Language and Power: Political Language

Wednesday 6th October 2021

Learning Purposes

• To explore how language can be used to determine power relationships

• To consider competitive discourse in action

• To analyse the language of politics

Recap of previous learning➢ What does the locutionary/illocutionary

act refer to? ➢ What are the politeness strategies? How

does this link with the idea of having a linguistic ‘face’?

Future learning➢ Explore the conventions of spoken

language in context➢ After half term – compare and

contrast written and spoken language.

Starter

Complete the quiz sheet independently

Analysis feedback

Highlight/annotate where the following have been done in your answer from last week:

• Quotations (embedded)

• Contextual link (why the language has been used in this context)

• Linguistic terminology (word classes/spoken language features)

• Reference to theories (even if theorist not mentioned)

In the transcript, Mrs Goddard attempts to encourage Luke to cooperate with her by attempting to appeal to his positive face. As the teacher in a position of authority and thus the typically dominant speaker, Mrs Goddard may be aware that she is in some way threatening Luke’s face by utilising bald-on-record politeness with her declarative ‘you didn’t answer’. The second person personal pronoun ‘you’ deliberately addresses Luke which ordinarily may not threaten a speaker’s face. However, as Mrs Goddard is seemingly familiar with Luke and aware of his potentially volatile behaviour, her addition of the relative clause ‘which was a real shame’ serves to then appeal to Luke’s positive face. Mrs Goddard is attempting to preserve his self-esteem through emphasising her disappointment at his lack of contribution. Furthermore, the intensifier ‘real’ may be used in an attempt to make Mrs Goddard’s concerns about Luke appear more genuine. As a teacher, Mrs Goddard would be attempting to deescalate the potentially volatile conversation in order to prevent an outburst from Luke. In contrast, Luke makes no attempt to preserve Mrs Goddard’s face through interrupting her and using the declarative‘//that’s cause they’re stupid’. The adjective ‘stupid’ is clearly face threatening to Mrs Goddard, as Luke is attempting to belittle her in front of the class and gain linguistic power over her. Luke also uses the active voice when declaring ‘you’re asking stupid questions’….

Leadership

• What makes a good leader?

• What makes a bad leader?

Implicature

• A major reason for using rhetorical language is to persuade the reader of the validity of the writer’s point of view.

• Implicature is one way that this can be achieved.

Key term - Implicature

• Implicature allows the reader to deduce information that is suggested by the author but not explicitly stated.

• It communicates the writer’s point of view without spelling it out.

• Consequently, it is harder for the reader to disagree with the point of view being conveyed, which then seems to validate the idea.

Implicature

"Generally speaking, a conversational implicature is an interpretiveprocedure that operates to figure out what is going on. . . . Assume a husband and wife are getting ready to go out for the evening:

Husband: How much longer will you be?Wife: Mix yourself a drink.

What is happening in this example? There may be more than one thing.

Implicature

What are the implicatures (slightly obscured ideas that underlie the points) in the following examples?

• ‘We will save the NHS’ (Labour Party, 1997)

• ‘Put country before party this election’ (Referendum Party 1997)

• ‘Invest in a future we can all enjoy’ (Labour Party, 1997)

• ‘The green alternative for a better quality of living’ (The Green Party 1997)

Why are these going to be powerful political statements?

Political speeches

In light of your growing understanding of spoken language and its dynamics, what would you expect of political speeches?

Consider:• Lexis• Semantics• Grammar• Pragmatics (issues to do with communication, power etc)

Can you think of any examples that spring to mind of effective or ineffective political speech?

Rhetorical devices

• On the worksheet, you have been given twelve rhetorical devices and a number of definitions.

1. Using your GCSE knowledge, fill in the gaps of the missing definitions.

2. Using the examples on the next slide, provide an example for each rhetorical device.

Match the examples given here to the techniques on the worksheet:

1. Do you want more of the same?

2. It lasted an eternity.

3. It's a well hit ball, it's a long drive, it might be, it could be, it IS . . . a home run.

4. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

5. He’s as warm and generous as a big fluffy duvet.

6. For patriotic reasons, I won't mention the awful, overpriced food and drink stands at the BT London Live venue in Hyde Park.

7. First it was a protest, then it was a revolution, now it is a civil war.

8. Sat and talked (instead of sat talking).

9. She's not happy (a boss who is furious at an employee)

10. If you had known the virtue of the ring/Or half her worthiness that gave the ring/Or your own honour to contain the ring/You would not then have parted with the ring.

11. I never promise what I can’t deliver and I always deliver what I’ve promised.

12. They came…they saw…they did a bit of shopping.

Rhetorical devices - definitions

1. Anaphora: The same phrase repeated at the beginning of neighbouring clauses.

2. Hendiadys: two words linked by the conjunction ‘and’ rather than one modifying the other.

3. Triadic structure: Lists coming as a three.

4. Contrastive pairs: two parts of a sentence, one in antithesis to the other.

5. Rhetorical questions: questions where no answer is expected.

6. Imagery: to include metaphors, simile or metonyms.

7. Hyperbole: using exaggerated language.

8. Understatement: the deliberate underplay of something.

9. Bathos: anti climax.

10. Epistrophe: the repetition of a word or a phrase at the end of sentence.

11. Praeteritio: Announcing that one is not going to mention something as sly a way of mentioning it.

12. Auxesis: A gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order of force or importance

The art of persuasion

• Using some of the rhetorical devices discussed, persuade me to buy:

‘When They Go Low, We Go High’ – Michelle Obama • Recalling the beginning of Obama’s presidency in this speech during

the 2016 presidential election campaign, Michello Obama told the audience about their daughters, but then talked about the future for everyone’s daughters and sons.

