Political Discourse , Prove d'esame di Lingua Inglese

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Introduction

to Political Discourse

Prof. Cristina Pennarola

Università di Napoli Federico

II

OUTLINE

1. Definitions of politics

2. Overview of political language

3. Evaluation

4. Meanings

5. Rhetorical structure

6. Political phraseology

LANGUAGE IN POLITICS

can transform decisions/proposals into

actions

is meant to create consensus

has an aesthetic dimension

is often the job of professional

speechwriters

Language conveys….

Content meaning: the literal information

Emotive meaning: what the participants feel

Ideological meaning: the speaker’s sociocultural

political/religious viewpoint

EXAMPLES

 Terrorist or freedom fighter?

 (^) mission or operation?

 leader or tyrant?

 stubborn or uncompromising?

 international community or western countries & the UN?

 The PM explained/ claimed that the measure was necessary.

EVALUATIVE LANGUAGE

This nation of ours has got a solemn duty to defeat this ideology

of hate. And that’s what they are, this is a group of killers who

will not only kill here but kill children in Russia. That will attack

unmercifully in Iraq hoping to shake our will. We have a duty to

defeat this enemy. We have a duty to protect our children and

grand-children. (G.W. Bush, 2004)

EVALUATION: a) the indication that something is good or bad

b) the very basis of persuasion (Partington 2006)

RHETORICAL STRUCTURE

BINOMIALS = two words or phrases with the same grammatical

function joined by “and”/ “or”

government and parliament

stocks and shares

BICOLONS = parallel phrases

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding

determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph

- so help us God (Roosevelt 1945)

TRICOLON = repetition of three parallel phrases

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight

you. Then you win (Mahatma Gandhi)

METAPHOR

A rhetorical figure in which a quality is attributed to

something which is not literally applicable on account

of some common feature eg. icy glance, nerves of

steel (Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary)

Crusade against terror

• (^) Long night of slavery

Paper tiger

Puppet government

• (^) Shadow government
• (^) Shadow economy

POLITICAL PHRASEOLOGY

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of

the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India,

the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs

on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are

too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the

professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to

consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy

vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the

inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned,

the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.

Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along

the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of

population or rectification of frontiers …Such phraseology is needed if

one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.