Statist language
RIS ID
33052
Abstract
News reports commonly include statements such as "the U.S. today . announced" or "China reacted." Such statements can be misleading, sometimes seriously so.
lt is a long-standing convention that the name of a country refers to its government or some action by sections of the government. For example, "Iraq invaded Kuwait" means that Iraqi military forces- under the control of the government of Iraq, in particular Saddam Hussein-invaded the territory known as Kuwait.
Link to publisher version (URL)
COinS
Publication Details
Martin, B. 2009, ''Statist language'', ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 377-381.