Lexical and predicative strategies in political discourse: An analysis of Pedro Sanchez’s messages in the 2019 election campaign

Abstract

This study is aimed at studying framing strategies in political discourse. The aim of this scientific work is to study discursive framing strategies, namely lexical and predicative ones, in the texts of political messages published by Pedro Sanchez, one of the candidates for the post of the Spanish Prime Minister in April 2019.Within the framework of this study, we use the analysis model proposed by Beatris Gallardo-Paúls. Taking into account Fillmore’s ideas, she suggests using framing mechanisms, which help each speaker direct the recipient’s interpretation by means of various discursive strategies. B. Gaillardo-Paúls distinguishes three levels of pragmatics with different strategies; within the framework of this article, the strategies are analyzed at the level of the utterance.The study revealed the frequent use of such lexical means as metaphor, anaphora and euphemism, which emphasizes the importance of their role in creating a political image and influencing the emotional perception of the audience. We also note a high frequency of the personal pronouns “we” and “they” as actants, which helps the politician to emphasize the ideological confrontation between the left and right parties in Spain.