and Facebook.

March 26, 2026Episode 3251 min

Language of Food

Let's tuck into the language of food! We discuss advertisements for plant-based food and for meat and dairy, look at cookbooks with our interview guests, and find out how different descriptions of one and the same dish can make it cost more than twice as much in one place than another. Along the way, five people tell us about their work on everything from multilingualism in Korean coffeehouses to the use of foreign languages in early modern English recipes. Liberally sprinkled with metaphors, episode 32 is a feast of all things culinary and linguistic. The episode is accompanied by a blog - for images, references and a full transcript please visit wordsandactionspodcast. wordpress.com . In the episode, the first of five short clips that we play in this episode is by Keri Matwick , a linguist, educator and food studies scholar at Ninyang Technological University in Singapore. Her mention of chefs' metaphors makes Veronika think of research on wine descriptions, for example this open-access article: Creed, A. (2026). Wine words, cultural worlds: A systematic review of metaphor and language in global wine communication. Terminology. https://doi.org/10.1075/term. 25016.cre The second sound clip, by Michael Chesnut , he mentions this article about coffee shops in South Korea: Curran, N. M., Istad, F., & Chesnut, M. (2025). Standing out and fitting in: Korean coffee entrepreneurs' strategies for survival. Food, Culture & Society, 28(3), 573-592. The Brexit/breakfast confusion is documented in this video , with serious politicians and news presenters providing unintentional humour. As mentioned by the hosts, several recent conferences have addressed the topic of language and food, including Digital P(a)lates on the language of online food practices, which was held in March 2026 at th Fee University Berlin (with Keri Matwick as one of the keynote speakers). The third clip is by Ursula Kania , and for those of our listeners who read German, we warmly recommend this chapter on lesbian and gay cookbooks: Kania, U. (2017). Warme Mahlzeiten oder: Was is(s)t eine Lesbe? Eine semiosoziologische Analyse schwul-lesbischer Kochbücher. In H. Dingeldein, & E. Gredel (Eds.), Diskurse des Alimentären: Essen und Trinken aus kultur-, literatur- und sprachwissenschaftlicher Perspektive (pp. 229-247). LIT Verlag. Ursula's contribution is followed by a sound clip by Marco Bagli , who demonstrates just how broad the scope of language and food research is, from Italian food at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I to Italianness as a translingual and multimodal identity in digital food discourse. And there is more on metaphor as well in his 2021 book: Bagli, M. (2021). Tastes We Live by: The linguistic conceptualisation of taste in English. Walter de Gruyter. Still in the introduction, the hosts talk about marketing plant-based foods. For an article on veganism and masculinity, see: Brookes, G., & Chałupnik, M. (2022). 'Real men grill vegetables, not dead animals': Discourse representations of men in an online vegan community. Discourse, Context & Media, 49, 100640. On the plant-based side, Oatley's advert pitting its product against Cowhead, a representative of the dairy industry, can be found here and has been analysed in this article: Ledin, P., & Machin, D. (2020). Replacing actual political activism with ethical shopping: The case of Oatly. Discourse, Context & Media, 34, 100344. The metaphor of language as a window pane is proposed by Guy Cook in this book: Cook, G. (2004). Genetically Modified Language: The discourse of arguments for GM crops and food. Routledge. This episode's interview guest, Marcelyn Oostendorp, and Erika talk about cookbooks and the cuisine of the Malay quarter of Cape Town. Marcelyn mentions this article by chef Ruby Tamdoh on the proliferation of food memoirs: Tandoh, R. (2017). The meaning of a food memoir. The Guardian, 3 November. https://www.theguardian.com/ lifeandstyle/2017/nov/03/ruby- tandoh-the-meaning-of-a-food- memoir The analysis section focuses on the relation between descriptions and prices of dishes in restaurants. Matt mentions a book on the language of menus, while Veronika refers to earlier research on the literacy requirements for writing and costing menus: Jurafsky, D. (2014). The Language of Food: A linguist reads the menu. WW Norton & Company. Satchwell, C., & Ivanič, R. (2007). The textuality of learning contexts in UK colleges. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 15(3), 303–316. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lancs. ac.uk/10.1080/ 14681360701602190 Finally, the parallel between sparse food descriptions and empty spaces in advertising for luxury travel is based on this article: Thurlow, C., & Jaworski, A. (2012). Elite mobilities: The semiotic landscapes of luxury and privilege. Social Semiotics, 22(4), 487-516. And if you're hungry by now - bon appétit!

