Lectures 23-24

Political discourse

• 1. Nature of Political Discourse

• 2. A classification of types of  Political
Discourse
• 3. Euphemisms in Political Discourse
• 4. Different types of Literary Discourse
• Discourse in general is a way of organizing human
experience. It establishes frames of meaning by the
recounting and interpreting of events and situations.
• Van Dijk, a champion of critical discourse analysis,
focuses on “the role of discourse in the
(re)production and challenge of dominance”
(2001), and views political discourse as a class of
genres defined by a social domain, namely by
politics.
• Political discourse deals with the narrative
interpretation of events and ideas and
establishes criteria and contexts for comparing
and evaluating political systems.
• While the substance of political narratives
varies widely, they follow certain standard
trajectories, including the recounting of events
in the form of retrievals and projections.
• The concept of language as mediation is a key to
understanding the nature of political discourse.
• The Vygotskian concept of the regulatory
function of language throws light on how a
discussion within political discourse is framed
(Frawley 1987).
• Any participant in political discourse is other-
regulated: by the media, by the opposing camp,
by the electorate, etc.
• Consider the political debate in the closing weeks of the
election.
• It was framed as a choice between “values and security”
(Mr.Bush’s narrative), or “the economy and Iraq” (Mr.
Kerry’s narrative). The GOP (Grand Old Party – for
Republicans)strategists effectively “sold” moral issues to
the voters by implementing state-of-the-art organizational
techniques, authored by the architect of the Bush election
campaign, Karl Rove.
• Republicans used culturally powerful issues like gay
marriage, guns, and abortions to connect to ordinary voters.
• A classification of types of political discourse
 depends on the definition of what is meant by
the political sphere.
• One could take the limited view that political
discourse is simply the words and text
produced by politicians, but there are many
other participants in a democracy.
• It may be more accurate to look at the political
activities of electors, pressure groups, media,
political parties and other players in the
political process and examine the types of
discourse in which they engage.
• Although discourse is primarily in the spoken
and written word, the definition may be
widened to include communication by actions,
as in political demonstrations and sitings.
• Formal debate in a legislative chamber like the
U.S. Senate is one form of political discourse.
• One of the most familiar types of political
discourse involves the speech and debate
within the congress or parliament of a nation.
This is generally formal by nature, including
written speeches, motions, debates on
legislation and discussions in committee.
• Written text associated with this type of discourse is
the written record of speeches or draft laws and
resolutions, together with legislation approved by the
legislative body.
• Many foreign policy issues have been resolved at the
United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
• Outside the formal legislative organs, political
parties may engage in discourse during conferences,
conventions and primary election campaigns.
• At election time, there is direct discourse with
the public on citizens' doorsteps.
• There also is debate between the parties
outside the legislature, as seen in interviews,
televised debates and public meetings.
• The parties also issue their own literature in
the form of newspapers or pamphlets aimed at
electors on a federal, state or municipal level.
• Some politicians and pressure groups communicate
their ideas through books, magazines and films, an
example being the environmental movement.
• Demonstrations by the public are another type of
political discourse.
• These combine actions such as processions or
marches with the written word in the form of
banners or slogans and the spoken word in chanted
demands or speeches made.
• Pressure groups and parties also may
campaign through televised advertisements or
advertising in the streets, in addition to
communication with the electorate through
electronic media including websites, telephone
and text messages, and video clips.
• Political parties may engage in discourse
during conferences or conventions.
• Government announcements on domestic and
foreign affairs are another type of discourse. These
include policy announcements, general addresses,
and announcements of draft legislation. 
• Foreign policy statements are political discourse
directed at the politicians or people of another
country, and international discourse takes place
through diplomatic exchanges or at an international
body such as the United Nations.
• Treaty negotiations and peace talks also are a
type of political discourse.
• Dissidents in a country sometimes engage in
political activity through civil disobedience,
and a spell in prison or under house arrest may
itself become a symbolic form of discourse in
some countries, even if the dissident is not
permitted to communicate through the spoken
or written word.
• Pressure groups and parties may campaign
through telephone messages
• Politicians often give speeches while
campaigning.
• Media interviews play an important role in
political discourse. Activists sometimes use
civil disobedience as a form of political
discourse.
• Euphemisms and metaphors – deserve an especially
close examination because of their pervasiveness and
weight in political discourse. Metaphorizing and
euphemizing undoubtedly serve as linguistic bridges
to indirectness that tends to dominate human
communication in the modern era.
• In semiotic terms, both metaphor and euphemisms
deal with substitution of one denotation for another,
creating desirable conceptual and connotative
meanings.
• In cognitive terms, euphemisms are used when one
wants to name things without calling up a mental
picture of them.
• The aim of using euphemisms is to strike at a
person’s imagination. Euphemisms do not form
complete pictures in the mind, nor do they
completely define an event or object.
• Without a complete definition, the ability to
understand the true meaning of a statement is
obscured.
• A popular synonym for euphemism in the media is
“spin.” According to the New York Times columnist
William Safire, spin is “deliberate shading of news
perception.”
• Linda Wertheimer, a reporter for National Public Radio,
defined spin as “not quite lying,” “not quite truth.”
• The presidential campaign of both candidates in 2004
heavily relied on designated spinners or spin-doctors,
