Bob Hodge

Critical linguistics was born in late 1973 in the University of East Anglia, with a manifesto created by Bob Hodge and Gunther Kress (published as ‘Transformations, models and processes: towards a useable linguistics’ J Lit Semantics 1974:4/1) which synthesised linguistics (Chomsky and Halliday) in an activist, Marxist framework, in a post-1968, radicalised academic environment. From Chomsky it took the idea of transformations, as a set of real, material processes driven by social agents with specific, ideological purposes, which constituted crucial social meanings to be seen in the text. From Halliday it took the emphasis on functions served by language in action. From linguistics in general it took a particular focus on grammar and syntax, as carriers and traces of social meaning. From Marx it took its basic model of language and consciousness as always implicated in social and political struggles, the idea of analysis as a necessary intervention, and theory as best arising out of attempts to grapple with specific problems, political, social and conceptual. This theory’s focus on language made its social theory seem rudimentary, under-developed and static: e.g. its understanding of the key term ‘ideology’. This was rectified in Social Semiotics, which developed the concept of the ideological complex: as a functional set of contradictory representations, reflecting ongoing and unresolved struggles.

The fullest description of the account of language of this theory was Hodge and Kress Language as Ideology (first edition 1979, second edition with new final chapter and the order of the names corrected, 1993). This work formed the basis for Norman Fairclough to develop Critical Discourse Analysis, now so influential that it has spawned a journal Critical Discourse Studies. Hodge and Kress broadened the base of Critical Linguistics by developing Social Semiotics. Hodge reframed the account of language in terms of chaos theory (see ‘Towards a post-modern science of language’ Soc. Sem 13/3: 241-262). Critical linguistic analysis underpins much of Hodge’s later work: see e.g. in post-colonial theory (Hodge and Louie 1998 Politics of Chinese language and culture which applies Language as Ideology theory to Chinese) and Critical Management, (‘Mexico Inc.? Discourse analysis and the triumph of managerialism’  Organization 13:4, 2006:529-548 (with G Coronado).