The Strategic Linguist
The Strategic Linguist, Des KennedyRevealing how language shapes power, markets, and competitive advantage | linguistic analysis from workplace dynamics to global strategy
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Twice weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 75 | Founded | a year ago | Last Issue | 9 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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thestrategiclinguist.substack.comLatest Issues
The Tone Police and the Face-Threat Reversal
The Repair That Doesn't Repair: Face, Conduct, and the Double Bind
Speech Act Theory, and the frameworks that follow, describe what language does in social spaces — the structural effects it produces in interaction. They say nothing about...
The Language of Trust
You intend to be clear, supportive, or efficient. But what people hear is something else. You walk away from a conversation knowing something went wrong — maybe it was the tone, or the word choices, or the timing — but when you try to expla...
The Conversation That Was Never About You
The Intention Shield and the Perlocutionary Fallacy
Imagine you are parked at a red light, and another driver rear-ends your car. The impact is loud, your bumper is dented, and your neck is sore. The other driver gets out, looks at the...
Metalinguistic Awareness in Writing
Mental Model #7 From: The Writing Crisis That's Sabotaging Your AI Strategy, Jul 28 2025
Metalinguistic Awareness: When Your Blindness to Language Becomes Your System’s Failure
Why “I’m Giving You Your Time Back” Is a Power Play
and were talking about how to politely end a conversation in a recent episode of “The Curosity Shop”. Adam mentioned something he hears often: when a meeting ends early, you’ll hear the phrase:
“I’m going to give you your time back.”
Bre...
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| Subscribers | Engagement | 79 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Decoding the grammar of power. Applying business strategy with pragmatics & sociolinguistics to expose how authority is constructed across corporate & AI ecosystems. Views my own, not my employer’s.
I help leaders and teams think, create and work better together, so they can shape change rather than be shaped by it.
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