December 2, 2025Episode 3140 min

The language of emotions

OMG!! A new Words & Actions episode has landed and we couldn't be more excited! In this start to a six-part series, "The language of…", we look at the language of emotion: in the workplace, in advertising and in online selling. There is a fair bit of swearing, our interview guest tells us about emotional labour, and in the end, your hosts get hit in the feels about a charity ad. Join us for a rollercoaster episode! First we look at a reaction by a company they posted online in response to reviews. This takes us straight to swearing. The work on swearing in another language that Veronika mentions is: Mohammadi, A. N. (2022). Swearing in a second language: the role of emotions and perceptions. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43 (7), 629-646. Erika then follows up with this experiment about swearing and pain: Stephens, R., Atkins, J., & Kingston, A. (2009). Swearing as a response to pain. Neuroreport, 20 (12), 1056-1060. For Matt's point on emotions as categorised according to context, see: Barrett, L. F. (2006). Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review , 10 (1), 20-46. Barrett, L. F. (2017). The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(1), 1-23. Much of advertising is intended to evoke certain emotions to influence purchasing behaviour. Veronika mentions this psychological study on non-commercial advertising: Dillard, J. P., & Peck, E. (2000). Affect and persuasion: Emotional responses to public service announcements. Communication Research, 27 (4), 461-495. In the interview, Ningyuan talks about how influencers create communities. It is worth revisiting the notion of "synthetic sisterhood", which was proposed 30 years ago, when printed teenage magazines were still a thing: Talbot, M. (1995). A synthetic sisterhood: False friends in a teenage magazine. In Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (eds) Gender Articulated: Language and the socially constructed self (pp. 143-165). Routledge. For the link to the VOLVO advert and the radio advert of the British Heart Foundation please visit our blog, wordsandactionspodcast.blog. See you next time.