whose mission was to publicly defend or downplay
errors made by their candidate.
• The highly staged and hyperbolic spin operations,
for example, included monitoring the candidate’s
every word and comparing his statements with
public records through a computer matrix for
possible exaggerations or misstatements, sending
the computer-generated list of responses via emails
to reporters and partisans all over the country.
• The intent was to reshape public perceptions of the
candidates’ performances and personalities.
• For example, the Kerry campaign
methodically highlighted the incumbent’s
inability to face the reality and accused him of
spinning by presenting a “rosy” view of Iraq
and the economy to the public, though the
word “lie” was never used. “He can spin till
he’s dizzy,” the President lives in “a fantasy
world of spin,” one Yale gentleman charged
another.
• Interestingly enough, commentators on both
sides also avoided using the “L-word” (lie).
Instead, they chose to euphemize the instances
when the political opponents “misspoke,”
“misstated” or “stretched the truth.”
• For example, USA Today accused the Bush
administration of putting an optimistic face on
the worsening conflict in Iraq and called it
“upbeat spins.”
• There were numerous euphemisms coined by spin-
doctors of the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11.
They all can be classified under the rubric of national
security euphemisms. 9/11 is one of them.
• The euphemism is an index, a minimal deictic, which
refers to the terrorist attack on America on September
11, 2001, when the country lost nearly 3,000 people.
• The terrorist attack was designed by Osama bin Laden
and executed by 18 terrorists from different Arab
countries.
• Jacques Derrida, in a post-9/11 interview,
attempted to explain the minimalist aim of this
dating.
• He argues that the meaning of the event being
ineffable, the language admits its
powerlessness and is reduced to mechanically
pronouncing a date, repeating it endlessly, as a
kind of ritual incantation.
• “War on terror” became a pervasive
euphemism for the war on militant Islam. To
use religion as the target of military
engagement would be diplomatically
perilous(full of danger and risk) for the United
States.
• “Terror” does not define the enemy explicitly;
it refers to enemy activity on the emotional
level, singling out violence as its core sense.
• The invasion of Iraq was called “a liberation” (though
it was later defined as an occupation), “a broad and
concerted campaign,” executed with the help of the
“Coalition of the Willing”
• (among them the United Kingdom is the only ally
which has contributed significantly to the occupation).
• The war was also defined as “tearing down the
apparatus of terror,” “confronting dictators,” and
“regime change” in an attempt to justify the invasion
for a humanitarian reason.
• The outcome of the war in Iraq was portrayed
euphemistically in the political narratives of the
Republicans.
• Consider Mr. Cheney’s a “remarkable success”
euphemism, Mr. Bush’s “catastrophic success”
oxymoron and the metaphor “a seedbed of
democracy.”
• The fact is, in spite of the historic January 2005
elections in Iraq, the country remains a hotbed of
terrorist threat.
• The war on terror has brought a number of euphemisms
intended to blur legal boundaries to justify illegal
treatment of American citizens or detainees from other
nations.
• Among them are “unlawful combatants,” or “enemy
combatants” rather than “prisoners of war” or “criminals.”
• The former terms offer none of the basic protections
democratic nations have come to expect from their
governments while the traditional titles bring with them
certain rules and standards governing human treatment.
• The different types of literary discourse are
transactional, expressive, and poetic. Discourse
refers to the way language is manipulated to
communicate a certain effect or elicit a specific
response.
• Most fictional forms of literature use poetic
discourse, although they may also incorporate
the use of expressive discourse in a experiential
fashion.
• Transactional discourse is primarily used in 
business communication, such as advertising or
correspondence.
• Expressive literary discourse typically consists of
creative non-fiction prose.
• Examples of expressive discourse include letters,
diary entries, and stream of consciousness writing.
This type of discourse highlights an individual's
ability to express his personal point of view.
• In the digital publishing era, online blogs have
become a popular form of expressive discourse.
• One of the most prominent and well-known
forms of literary discourse is poetic.
• This type of written communication includes
most creative works, including fictional novels,
poetry, fictional short story collections, and
screenplays. Within poetic discourse are many
different types of genres or styles of writing.
• Fictional discourse tends to focus on how
language is formed and used to communicate
various abstract themes, philosophical
ideologies, settings and imagery.
• This type of literary discourse also deals with
the resolution of emotional questions through
character development.
• The other main type of literary discourse is
transactional. Most of this communication focuses on
establishing some degree of interaction with the
reader.
• It is the most common form of discourse used in
business correspondence, advertising, instruction
manuals, and editorial articles.
• In most cases, it tends to propel the reader into action,
such as purchasing a product or asking for more
information.
• Literary discourse is usually analyzed in literature, 
creative writing, and English composition courses. 
• Discourse analysis can be used to teach proper
language structure, develop vocabulary, and increase
an individual's ability to communicate effectively.
• In advanced literature courses, traditional and
experiential forms are analyzed according to their
effectiveness and intended meaning.
• Technique choices, such as point of view, scene
transition, and descriptive language are typically
discussed.
• Likewise, expressive discourse has become a studied
art form in the majority of advanced creative writing
programs.
• This type of written communication is usually
categorized as creative non-fiction and is represented
by memoir-style works, collections of prose and
commentary.
• Academic essays are a form of expressive
discourse, which are assigned to students in
college level English courses to help them
develop their writing skills.
• The essay form accomplishes this by having
students focus on paragraph and 
sentence structure, in addition to
demonstrating the ability to support or disagree
with a particular argument.