Abstract
Euphemism and dysphemism are common within political communication as the former is a linguistic make-up leading to deception and distortion of reality (Rodríguez González 1991: 90) whereas the latter highlights the most pejorative traits of the taboo with an offensive aim (Crespo-Fernández 2015: 2). Considering this, I have analysed euphemism and dysphemism in George Ridpath’s political writings during the War of the Spanish Succession (1710-1713), in a corpus comprising two journals (The Observator and The Flying Post), and examined how this author used language to shape and manipulate Great Britain’s public opinion during the Stuart period. To this end, I have followed Taboada and Grieve’s (2004) approach of Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) as well as Politeness Theory (Brown and Levinson 1987), Face Theory (Goffman 1967), Charteris-Black’s Critical Metaphor Analysis (2005: 45) and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Gibbs 2011). The findings show that Ridpath used x-phemistic language to positively self-present the ingroup and negatively other-present the outgroup.
Highlights
The means of communication constitute a source of information and transmission of ideology, and a forum of reproduction of ideology and social legitimation
The findings show that Ridpath used x-phemistic language to positively self-present the ingroup and negatively other-present the outgroup
Positive and negative orientations play a role in the categorisation as they help determine if an example is a case of euphemism, dysphemism, quasi-euphemism or quasi-dysphemism by evaluating the author’s opinions and attitude, as well as his political beliefs and the context of the journals
Summary
The means of communication constitute a source of information and transmission of ideology, and a forum of reproduction of ideology and social legitimation. Considering the above, I have analysed George Ridpath’s use of euphemism and dysphemism in his political writings during the War of the Spanish Succession (1710-1713) to observe how this author employed language as a weapon to shape and manipulate Great Britain’s public opinion during the Stuart period. EUPHEMISM AND DYSPHEMISM DURING THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1710-1713): GEORGE RIDPATH and López Campillo 2011: 47) The selection of this period is not random either, because, as Crespo-Fernández and López Campillo (2011: 44) state, during the late Stuart period the press was of vital importance to spread ideas and information, “and both Whigs and Tories and the Ministry itself recognised the press as an organ of political influence (cf López Campillo 2009)” (Sánchez Ruiz 2015: 110). From a more contemporary perspective, it is worthy of note that this period is still relevant nowadays, since the Scottish and Catalan independence issues and some problems between Spain and Gibraltar have their origin in the War of the Spanish Succession
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