December 17, 2024Episode 301 hr 0 min

Financial Communication

How do you talk money without losing trust—or your audience? From quarterly earnings calls to investor pitches, the world of financial communication is a tightrope walk of clarity, persuasion, and credibility. What makes numbers sound good? When does transparent/positive become too transparent/positive? And why does jargon sometimes feel like the best financial armour? Tune in for a lively dive into the art (?) of financial storytelling—with three experts sharing plenty of insights, red flags, laughs, and a nudge to rethink your next fiscal update and/or investment, especially when your are being pandered to with pathos and patriotism. Long notes: In this episode we discuss financial communication and start with readability. A few selected studies are: Bonsall, S. B., & Miller, B. P. (2017). The impact of narrative disclosure readability on bond ratings and the cost of debt. Review of Accounting Studies, 22, 608-643. Huong Dau, N., Van Nguyen, D., & Thi Thanh Diem, H. (2024). Annual report readability and firms' investment decisions. Cogent Economics and Finance, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/ 23322039.2023.2296230 Li, F. (2008). Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 45 (2-3), 221-247. Both Bernard and Erika mention PhD work on financial communication. Bernard's student Nils Smeuninx completed his thesis in 2018; the title is "Dear Stakeholder. Exploring the language of sustainability reporting: A closer look at readability, sentiment and perception". Erika refers to a PhD study on how small investors respond to plain English as opposed to more complex or less readable text: Rennekamp, K. (2012). The complexity of qualitative accounting disclosures: Managers' choices and investors. Cornell Theses and Dissertations. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/ 31452 For her part, Veronika co-supervised a student - Xiaoxi Wu, now at Bocconi University in Milan (Italy) - with the Accounting department at Lancaster University (UK), resulting in this article: Koller, V., & Wu, X. (2023). Analysts' identity negotiations and politeness behaviour in earnings calls of U.S. firms with extreme earnings changes. Corporate Communications, 28(5), 769-787. DOI: 10.1108/CCIJ-08-2022-0098 Erika mentions the Juno app, which is designed to explain technical financial language to lay investors. Bernard then refers to Veronika's first foray into financial communication and narrative accounting: Merkl-Davies, D. M., & Koller, V. (2012). "Metaphoring" people out of this world: A critical discourse analysis of a chairman's statement of a UK defence firm. Accounting Forum, 36(3), 178-193. An agentless passive, the sentence 'mistakes were made' helps to avoid blaming anyone for making mistakes. It has become a catchphrase, often used humorously to hint at disaster, including in gifs and memes Back to financial communication: Referring to the gendered metaphors that it often features, Erika mentions this book chapter: Boggio, C., Fornero, E., Prast, H., & Sanders, J. (2017). Seven ways to knit your portfolio: Is investor communication neutral? In Garzone, G., Catenaccio, P., Grego, K., & Doerr, R. (eds) Specialised and Professional Discourse Across Media and Genres (pp. 137-160). Ledizioni. A cross-cultural study into accounting language is Doupnik, T. S. and Richter, M. (2004), The impact of culture on the interpretation of in-context verbal probability expressions. Journal of International Accounting Research, 3(1), 1-20. In the first part of the episode, we also discuss tone as an important concept in financial communication. Intriguingly, media studies have shown that coverage in itself is good enough for the so-called "markets" (investors, analysts, fund managers) to have a positive attitude towards a company: Engelberg, J. E., & Parsons, C. A. (2011). The causal impact of media in financial markets. Journal of Finance, 66(1), 67-97. Finally, the 2019 annual report by Lockheed Martin, which includes the CEO statement that we analyse at the end of the episode. For more details make sure you visit our blog! We will be back in 2025, with some changes to the podcast - stay tuned

February 5, 2024Episode 2950 min

Language in Business, Language at Work

Wait a minute. Why does 'corporate consultant' sound more prestigious than 'business consultant'? Or does it? Do they mean the same thing? How does organizational communication differ from corporate or business communication? And what topics, genres and text types should textbooks on communication in these settings tackle when the genres themselves are blended? Welcome to the challenges of three authors revising a textbook on the power of language in business(?), now turned into a podcast episode and made even more interesting with Wittgenstein and Jonathan Clifton joining the writing table. Tune in if you want answers and more questions on the language game as we are playing it. For more information, references and a full transcript please visit our website: wordsandactions.blog In this episode on business (or is it corporate?) communication textbooks, we cannot help mention the one we wrote ourselves and are currently revising. The first edition of Language in Business, Language at Work is available here . ChatGPT answered Bernard's question "Is there a difference between business communication and corporate communication?": "Yes, there is a distinction between business communication and corporate communication, although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The differences lie in their scope, focus, and the context in which they are applied: Business Communication: • Scope: Business communication is a broader term that encompasses all types of communication within a business environment. This includes communication between employees, between different departments, with customers, and with external stakeholders. • Focus: Business communication focuses on the day-to-day exchange of information, ideas, and messages to facilitate the smooth functioning of a business. It includes various forms of communication, such as emails, memos, reports, meetings, and presentations. • Audience: The audience for business communication can be internal (within the organization) or external (outside the organization), and the content can range from operational details to marketing messages. Corporate Communication: • Scope: Corporate communication is a subset of business communication that specifically deals with the communication strategies and activities of an organization as a whole. It involves managing and conveying a consistent corporate identity and message. • Focus: Corporate communication is strategic and often focuses on shaping the public image of the organization, maintaining a positive reputation, and managing relationships with external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, the media, and the public. • Audience: The primary audience for corporate communication is often external stakeholders, but it also includes internal stakeholders. It aims to create a favorable perception of the company and ensure that its values and messages align with its overall business goals. We also searched for the phrases 'business communication', 'corporate communication' and 'organizational communication' in large corpora of American and British English in general. Here is part of concordance (see glossary) from the British National Corpus 2014. Still in the introduction, we then look at a critique of economic textbooks, drawing on the work of our interview guest from episode 26 (the language of corporate social responsibility Part 2): Stibbe, A. (2020). Ecolinguistics and economics: The power of language to build worlds. WEA Commentaries, 10(3), 2-7. In the interview, Jonathan Clifton challenges the idea that "in a court of law, or in a civil court, whosoever is right is going to win, and whosoever is wrong is going to lose". Instead he says, success depends on "how successful lawyers or defendants or witnesses, expert witnesses can marshal resources to make a convincing argument". This echoes a scene in the film Anatomy of a Fall (2023): when the suspect assures her lawyer that "I did not kill him", her lawyer replies: "That is not the point." The film is much recommended - courtroom dramas don't get better than this! Jonathan's book is broad in scope, ranging from legal language to football punditry. As for the latter, he mentions the popular BBC programme Match of the Day, which is hosted by former player and outspoken commentator Gary Lineker. In the final part of the episode, we first look at advice for email writing from this textbook: Hartley, P., Marriott, S., & Knapton, H. (2023). Professional and Business Communication: Personal strategies for the post-digital world. (3rd ed.) Routledge. The authors of that textbook in turn quote: Kelly, S. (2019). Computer Mediated Communication for Business: From theory to practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. That's it for this episode - see you next time!