• She moved effortlessly between the personal and political.

• TASK: Read the speech and identify the rhetorical devices used.

Trump vs Clinton

• The 2016 American Presidential campaign was probably the most divisive race ever.

• For the Democrats, a publicly unpopular and untrustworthy candidate, Hillary Clinton, was the nominee. Her husband, Bill, was president during the 1990s and early 00s.

• For the Republicans, a highly controversial billionaire businessman, Donald Trump, was the candidate.

Look at this clip, from a video recorded in 2005

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTrmin5n0g

Trump vs Clinton

• During the second presidential debate, Trump was challenged by the questioner and Clinton for his behaviour during this video

• Watch this clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlI2SQ0Ueg 5:30 onwards

Annotation

In small groups, you will annotate the transcript.

Consider the lexical, grammatical and semantic aspects of the extract, as well as general spoken language issues.

• How does the questioner manage the debate?• How does Trump defend himself against the accusations?• How does Clinton attack Trump?• How does Trump defend himself against Clinton?

Things to consider• Grice• West• Power (gender)• Giles

(accommodation theory)

Analysing Texts

1.Phonetics, phonology

& prosodics

2.Lexis & semantics

3.Grammar &

morphology

4.Pragmatics

5.Discourse

1. Tune and rhythm of speech, speech sounds (intonation, stress, volume, h/g dropping, accent, dialect, etc.)

2. Words and their meanings (connotations, field specific lexis, polysemy, high/low frequency, Latinate, jargon etc.)

3. Sentence and word structure (minor, simple, complex, compound, conjunction fronting, compounding words, parenthesis, etc.)

4. Language in context/use (deixis, turn taking, convergence, implicature, illocution/locution, presupposition, face, covert/overt prestige etc.)

5. Written/spoken communication (discourse markers, anaphoric/cataphoric reference, agenda setting, topic shift, topic manager, dominant speaker, length of utterances, etc.)

Written response

Explore how spoken language is used powerfully in the transcript.

Remember to explore the context of the text alongside your analysis

In the transcript, Trump asserts his political power by attempting to belittle the previous Democratic led governance of America and avoid addressing rumours surrounding his own behaviour. When the Questioner addresses Trump with the direct declarative utterance ‘have you over done those things’ [referring to allegations of sexual assault], Trump flouts Grice’s maxim of relevance by declaring that ‘women have respect for me’. Although the Questioner attempts to soften the potentially face threatening act of the allegations of sexual assault by using the euphemistic deictic expression ‘those things’, Trump shifts the topic and utilises epistrophe whereby he repeats the temporal adverb ‘again’ in the declarative utterance ‘we’re gonna make America safe again’ and ‘we’re gonna make America wealthy again’. The repetition of this adverb implies that the Democratic Party who governed before him did the opposite and suggests to the audience that Trump will be responsible for fixing their mistakes. The emphatic stress on the coordinating conjunction ‘AND’ further implies that if he were to become President, he would not just prioritise one issue but that he would value safety and wealth with equal weighting.

In the transcript, Trump asserts his political power by attempting to belittle the previous Democratic led governance of America and avoid addressing rumours surrounding his own behaviour. When the Questioner addresses Trump with the direct declarative utterance ‘have you over done those things’ [referring to allegations of sexual assault], Trump flouts Grice’s maxim of relevance by declaring that ‘women have respect for me’. Although the Questioner attempts to soften the potentially face threatening act of the allegations of sexual assault by using the euphemistic deictic expression ‘those things’, Trump shifts the topic and utilises epistrophe whereby he repeats the temporal adverb ‘again’ in the declarative utterance ‘we’re gonna make America safe again’ and ‘we’re gonna make America wealthy again’. The repetition of this adverb implies that the Democratic Party who governed before him did the opposite and suggests to the audience that Trump will be responsible for fixing their mistakes. The emphatic stress on the coordinating conjunction ‘AND’ further implies that if he were to become President, he would not just prioritise one issue but that he would value safety and wealth with equal weighting.

Homework

• Choose one of the sections of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

• Annotate it for linguistic features (lexis and semantics, grammar, pragmatics)

• Choose one of the levels of language and write 1 paragraph analysing how language is used powerfully.

• Lexically/semantically,

• Grammatically,

• Pragmatically,

Homework

Produce a spoken language revision resource.

• You should include the following:• All theories covered (Joos, Halliday, Grice, Giles, West, Trudgill, Petyt, Brown

and Levinson, Goffman).

• Key spoken language terminology (hedges, false starts, intonation etc.)

• Examples of the techniques mentioned

This could be in the form of a detailed A3 mindmap, flash cards etc.

Rhetorical devices

• Anaphora

• Epistrophe

• Hyperbole

• Auxesis

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

This has been said a million times before

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Rhetorical devices

• Anaphora: The same phrase repeated at the beginning of neighbouring clauses.

• Epistrophe: the repetition of a word or a phrase at the end of sentence.

• Hyperbole: using exaggerated language.

• Auxesis: A gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order of force or importance

• Syntactic parallelism: repetition of the same grammatical construction.

‘I Have a Dream’

• Delivered by Martin Luther King Jr on August 28th 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

• 250,000 people heard the speech that day in Washington, but the influence of it would be exceedingly more far-reaching

• Considered a turning point in the American Civil Rights movement, which sought to achieve equality for black people in the USA

‘I Have a Dream

Section 1Section 2Section 3Section 4

Your group will be responsible for exploring the lexical, semantic and grammatical aspects of the speech. How does King make a compelling case for equality?

Ensure you explore the impact of figurative language in particular.