I think Lakoff's analysis gets causation totally backwards. It is not that a speaker's choice of language shapes his audience's beliefs. Rather, an effective speaker chooses his language so that it will resonate with his audience's pre-existing beliefs and attitudes. It is the audience that determines the parameters of what effective use of language looks like. Lakoff's view strikes me as a misattribution of agency. He thinks conservatives are manipulating their audience with their word choices, when in fact conservatives' word choices are being dictated by their audience.
p
I think Lakoff's analysis gets causation totally backwards. It is not that a speaker's choice of language shapes his audience's beliefs. Rather, an effective speaker chooses his language so that it will resonate with his audience's pre-existing beliefs and attitudes. It is the audience that determines the parameters of what effective use of language looks like. Lakoff's view strikes me as a misattribution of agency. He thinks conservatives are manipulating their audience with their word choices, when in fact conservatives' word choices are being dictated by their audience.
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