April 28, 2023Episode 2853 min

The Language of Corporate Social Responsibility: Language Discrimination

Raves, poker nights and Marvel movies – no costs or effort were spared in this final episode on CSR to raise awareness about one of the most pervasive manifestations of discrimination: accentism. In the presence of experts, we uncover what is hidden beneath the surface, and just when we thought we would never judge someone based on the sound waves they produce, we dare(d) ourselves and you to eat the pudding… Long Notes: More information, a full transcript and academic references on wordsandactions.blog. We start episode 28 by critically reflecting on anti-discrimination efforts in the workplace, which, unless they change the organisational culture, all too often do not have the desired or even an adverse effect. We then move on to the notion of intersectionality, which linguist and writer Kat Gupta has likened to a deck of cards. The fascinating finding that feelings of non-belonging are neurologically similar to physical pain is reported here: Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(6), 421-434. Moving on to the language aspect of workplace discrimination, Bernard entions Erin Carrie's and Rob Drummond's Accentism Project, which, among other things, is a real treasure trove of testimonials. For a light touch, we look at how film characters are stereotyped through their accents - who could forget Babs and Rocky from Chicken Run? In another corner of the cinematic universe, the villain with a British Received Pronunciation accent is so common that he has sparked parodies in advertising. In real life, however, this particular accent is nearly extinct: Lindsey, G. (2019). English after RP: Standard British pronunciation today. Springer. Linguistic stereotyping and accentism can have harsh consequences, for how competent someone is perceived to be to how much investor money they can attract or the severity of court sentence Our second guest, Annelise Ly, mentions the metaphor of culture as an onion with layers. This idea goes back to Geert Hofstede's work on national cultures in the workplace: Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International differences in work-related values. London: Sage. While still influential, Hofstede's work has been the subject of much criticism, and other metaphors have been proposed: Fang, T. (2005). From "onion" to "ocean": Paradox and change in national cultures. International Studies of Management & Organization, 35(4), 71-90. In the final part of the episode, we use Mats Deutschmann's RAVE resource to test our own stereotypes around accents. Mats and his colleague Anders Steinvall have written about how to use the resource to counter prejudice: Deutschmann, M., & Steinvall, A. (2020). Combatting linguistic stereotyping and prejudice by evoking stereotypes. Open Linguistics, 6(1), 651-671. We encourage you to give it a go yourself, it's quite an eye-opener.

