E-Book Overview
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.
E-Book Content
The Linguistics of Political Argument The spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the White House How does the White House ‘sell’ its message to the press? How hostile or docile are political reporters? Do they really try to ‘transcend the Spin to find The Truth’ (Business Week), or do they have agendas of their own? How many roles does the spokesperson (or ‘podium’) enjoy and how many the journalist? How are political – and personal – arguments fought and resolved? What rules of politeness prevail? How does the podium employ ‘invisible’ metaphors to constrain the audience’s world view? Is modern political spin really so novel or does it have any precedent in standard rhetoric? This book examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps through an analysis of the language used by both sides. A corpus was compiled of around 50 press briefings from the late Clinton years. A wide range of topics are discussed from the Kosovo crisis to the Clinton–Lewinsky affair. This was a particularly intriguing and stressful time in the White House–Press relationship. The 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 corpora, discourse and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguists and students of communications, politics and the media. Alan Partington is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Faculty of Political Science, Camerino University (Italy). He has published in the fields of phonetics, CALL, lexicology and corpus linguistics, and is the author of Patterns and Meanings: Using Corpora for English Language Research and Teaching (1998). He is currently researching ways in which corpus techniques can be used to study features of discourse. Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics Edited by Anthony McEnery Lancaster University, UK, and Michael Hoey Liverpool University, UK Corpus based linguistics is a dynamic area of linguistic research. The series aims to reflect the diversity of approaches to the subject, and thus to provide a forum for debate and detailed discussion of the various ways of building, exploiting and theorizing about the use of corpora in language studies. 1 Swearing in English Anthony McEnery 2 Antonymy A corpus-based perspective Steven Jones 3 Modelling Variation in Spoken and Written English David Lee 4 The Linguistics of Political Argument The spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the White House Alan Partington The Linguistics of Political Argument The spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the White House Alan Partington First published 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edi