Critical Perspectives on Language and Discourse in the New World Order

303 Pages·2009·4.668 MB·

by  Faiz Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati Abdullah and Tan Bee Hoon

Critical Perspectives on Language
and Discourse in the New World Order

Critical Perspectives on Language
and Discourse in the New World Order
Edited by
Faiz Sathi Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati Abdullah
and Tan Bee Hoon
CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING
Critical Perspectives on Language and Discourse in the New World Order,
edited by Faiz Sathi Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati Abdullah and Tan Bee Hoon
This book first published 2008 by
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2008 by Faiz Sathi Abdullah, Mardziah Hayati Abdullah and Tan Bee Hoon
and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN 1-84718-340-9; ISBN 13: 9781847183408
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface.......................................................................................................vii
Introduction................................................................................................ix
Part I: Theoretical Perspectives
Chapter One.................................................................................................1
Language and the New Imperial Order: Africa in a Global Context
Alamin M. Mazrui
Chapter Two..............................................................................................23
Linguistic Imperialism, the Ideological Foundations of Modern
Linguistic Thought and the Study of Asian Languages
Gerry Knowles and Zuraidah Mohd Don
Chapter Three............................................................................................38
Paradoxes of the “Glocal” Self in the New World (Dis)Order:
The National Identity Project
Faiz Sathi Abdullah
Chapter Four..............................................................................................71
Power, Gender and Ethnicity in Workplace Discourse:
A Critical Perspective
Janet Holmes
Part II: Applied Studies
Chapter Five............................................................................................100
The Politics of “Othering” in the New World Order
Annita Lazar and Michelle M. Lazar
Chapter Six..............................................................................................111
Through Western Eyes: Covering Islam after September 11
Shakila Abdul Manan
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Seven..........................................................................................134
Diplomatic Culture and Communication: Crossings from the Self
to the Other
Hafriza Burhanudeen
Chapter Eight...........................................................................................150
The Quest for a New Civic and Linguistic Identity: Mandarin
and English Encroachment upon the Taiwanese Language
Johan Gijsen and Liu Yu-Chang
Chapter Nine............................................................................................167
Language Shift and Ethnic Identity
Lokasundari Vijaya Sankar and Rajeswary Sargunan
Chapter Ten.............................................................................................182
“Normal” and “Ageing” Bodies: The Commodified Female Body
in a Consumer Culture
Zuraidah Mohd Don and Gerry Knowles
Chapter Eleven........................................................................................202
Voices of Malaysia: A Discourse Representation of Aids
Lean Mei Li and Rosaline Prasana Fernandez
Chapter Twelve.......................................................................................216
“Us” And “Them” in Different Times and Space
Ramesh Nair
Chapter Thirteen......................................................................................232
Women’s Language Styles: Strategic Manipulation of Leadership
and Power
Jariah Mohd Jan
Chapter Fourteen.....................................................................................252
Test Innovation and Implementation: A Critical Examination
of the MUET Impact
Wong Bee Eng and Chan Swee Heng
Contributors.............................................................................................275
Index........................................................................................................280
PREFACE
The papers in Critical Perspectives on Language and Discourse in the
New World Order were originally presented at the 4th Malaysia International
Conference on Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (MICOLLAC 2005)
that was held from 23 to 25 April, 2005, at the Holiday Villa Subang
Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Each of the papers in the present volume expands
on the above theme by exploring language use in a broad range of
discourse fields. The volume begins with four papers that provide
theoretical perspectives on global orientations to social, political and
economic transformations in the “New World Order”, and extends these
with studies of the impacts of such transformations at the local, national,
regional and global levels.
The publication of this book would not have been possible without the
sustained effort and commitment of various parties within and without the
university. First, we would like to thank Noritah Omar, the Chair of
MICOLLAC 2005, who helped establish communication with Cambridge
Scholars Publishing (CSP), UK. We wish to express our sincere
appreciation too to Amanda Millar, Andy Nercessian and Carol
Koulikourdi of CSP for their professional work with the manuscript and
their patience throughout the project. We also take this opportunity to
extend our thanks to the Dean of the Faculty of Modern Languages and
Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, for making available the
necessary funds for the editorial work, and Emiliza Markun for editorial
assistance.
Our final note of gratitude goes to the many enthusiastic followers and
excellent paper contributors of MICOLLAC. Your interest, inspiration and
passion for debate and discussion will continue to drive the biennial
conference forward with engaging themes and issues that address the
changing realities of a globalising world.

INTRODUCTION
It has been argued that the New World Order (henceforth, NWO) is a neo-
liberal, capitalist project (it is a project because it is not yet complete)
(Bourdieu 1997; Chomsky 1998; Fairclough 2000), a putative discoursal
macro-representation of the world by its hegemonic players. The fall of the
Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War apparently marked a
new era of glasnost and perestroika: “Out of these troubled times, our
objective–a new world order–can emerge. Today, that new world is
struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we have
known” (Former US President, George H. Bush, September 11, 1990).
The coinage of the term and the attendant global discourse, particularly of
US foreign policy, has had profound implications for geopolitical relations
and balance of power. As Chomsky (1991) has noted of the rhetoric that
underscores increasing US hegemony and its unilateral role in determining
how the United Nations conducts its affairs:
For the first time the United Nations, which has undergone a wondrous sea
change, the press tells us, for the first time the United Nations will be able
to seriously undertake its peace-keeping role, but now that the Cold War is
over it's no longer impeded by the automatic Russian veto and the
psychotic behavior of various Third World hysterics. (Emphasis added.)
Hence, buttressed by the military might of the sole superpower,
particularly post-September 11 2001, and economic and cultural
“globalisation” of the world’s affairs orchestrated in the main by its chief
Anglophone actors, the USA and Britain, NWO discourses attempt to
(re)produce geo-political relations of power in bipolar rather than multi-
polar terms: “You are either with us or against us” (US President George
W. Bush 2001). Since all discourses by their intertextual and
interdiscursive nature are also historical, how do global/local actors seek
meaning in the discourses of globalisation and the NWO? To what extent
do globalisation and militarisation legitimate recolonisation of the hearts
and minds of the subaltern via appropriation of language and discourse?
Are nations losing their relevance in the metanarrative of the “brave new
world”? How do these predominantly macro issues impact social relations
of power and how may global and/or local instantiations of related