March 10, 202348 min

Language awareness in the age of AI

ChatGPT & company are here to stay. And so are linguists. Find out why in our exploration of the capabilities and shortcomings of generative AI and how it will affect the competences of lecturers, students and practitioners in business communication and beyond. Via tricks and tips on how to integrate these powerful text production tools in and outside the classroom, W&A once again underscores the crucial importance of language awareness and the human touch in the digital era. The discussion will take us past proper prompt engineering, output analysis, digital sweatshops and critical citizenship. You can find more information, references and a full transcript on wordsandactions.blog. In this episode we mention a number of language-related AI applications, including DALL-E, which generates images from language prompts; Scite, which identifies references supporting or questioning research findings; ELSA, which stands for English Language Speech assistant and is meant to help language learners; Wordtune, which can rewrite texts i different "tones"; and the codings apps Copilot and CodeWhisperer, which convert language inputs into code. Some examples of how the AI-powered version of the Bing search engine produces answers that are troubling or face-threatening are mentioned in this article. Our interview guest, Andreas van Cranenburgh, refers to how OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, uses low-paid content moderators in developing countries, often exposing them to traumatic content. This practice was described in Time Magazine. Following the interview, we talk about how the notion of communicative competence needs to be extended for interactions with chatbots. Hymes' original formulation of communicative competence dates from six years after the first ever chatbot, Eliza, was developed. (It is not known if he was aware of it.) The creator of that application, Joseph Weizenbaum, named it after Eliza Doolittle, the character in Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (later made into the musical and film My Fair Lady). In that modern take on the Greek myths of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with one of his statues, a linguistics professor teaches a working-class woman how to sound upper-class. Are chatbots the malleable female creations of male developers? And why does Erika, a female user, think of ChatGPT as a man? As they say, there is a paper in that. And finally, here is the ChatGPT-generated text we analyse in the last part of the episode: Dear [Customer Name], Thank you for reaching out to us. We understand that high energy prices can be frustrating and we want to help. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Our company's energy prices are affected by a number of factors, including changes in the global energy market and increasing demand for energy. However, we are committed to finding ways to help our customers manage their energy costs. We recommend some simple steps to conserve energy, such as turning off lights when they're not in use, adjusting your thermostat, and using energy-efficient appliances. Additionally, we offer a number of energy-saving programs that could help you save money on your energy bills. We value your feedback and appreciate your loyalty. If you have any further concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Best regards, [Your name] Our next episode will conclude the mini-series in CSR - see you then!

