The second edition adds but little substantive change tho this work which introduces critical linguistics/critical discourse analysis, advocating the study of language in its material context and its use in real thinking and speaking tasks. Chapter I describes H. & K.'s view of language as the medium of consciousness for a society. Chapters II to VI examine the way in which linguistic form embodies and reproduces ideology. Chapters VII-VIII deal with the ideological function of modal notions in discourse and chapter IX applies the knowledge from the previous chapters to accounts of the Gulf War.