The Linguistics of Political Argument: The Spin-Doctor and the Wolf-Pack at the White House

by Partington; Alan

• ISBN13: 9780415287135
• ISBN10: 0415287138
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps through a linguistic analysis of the language used by both sides. A corpus was compiled of around fifty press briefings from the late Clinton years. A wide range of topics are discussed from the Kosovo crisis to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. This work is highly original in demonstrating how concordance technology and the detailed linguistic evidence available in corpora can be used to study discourse features of text and the communicative strategies of speakers. It will be of vital interest to all linguists interested in corpus-based linguistics and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguists and students and scholars of communications, politics and the media.

Table of Contents

Foreword: the spin-doctor and the wolf-pack	vi
Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction: corpora, discourse, politics and the press	1	(29)
Briefings as a type of discourse	30	(18)
Footing: who says what to whom	48	(12)
Voices of the press	60	(12)
Voices of the podium	72	(18)
Footing shift for attribution: `according to the New York Times this morning ...'	90	(19)
`Rules of engagement': the interpersonal relationship between the podium and the press	109	(15)
Politics, power and politeness	124	(32)
Conflict talk	156	(12)
The form of words	168	(30)
Metaphors of the world	198	(14)
Rhetoric, bluster and on-line gaffes	212	(22)
Evasion and pursuit	234	(22)
General conclusions	256	(6)
Notes	262	(6)
Bibliography	268	(8)
Index	276