This paper spotlights one of Singapore’s most enduring, well-known, and controversial campaigns, the ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign. It traces the campaign’s history and evolution from the time it was first launched in 1979 to 2004, with a view to critically examine the ideologies embedded within the discursive structures of the slogans used. Broadly adhering to the principles and orientations of critical linguistics and using Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar as aframework of analysis, this study uncovers ideologies pointing to an asymmetrical power structure between (...) the government and the people of Singapore, possible traces of linguistic chauvinism, and a political leadership that is generally distant and aloof, imposing the burden of speaking Mandarin unilaterally on the people instead of constructing it as a shared responsibility. The paper concludes with a critical appraisal of the ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign, focusing on its social, political, and cultural ramfications. (shrink)

There has been much discussion about semantics and ideology in systemic-functional linguistics, which has significant implications for critical discourse analysis. This paper attempts to explore the early Hallidayan concept of semantics, contemporary notions of text semantics as proposed by Jay Lemke, and Michel Foucault's discussion of discursive formations, sexuality, the confession, and normalising judgement, to analyse a small corpus of letters to agony aunts in contemporary Britain. Through an analysis of transitivity, hypotaxis, aspect, and modality, the paper constructs a system (...) network which attempts to show how ideology is realised in the text semantics which is then realised in the lexicogrammar. (shrink)