scholarly journals Us Presidents’ Political Discourse Analysis: George W. Bush and Barack Obama. A Pragmatics Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134
Author(s):  
Abbas Hussein Tarish

AbstractAn examination of the political discourse of presidents establishes an understanding of the factors that influence word choice and communication. Most notably, the context provided by presidents in their political discourse conveys the meaning intended by the speeches, which then influences the way the public reacts to what they have to say. Through knowledge of these factors, linguists can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between language and the perceptions of American presidents by both Americans and non-Americans. The purpose of this paper is to examine the political discourse of two American presidents – George W. Bush and Barack Obama – in order to identify the overall message intended by their speeches and the factors that influence their discourse.

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Stark

AbstractRecently, students of public policy making in North America have added the analysis of “political discourse” to the tools of their trade. According to the “political discourse” school, the extent to which policy ideas gain acceptability cannot always be explained rationally in terms of their logical or empirical validity, nor instrumentally in terms of the interests they serve. Often, their careers must be accounted for, at least in part, by a detailed exploration of their ideological assumptions and appeal, and their rhetorical structure and persuasiveness. Despite its many plausible and promising features, this type of analysis has, to date, rarely been performed in specific instances of policy discourse. The author presents a “political-discourse” analysis of the 1985–1988 debate over Canada's Bill C-82, “An Act Respecting the Registration of Lobbyists.” That debate brought together some of Canada's most factually informed and instrumentally motivated policy actors. Nevertheless, the participants uniformly based their arguments on broad assumptions unsubstantiated by empirical analysis, and advanced those arguments in the rhetoric of the public good and democratic theory. The author concludes that underlying the two basic positions taken in debate over C-82—support for a regime of substantial disclosure of lobbying activity on the one hand, and opposition to disclosure on the other—were two competing sets of assumptions concerning the nature and workings of the faculties of reason and perception in politics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Shi Wen

<p align="LEFT">Under the research framework of Pragma-</p><p align="LEFT">Dialectics, this paper analyses and evaluates the</p><p align="LEFT">former United State trade representative Ron</p><p align="LEFT">Kirk’s remarks on the trade conflict of poultry.</p><p align="LEFT">Through this case study, I intend to develop a</p><p align="LEFT">pragma-dialectical approach to the political</p><p align="LEFT">discourse. Based on the argumentative</p><p align="LEFT">reconstruction, strategic maneuvering analysis</p><p align="LEFT">and critical evaluation of the remarks, this</p><p align="LEFT">paper finds that even if Ron Kirk’s remarks look</p><p align="LEFT">reasonable apparently, there are still some</p><p align="LEFT">fallacies hidden in them. In order to make the</p><p align="LEFT">US government benefit most from the trade</p><p align="LEFT">conflict, after considering comprehensively of</p><p align="LEFT">the potential topics, audience demands, and</p><p align="LEFT">presentational devices, Ron Kirk maneuvers</p><p align="LEFT">strategically by choosing beneficial starting</p><p>points and arranging argumentative schemes</p><p align="LEFT">technically. By doing so, he can transmit Anti-</p><p align="LEFT">China ideology to the international society</p><p align="LEFT">imperceptibly. In addition, by taking into</p><p align="LEFT">consideration the background information of</p><p align="LEFT">the poultry case and the Ten Commandments of</p><p align="LEFT">a critical discussion, this paper reveals that, the</p><p align="LEFT">accepted starting points and the argument</p><p align="LEFT">schemes are abused in Ron Kirk’s remarks.</p><p align="LEFT">Through the case study, this paper tries to study</p><p align="LEFT">political discourse from Pragma-Dialectical</p><p align="LEFT">approach and provide feasible analytical</p><p align="LEFT">methods and reasonable evaluative standards</p><p align="LEFT">for the political discourse analysis, so that a</p><p align="LEFT">new perspective will be offered for researches</p><p>on political discourse.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. p14
Author(s):  
Franck Amoussou ◽  
Nathalie J. A. Aguessy

The novel coronavirus is one of the most tragic epidemic diseases the world has ever faced thus far. Therefore, the governments of all countries have taken a range of measures against it. This article preforms a critical analysis on a political discourse, notably president Trump’s March 11, 2020 speech about the global pandemic. Using a multi- disciplinary approach as suggested by representatives of critical discourse analysis, it attempts to unpack or decipher the ideologies behind the discourse on the one hand, and to reveal how the discourse contributes to manipulating the public opinion through structural and contextual features of power and control, on the other hand.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 103-123
Author(s):  
Christian Etzrodt ◽  

The goal of this paper is to develop a consistent framework for a phenomenological discourse analysis of political debates. The political sphere arises through the questioning of taken-for-granted definitions of reality: a crisis. During a crisis meaning has to be restored, and different interest groups will try to push their definition of reality, which is advantageous for them. For the analysis of such a political discourse phenomenology provides several tools that can help us to understand the background of the discourse, the severity of the crisis, the level of expertise of the participants, the source of the information, discourse strategies and what arguments the audience accepts. These tools allow a unique phenomenological approach towards political discourse analysis.