January 13, 2023Episode 2658 min

The Language of Corporate Social Responsibility: Ecolinguistics

Prepare to meet some ignorant pigs and silly cows in our second episode on CSR... Together with an expert in ecolinguistics, we will explore the discursive construction of our ideology-laden relationship to nature (and animals in particular!) via the analysis of presuppositions and metaphors, going from tepid COP27 implementation plans on global heating to Chinese self-serving CSR reporting. It will become painfully clear how and why language matters and you'll find out more about your ecosomatic awareness. As always, you can find more information, references to research and a full transcript on https://wordsandactions.blog . In the introduction, we mention the Yale Programme for Climate. Its most recent survey of on public attitudes to climate change dates from 2022 and includes the following two maps. The different colours indicates the percentage of the population thinking that climate change will have a direct impact on them. The article on metaphors in climate change discourse is Atanasova, D., & Koteyko, N. (2017). Metaphors in Guardian Online and Mail Online opinion-page content on climate change: War, religion, and politics. Environmental Communication, 11(4), 452-469. This article gives a good overview of war metaphors more generally: Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2018). War metaphors in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 33(1), 1-18. We also talk about a chapter in the following book: Goatly, A. (2007). Washing the Brain: Metaphor and hidden ideology. Benjamins. The cue for our discussion about presuppositions in proverbs about pigs is taken from this article by our interview guest: Stibbe, A. (2003). As charming as a pig: The discursive construction of the relationship between pigs and humans. Society & Animals, 11(4), 375-392. The origin of the German phrase 'Schwein gehabt' meaning having been lucky is not entirely clear, but may go back to a mediaeval custom to give a pig as a consolation prize to someone who had lost in a competition. The idea that pigs are filthy is also expressed in the film Pulp Fiction (1994), where animals consumed by humans are compared to pets. The different ways in which humans relate to animals are put into stark contrast in this row of shops in a small English town. Our discussion of presuppositions draws on Polyzou, A. (2015). Presupposition in discourse: Theoretical and methodological issues. Critical Discourse Studies, 12(2), 123-138. Our interview guest, Arran Stibbe, is the founder of the International Ecolinguistics Association and runs a free online course called The Stories We Live By. During the interview, Veronika mentions Buy Nothing Day in Britain, which is on the last Friday in November (but feel free to buy nothing on any day of the year!). The seminal work in ecofeminism was Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Beacon Press. while a recent article focuses on the language angle is Appleby, R., & Pennycook, A. (2017). Swimming with sharks, ecological feminism and posthuman language politics. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 14(2-3), 239-261. In the analysis part of the episode, we report on the work on CSR reporting by a number of researchers from China. We mention some recent work that a previous interview guest, Matteo Fuoli, has done with Annika Beelitz, on the discourse of energy companies In the analysis part of the episode, we report on the work on CSR reporting by a number of researchers from China. We mention some recent work that a previous interview guest, Matteo Fuoli, has done with Annika Beelitz, on the discourse of energy companies. Fuoli, M. and Beelitz, A. (2022). Framing the path to net zero: A corpus analysis of carbon disclosures by the world's largest corporate emitters, 2011-2020. Paper presented at the 6th Corpora and Discourse international conference. 26-28 August, Bertinoro/Italy. The text we analyse is the 2021 CSR report by China Southern Airlines 2021. The complete report is available both in Chinese and in English . Finally, we'd like to mention that Erika, Veronika and Bernard are working on the second edition of the Language in Business, Language at Work textbook (Bloomsbury, 2018), which will feature a new chapter on CSR. See you again for the third and final part of this mini-series!

November 11, 2022Episode 2544 min

The Language of Corporate Social Responsibility: Responsible Communication

All good things come in threes. Or more. Add a Chief Sustainability Officer, a body positive Barbie doll, a purple inclusive M&M and an actual expert in applied ethics and you get a lively discussion on true colours, washings and genuine CSR efforts in the first episode of our new mini-series (it comes in threes) on corporate social responsibility. Have a listen and find out more, including how energy companies account for their profits and your bills via legitimisation strategies. More information about the podcast and a full transcript can be found on wordsandactions.blog. In this episode e arly in the introduction, Erika cites two definitions. She first cites the definition of sustainability in a 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development (a sub-organisation of the United Nations) called "Our Common Future". It can be found here . The second definition is on corporate social responsibility and taken from the website Investopedia . The examples we give of CSR in action, including attempts that backfired, are body-positive Barbie dolls, the "inclusive" and desexualised M&M candy figures and a now (in)famous Benetton advert. The latter is reproduced in Erika's and Veronika's textbook Language in Business, Language at Work (Macmillan Higher Education, 2018; the second edition will have Bernard as the third author. Still in the introduction, we also mention this article on the social responsibility of business, the reference to which can be found on our website. Every summer, the Pride season in Western countries now comes with many examples of "pinkwashing", where companies claim to be queer-friendly, but either don't have relevant policies or even have practices that go against LGBT equality. Some examples from 2022 can be found here . Towards the end of the introduction, Veronika talks about legitimation as a discourse strategy, based on these works by van Leeuwen and Reyes. We then proceed to the interview with Garrath Williams. On the links between 'responsible' and 'response', the Oxford English Dictionary has the following to say (shortened – the OED has lots of detail): Etymology: responssable , ressponsable , Anglo-Norman and Middle French responsable answerable, entitled to an answer …, answerable, required to answer …, that responds, that constitutes a reply (15th cent.), apparently respōns- , past participial stem of respondēre respond v. … probably respōnsāre to reply While we mention but do not elaborate on the Drink Responsibly campaign in the UK, someone else has, in a 2014 report on alcohol and the night-time economy. During our analysis of the ExxonMobil press release, we wonder if the company has a Chief Sustainability Officer. The answer is no but it has had an ex ternal sustainability advisory panel since 2009. In episode 26, we'll talk about language and the environment – see you then!

