Language style and lifestyle: the case of a global magazine

Abstract

This article seeks to co-articulate a sociological and a linguistic-discourse analytical concept of style. In both fields there has been some renewed interest in the notion of lifestyle as commentators have noted that, with the decline of traditional types of social groupings such as class and age, lifestyle has become the dominant source of social identity. Both therefore centre on style as the expression of identity and values. The authors use this approach to understand the language of a global women’s magazine, Cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan style is a hybrid of different styles, chosen for the connotations they bring, for the way they help express the magazine’s identity and values. Although local versions adopt it in their own specific ways, overall it is a global style. The local languages may differ, but the identities and values conveyed by the style do not.