Rhetorical Questions as Orator’s Means of Addressing the National Spirit of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians in Presidential Speeches

2020 ◽  
pp. 399-411
Author(s):  
Līga Romāne-Kalniņa
Keyword(s):  
National Spirit ◽  
Presidential Speeches ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

Retorika kā pārliecināšanas māksla kopš Aristoteļa laikiem, īpaši pēdējā gadsimta laikā, izpelnījusies kritiskās diskursa analīzes pētnieku uzmanību. Retoriskie jautājumi kā viens no politiskajā diskursā lietotajiem retorisko līdzekļu veidiem tiek škietami par zemu novērtēti, it sevišķi situācijās, kad runas mērķis nav skaidri redzama argumentācija, pārliecināšana vai manipulācija. Attiecīgi retorisko jautājumu slēptā doma enkurojas dziļāk diskursa uztveres procesā un tādējādi atmiņā tiek uzglabāta ilgāk. Pētījumā analizētas 175 Baltijas valstu prezidentu runas, kas sniegtas dažādos nacionāli svarīgos brīžos kopš Latvijas valsts neatkarības pasludināšanas vai neatkarības atjaunošanas Lietuvā un Igaunijā līdz valstu simtgadei 2018. gadā. Veiktais pētījums salīdzina retorisko jautājumu lietojumu prezidentu runās sinhronajā un diahronajā skatījumā un analizē to potenciālo ietekmi uz klausītāju, ņemot vērā jautājumu tematisko un diskursīvo saturu Baltijas valstu sociālā, vēsturiskā un politiskā kontekstā. Pētījuma rezultātā tiek secināts, ka retorisko jautājumu lietojums, izmantojot tādas nacionālās identitātes veidošanas stratēģijas kā kopējās politiskās vēstures konstrukcija, valsts kā nacionāla kopuma komunikācija un nāciju politiskās tagadnes un nākotnes konstrukcija, var uzrunāt cilvēku zemapziņas emocionālo līmeni un konkrēti atbildības un piederības sajūtu, tādējādi netieši veidojot klausītāju uztveri un ietekmējot to potenciālo rīcību attiecībā pret valsti. Turklāt vairākos gadījumos tiek secināts, ka retoriskie jautājumi lietoti kombinācijā ar citiem stratēģiski spēcīgiem valodas līdzekļiem, kā metafora, hiperbola un paralēlās teikumu struktūras, kas pastiprina vēlamo retorisko efektu uz klausītāju. Tāpat, salīdzinot retorisko jautājumu lietojumu sinhronajā aspektā tika secināts, ka Latvijas un Lietuvas prezidentu runās šie jautājumi tiek lietoti retāk nekā Igaunijas prezidentu runās. Attiecībā uz diahronajām izmaiņām retorisko jautājumu lietojumā, secināts, ka laika gaitā retorisko jautājumu skaits runās palielinās, tomēr šīs izmaiņas drīzāk ietekmē tādi savstarpēji neatkarīgi radītāji kā prezidenta politiskā piederība, runas mērķis, kontekstuālā situācija vai runas tips un mērķauditorija.

The prosodic marking of rhetorical questions in Standard Chinese

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Zahner ◽  
Manluolan Xu ◽  
Yiya Chen ◽  
Nicole Dehé ◽  
Bettina Braun
Keyword(s):  
Standard Chinese ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

Jewish Argument Style among Russian Revolutionaries

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-68
Author(s):  
Gabriella Safran
Keyword(s):  
Significant Difference ◽  
The World ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Bold Face

Jewish speech was heard in Russian revolutionary contexts as characterized by emphatic tones, rhetorical questions, an argumentative stance, and sarcasm, all performative elements of Jewish English (je) as well. I examine depictions of Jewish Russian (jr) in the world of the non-Jewish Socialist Revolutionary (sr) leader Victor Chernov. This article first introduces Chernov, then analyzes his depictions of jr, and finally looks at transcripts of speeches by sr leaders for evidence of Jewish speech style. I use speech length, bold-face, exclamation points, and question marks as proxies for the heightened emotion and argumentative stance associated with jr. My analysis indicates no significant difference between the speech of Jewish and non-Jewish sr leaders as a whole, but shows that Chernov’s own speech contains a significantly higher than average use of these elements. This result complicates the notion of ethnolect and suggests that individuals’ evaluations of other people’s language should be examined in light of their biographies.