August 12, 2022Episode 2451 min

Selling Hard and Soft

Are you one of those people who is always tricked into doing or buying things you don't want? Do you want to find out how they do it or how to do it yourself? You're in luck! If you listen to this episode, you will find out all about it! You will even get free access to all the other W&A episodes on language in business, politics and beyond and you'll discover that your current annoyance and reluctance by reading this is caused by genre awareness. Do it now or regret it later! # hardselltacticsshamelesslybrou ghttoyoubuyW&A. The episode, as always, is accompanied by a blog post on wordsandactions.blog, where we publish additional resources, and importantly for this episode, the images we discuss. In this episode on 'selling, hard and soft and everything in between', we want to raise advertising literacy by showing and identifying how language and semiotics are used in marketing to influence people's buying behaviour. In the introductory chat, it soon becomes obvious that advertising is everywhere in different shapes and forms and that all three hosts have succumbed to it: we even shamelessly do it on the podcast itself (can you spot all instances?) and we have to admit to having bought clothes, paintbrushes and ice-cream ourselves, fuelled by subtle and less subtle advertising. In the introduction, Erika refers to Arran Stibbe's work, in which he analyses the discourse in textbooks on economics. We then move on to elusive types of advertising, where the genre is bended and blended with others so it is harder to spot. Veronika starts with an example of so-called native advertising. Later, Bernard mentions the study below about the phenomenon: Apostol, N.-E. (2020). What is known about native advertising in editorial contexts? A descriptive literature review. Journal of Media Research 37, 59-81. Veronika also refers to product placement and illustrates how the appearance of the Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses in the Tom Cruise blockbusters Top Gun and Maverick boosted sales (and US Navy applications). Non-conventional and blended advertisements are often referred to with blended (or 'portmanteau') words as well: advertorials, infomercials, shopatainment. The last of these includes live sellers on video channels. A recent MA dissertation at Lancaster University addresses the phenomenon from a language point of view Tan, K. (2021). A corpus-based analysis on the language in Chinese livestream sales. MA dissertation, Lancaster University. This case study of one live seller shows that, unsurprisingly, verbs and nouns closely related to purchase and discount are frequently used in livestream sales ('buy', 'get', 'coupon'). In addition, live sellers use evaluative nouns ('beauties') and personal pronouns like 'everybody', 'we', etc. to address the customers. Repetitions or interactions with audiences can also be noticed. Hard and soft advertising strategies are applied in livestream sales together, to attract and persuade customers. In the run-down of advertising types, we also refer to basic distinctions that are often made, such as hard selling and soft selling (see title of this episode) and reason vs. tickle, which are also covered in Bernstein's and Cook's works. Bernard refers to the typical features of hard selling as the very recognizable aggressive tactics that centralise the product and its features and benefits, while playing on the scarcity principle and fear of missing out. Veronika's son, Feranmi Ayo Omoniyi, would like to be given full credit for all his research into hard-selling tactics in computer games – thank you! Erika mentions that soft selling plays more on emotions, stories, atmosphere and associations, with the possessor reflecting the possessed. Still in the introduction, we also mention Bhatia's colony of promotional genres, which features both central and more peripheral members. We then move on to the interview with Joe McVeigh, who is a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki in Finland. You can also find him on Twitter: @EvilJoeMcVeigh (ignore the account handle, he is very nice!). In the analysis we look at an example each that we brought - these can be found at wordsandactions.blog! And that's it - see you next time for the start of season 4!