Abstract
ABSTRACT We examine the use of indirection in the three televised debates between George Bush and Al Gore during the 2000 American presidential race. Indirection is a discursive process that enables a speaker to perform a nonliteral “primary” speech act by performing a literal “secondary” speech act. Eight mechanisms of indirection are characterized and explained using examples from the debates. Their occurrence in the debates is also analyzed. The indirection used most often saw the speaker promising to perform an action by expressing his intention to do so. A comparison is made between the American debates and Canadian and Quebec debates. Also questioned is the persuasive effect of indirection in political communication and its potential for strategists and for future research in light of the presented results.
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