Nation-building and presidential rhetoric in Belarus

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 727-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Klymenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Presidential Rhetoric ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Community ◽  
Societal Consensus ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Presidential Speeches ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

Abstract This paper studies the Belarusian nation as envisioned by the president in his political speeches delivered on the country’s Independence Day. The theoretical framework of the paper rests upon an understanding of the discursive construction of national identity. This analysis of the presidential speeches utilizes principles of the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). As a special genre of texts, political speeches aim to offer normative guidance and a sense of societal consensus to the public. The paper reveals that in the construction of a national community in Belarus, the presidential speeches ambiguously refer to historical memory, socio-economic development, the political system and the country’s foreign relations.

scholarly journals Embedded discourse spaces in narrative reports

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-240
Author(s):  
Anna Ewa Wieczorek
Keyword(s):  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Space Theory ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Image Construction ◽  
Positive Image ◽  
Narrative Representations ◽  
Presidential Speeches

This article aims to discuss conceptual levels of narrative representations of utterances based on reported speech frames employed in presidential speeches. It adopts some assumptions from Chilton’s Deictic Space Theory and Cap’s Proximisation Theory, both primarily used to indicate exclusive reference, a clash of interests and threat-oriented conceptualisation of events. This article, however, extends their scope to include strategies for inclusion and positive image construction and makes a distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary embedding as discursive means that contribute to presentation of self and legitimisation. Data for this research comprise a corpus of 125 presidential speeches (25 per tenure) divided into three subcorpora: JKC – John Kennedy Corpus, BCC – Bill Clinton Corpus, and BOC – Barrack Obama Corpus. A total of 1251 instances of narrative reports have been analysed to investigate primary and multilevel embedding, which constitute the basis for this study.

Confucian and Taiping “Heaven”: The Political Implications of Clashing Religious Concepts

1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Levenson
Keyword(s):  
Modern China ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
National Spirit

In “The Suggestiveness of Vestiges: Confucianism and Monarchy at the Last”, I wrote of the draining of the monarchical mystique in modern China. Vestigial monarchism, it seemed to me, was related to an equally vestigial Confucianism — really related, that is, not just parallel in some modern course of corrosion. The relation was the thing, a novel one of untroubled association (in a common, new ideology of “national spirit”), unpromising departure from what seemed, more and more, the devious, uncertain, tense partnership of pre-Western days. The loss of this ambivalence, this Confucian-monarchical attraction-repulsion, comprised the Chinese state's attrition. And if in its time that traditional state was a prodigiously hardy perennial, perhaps its vitality, in a truly Nietzschean sense, was the measure of its tolerance of tensions: their release was the bureaucratic monarchy's death.

The Portrayal of Christianity in the History Textbooks of Nazi Germany

1980 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilmer W. Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Normal Condition ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Divine Will ◽  
High Tension ◽  
Foreign Influence ◽  
National Spirit

The study of history in National Socialist Germany served a demolition function. Students were taught to recognize threats to their way of life, all of which were subsumed under Jewish internationalism and included Christianity, Marxism, democracy, liberalism and modernity. The history written by the Nazis undergirded an ersatz religion whose central theme was the German people's faltering attempts to obey the divine will of a racial deity. A major priority of Nazi educators was the liberation of the fierce Germanic instincts which more than a thousand years of foreign influence had repressed; and in their estimation, Christianity bore a major responsibility for blunting the expression of that Germanic spirit. The new German schools would help create a militarized society which would both purge the national spirit and promote the high-tension ethos which accepted war as a normal condition in a life of struggle.

Exploring the invocation of emotion in presidential speeches

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cengiz Erisen ◽  
José D. Villalobos
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Speeches
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