Communicating for Peace: A Review of The Language of Peace: Communicating to Create Harmony

摘要

When I accepted the editor's invitation to review The Language of Peace, I anticipated a work of applied linguistic pragmatics, addressing the complex relationship between an utterance's form (it's locution), how it is understood (its illocution), and the effect it has (its perloctution) as they relate to peace or to conflict resolution more generally. Readers who approach the book with this expectation will be disappointed. Despite its title, The Language of Peace is more concerned with communication than language (not the same thing), and its treatment of communication is far from systematic. This broad and diffuse approach may be welcomed by readers whose main interest is conflict and its resolution, but it will disappoint those who want to learn more about the relation of linguistic form and function.