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 621-645
Author(s):  
Belqes Al-Sowaidi ◽  
Felix Banda ◽  
Arwa Mansour

The present paper aims to analyse a number of those slogans collected from the sit-in quarters in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Using political discourse analysis, it unravels various typical discourse structures and strategies that are used in slogans in the construction of a sub-genre of political discourse in the Arab world. Drawing data from several mediums, including banners, wall graffiti, audio-visual instruments, chanting, speeches and songs, this paper tries to show the extent to which the slogans serve as a medium by which political complaints and comments are dispensed and consumed. This paper draws on a rhetorical analysis to find out their persuasive effect on shaping the Arab intellect and on the change of the political atmosphere in the region. Lastly, this paper attempts to show to what extent the slogans meet the standards of political discourse and whether they can be considered as a sub-genre of political discourse or not.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Ayman F. Khafaga

This paper investigates the linguistic manipulation of political myth in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. More specifically, the paper discusses the myth of the good of the nation which is linguistically manipulated verbally and nonverbally throughout the novel. Atwood’s novel is one of the distinguished dystopian narratives in the twentieth century. This type of fiction has always been a reflection of the irrationalities committed against people by those in power. This paper exposes the strategies of linguistic manipulation used by those in power to propagate for the good of the nation myth, which in turn strengthens their position, justifies their actions, and guarantees their continuation in power. In doing so, the paper uses Political Discourse Analysis to be the approach of analyzing the selected data. Lexical choices, didactic indoctrination, religionization and dehumanization are among the strategies used in the analysis of data. The main objective of this paper is to elaborate the extent to which the good of the nation myth is used by some regimes to oppress and dominate the public into complete submission to their goals. It is also an attempt to provide the public with some sort of linguistic enlightenment so as to be aware of the use and abuse of language in shaping and/or misshaping the public’s attitudes. The conclusion drawn from this paper shows that politicians rhetorically manipulate myths to normalize their practices and legitimize their irrationalities.


he research is aimed at revealing the linguo-discursive features of political interaction within the framework of liberal-democratic ideological communication in the modern perspective. The task of substantiating the key foundations for the perception of language of political ideology as a linguo-discursive process of mutual adaptation of the state and civil society as subjects of political communication is addressed. The study is anchored in the neoclassical scientific paradigm, within which framework critical rethinking of the political discourse-analysis methodology is carried out. We proceed from the fact that ideology is a representation of a certain set of language elements, so the study of the ideology language serves to reconstruct the discursive base of ideology and the imperatives underlying it. It is shown that the study of language of political ideologies engenders the emergence of parallel centers of power in the sphere of statehood. The growth of destructive elements of communicative interactions in liberal democratic society is revealed, in particular an increase in the discursive means that serve an effective tool of denying the democratic process is identified. his study can be useful in the area of political science, namely in the political practice of liberal-democratic society. The findings are applicable in establishing the factors of destruction of social and political dialogue. In this context, the research can offer solutions, provide resources for politicians and organizations in optimizing the dialogue of political communication subjects. Drawing from Freeden’s morphological approach of studying the ideological discourse, as well as critical discourse studies of van Dijk, the research bridges the gap between the studies of the classical philosophical thought and neoclassical scientific paradigm in comprehending the role of political ideologies language. The current study urges a critical rethinking of methodology of political discourse analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-119
Author(s):  
Radu Simandan

Abstract This article investigates the political resistance to fiscal stability institutions in Romanian context, as revealed in political discourse. To ascertain the a priori political predisposition against the fiscal stability framework, the theoretical findings of the public choice school of economics are utilized. Insights from the political discourse analysis body of literature are employed to the study of discourse against established fiscal stability institutions. Since the consensus arising from this literature is that politics is both acting and talking, the unit of analysis in our examination is the statement that can be classified as political discourse. After briefly analyzing the broader institutional context that provides the background for political discourse, the main storylines against fiscal stability recently emerged are reviewed. Seeking to determine the traits of the dominant political discourse against fiscal stability displayed by Romanian politicians in recent years, a quantitative assessment of the usage of these storylines is given. We find that publicly expressed disagreement with established fiscal stability institutions from the part of politicians and high-ranking bureaucrats has drastically increased over the analyzed period. The research has also revealed that the most employed storyline has been the one that belittles the significance of fiscal stability if the state uses the fiscal revenues for investing in transport infrastructure.


Author(s):  
Zharas Taubayev

Eponyms are complicated, unique constructs named after people and places used in special-professional areas of science. One of those specific areas is politics/political discourse. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the political discourse of politicians (Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin) in the period from 2012 to 2017 to reveal the pragmatic potential and skillful use of eponyms used by the latter when they ran for presidency as a means of influence. Results show that eponyms are becoming powerful language tools of political discourse. At each stage of work, various methods were used to complete the analysis. Such methods include the diachronic method, definition analysis (descriptive method), and discourse analysis. Using different methods, especially discourse analysis, considerably facilitated the research process, enabling the identification of the pragmatic effects of eponyms. The main reasons that eponyms frequently appear in political discourse are the existence of new political eras, modern political events, and controversial political issues.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.


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