Abstract
Political discourse as a specific sign system in which the meaning depends on the speaker’s intention tends to portray participants in terms of “us” versus “them”, which makes “us-versus-them” polarization one of the main distinguishing features of political discourse. The onset of the 21st century is a turning point in the history of geopolitics, which requires politicians to be more creative in search of vote-winning means. The pragmasemantic approach allows to study presidential debates between 1. Bush and Al Gore from the standpoint of semantics which studies meaning and which has been recently affected by pragmatics that deals with non-linguistic aspects of meaning such as the context of a situation and the speaker’s intention. The presidential debates of 2000 are a vivid illustration of how two opposing politicians strive to share the same objective though different language means. The contentanalysis program LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) was used in order to verify the results of research. The analysis of Pronouns, Positive/Negative Emotions, and Tense Focus through LIWC makes a contribution to political discourse studies. This article illustrate how various language means such as use of pronouns “we” and “they”, specific vocabulary and slogans, when grouped together, can appear to be an efficient research tactic.
Highlights
The compartmentalization of reality into “us” and “them” has socio-cultural roots
These divisions exist in different spheres of our lives: in psychology, literature, politics, and others
The paper asserts that “us-versus-them” polarization is viewed as a special instrument that reflects the manipulative and confrontational nature of political discourse
Summary
The compartmentalization of reality into “us” and “them” has socio-cultural roots. It means that people are guided by universal values and by collective interests. These interests can be different for different groups. People unite in groups, and these groups oppose each other and are regarded as “us” and “them” groups [1. These divisions exist in different spheres of our lives: in psychology, literature, politics, and others. The opposition between “us” and “them” is a cultural constant alongside with such conceptual oppositions as “male/female”, “old/young”, “life/death”, “light/darkness” [4. As the opposition “good/bad” is the basis for morality, the opposition “us/them” is the basis for opposition in politics, and other oppositions are subservient to it
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