The use of demonstratives and context activation in Catalan parliamentary debate (original) (raw)
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ELUA. Estudios de Lingüística de la Universidad de Alicante, 2018
Lexical encapsulation consists of a series of abstract unspecific nouns (fact, plan...) referring to predicative antecedents. This study is based on a corpus of parliamentary debate in English, Catalan and Spanish (PD) and deals with encapsulation as a complex lexical cohesion device which allows the addressor to evaluate the information of the debates in various ways. Our work tries to highlight the role of lexical encapsulation to reflect the addressor’s positioning with respect to the topic discussed, and to establish whether there are outstanding cross-linguistic differences. In order to delimit the diverse evaluative strategies, an approach from the perspective of prototype theory is adopted, since there are fuzzy boundaries among the different evaluative operations observed. Firstly, the distinction between implicit and explicit evaluation is established. As for explicit evaluation, two different operations are described: objectivizing and subjectivizing encapsulation. The objectivizing one works as a subtle strategy of persuasion addressed mostly to the opponents, whereas the subjectivizing encapsulating structures point to rally the unconditional allies. The results show similar trends in the three languages due to the homogenizing potential of PD as a distinct genre of political discourse.
ELUA-Estudios de Lingüística de la Universidad de Alicante
Lexical encapsulation consists of a series of abstract unspecific nouns (fact, plan...) referring to predicative antecedents. This study is based on a corpus of parliamentary debate in English, Catalan and Spanish (PD) and deals with encapsulation as a complex lexical cohesion device which allows the addressor to evaluate the information of the debates in various ways. Our work tries to highlight the role of lexical encapsulation to reflect the addressor’s positioning with respect to the topic discussed, and to establish whether there are outstanding cross-linguistic differences. In order to delimit the diverse evaluative strategies, an approach from the perspective of prototype theory is adopted, since there are fuzzy boundaries among the different evaluative operations observed. Firstly, the distinction between implicit and explicit evaluation is established. As for explicit evaluation, two different operations are described: objectivizing and subjectivizing encapsulation. The objectivizing one works as a subtle strategy of persuasion addressed mostly to the opponents, whereas the subjectivizing encapsulating structures point to rally the unconditional allies. The results show similar trends in the three languages due to the homogenizing potential of PD as a distinct genre of political discourse
Lexical encapsulation and evaluation in parliamentary debate
ELUA. Estudios de Lingüística Universidad de Alicante, 2018
Lexical encapsulation consists of a series of abstract unspecific nouns (fact, plan...) referring to predicative antecedents. This study is based on a corpus of parliamentary debate in English, Catalan and Spanish (PD) and deals with encapsulation as a complex lexical cohesion device which allows the addressor to evaluate the information of the debates in various ways. Our work tries to highlight the role of lexical encapsulation to reflect the addressor’s positioning with respect to the topic discussed, and to establish whether there are outstanding cross-linguistic differences. In order to delimit the diverse evaluative strategies, an approach from the perspective of prototype theory is adopted, since there are fuzzy boundaries among the different evaluative operations observed. Firstly, the distinction between implicit and explicit evaluation is established. As for explicit evaluation, two different operations are described: objectivizing and subjectivizing encapsulation. The obj...
This paper presents a study of the constraint factors that condition the form and functions of questions in a corpus composed of several face-to-face election debates that took place in Spain during different election campaigns. Some of these factors are of a distributional nature, such as the position of the questions in the politician’s turns at talk, with final positions and fragments of simultaneous speech being the most favourable contexts for the formulation of these utterances. Questions are also favoured by stylistic and rhetorical forces, such as those which lead the speaker to repeat questions or question formats within wider inquisitive sequences, which represent almost half the corpus. In addition, these communicative units are also influenced by institutional factors, such as the political role played by the candidates in the debates (government/opposition), as well as the political expectations and identities that the politicians seek to enhance, and which may vary in different moments of the election campaign.
