Routledge Revivals: The Violence of Language (1990)

First published in 1990, this book argues that any theory of language constructs its object by separating relevant from irrelevant phenomena - excluding the latter. This leaves a remainder which consists of the untidy, creative part of how language is used - the essence of poetry and metaphor. Although this remainder can never be completely formalised, it must be fully recognised by any true account of language and thus this book attempts the first theory of the remainder. As such, whether it is language or the speaker who speaks is dealt with, leading to an analysis of how all speakers are violently constrained in their use of language by social and psychological realties.