Establishing Intertextual References in Austrian Parliamentary Debates
In this chapter, the contributions Austrian MPs deliver during the debate after the inaugural speech of a new federal chancellor are investigated under a discourse analytic and rhetorical-argumentative perspective. As the debate contributions refer only to a limited set of reference text, this specific communication situation provides a quasi-experimental setting in which "follow-up" moves in political discourse can be studied. MPs' follow-up moves during one inaugural speech debate (approx. 12 hours) are investigated on three dimensions: source of reference, linguistic form of reference, rhetorical/ argumentative function of statement. Political affiliations of MPs and the time of statement delivery (during or after live TV broadcast) are taken as independent variables of the analysis. Results show that evaluation patterns change during time and that there are two "genres" of debate contributions: the "alternative policy focussed statement" and the "evaluation focussed statement" which display different linguistic and rhetorical/ argumentative characteristics.
Redundancy in parliamentary discourse
In our modern European society, political discourse can no longer be conceived of only as a static notion which has been produced at some more or less specific location and some more or less specific time. Rather, political discourse has become more and more dynamic. This is due to ongoing changes in modern and post-modern societies in general, and to our mediatized society and the so-called new media in particular. These modern technologies enable us to transmit information instantaneously to anybody who is a member of the webanchored community. Against this background, it is necessary not just to analyse political discourse as a product, to employ socio-pragmatic terminology, but rather as a process. For this reason, the communicative act of follow-up, which is a process-oriented concept par excellence, is expected to shed new light on the process-oriented nature of political discourse.
Who’s Responsible for What? Mitigation in Spanish and British Parliamentary Speeches
Revista canaria de estudios ingleses, 2017
The main goal of this paper is to analyse the mitigation strategies politicians use in parliament. We will compare the different strategies that two different head of states use in their speeches. Specifically, we will study the speeches uttered by Mr. Cameron (Ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) and Mr. Rajoy (President of Spain). Both of them delivered speeches that dealt with, among other subjects, the European Council. When dealing with mitigation strategies, Fraser and Caffi say that there are "shields" that "dislocate," "displace" or "de-focalize" the source of the utterance. These displacement strategies are related to any of the three basic components of the deictic expressions: the "actantial" and the spatiotemporal component. In this specific corpus, we will analyse the role of the first person plural pronouns as mitigation strategies. As we will see, in both cases we could observe a dislocation of the action but they go in different directions depending on the nationality of the head of the government. In the case of the British Ex-Prime Minister the dislocation is going inwards (House of Commons and British citizens) and in the case of the Spanish President is going outwards (EU).
IMPACT OF CONTEXT ON LEXICAL AND SYNTACTICAL STRUCTURE OF A POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language , 2021
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) covers the boundaries of analysis of political discourse including public speeches. The politicians' interests and attainment of favorite responses from the audience urge them to deliver public speeches so that they may achieve their goals and targets. The present study goes over the persuasive as well as hegemonic strategies implied by Nawaz Shareef in order to have his target achieved through speech and to influence his public. To underpin his standpoint , the speaker delivers speeches which highlight his focus on the contextual syntactical structure as well as linguistic strategies. This hypothesis helps the researchers in collecting such speeches. In order to have clear reflection of exhibition of purpose and power Taiwo's Micro, Meso and Macro levels are taken into account. In addition to it, the present study is underpinned only with the application of Macro level and Meso level analysis according to Taiwo's devices. Results reveal speaker's Western style of speech and depict that repeated words, usage of personal pronouns, platform of speech and words for appraisal are there to show intimacy as well as speaker's persuasive and hegemonic strategies. Moreover, the findings of the research display a clear impact of context on choice of syntactical categories employed by Nawaz Shareef in his political discourse. The present study's approach may help to disclose or highlight certain aspects which have been skipped. A number of other approaches can be implemented on these speeches to infer other results as well.