Political Speeches Research Articles

Linguistic Disintegration in the Political Speeches of President George W. Bush

Linguistic Disintegration in the Political Speeches of President George W. Bush

The role of political hate speech in promoting extreme ideologies and manipulating public discourse for social approval in Pakistan

AbstractThe proliferation of politically motivated hate speech towards rival politicians has been rapidly increasing in Pakistan. However, the literature on political hate speech and its association with extreme ideologies is under‐theorized in the Pakistani context. We have utilized van Dijk's manipulative discourse and Walther's social approval theory to structure political hate speech and its consequences. The data was based on two Pakistani mainstream politicians’ public speeches and partisans’ comments available on YouTube. Findings reveal that politicians commonly exploit discursive categories, such as name‐calling, offensive metaphors and sarcasm, in their hate speech to dehumanize, ridicule and threaten their rivals. Their hateful slurs showcase extreme ideologies, such as polarization, intolerance, threat and violence. They use the hateful epithets to manipulate partisans, to sell fear of being betrayed and enslaved to the military and foreign powers, and to obtain, in exchange, audience and consent. The study theorizes that Pakistani mainstream politicians deliberately sensationalize hatred in their public speeches to harangue their rivals and foment extreme ideologies for the purpose of increasing their audience.

Disinformation in the Spanish public debate: an analysis of political speeches in the Congress of Deputies

Disinformation is one of the main challenges faced by modern democratic societies, becoming a crucial focus of study in political communication. Terms such as lie, falsehood, hoax, disinformation, or post-truth have become part of the daily language of the media, featured in numerous scientific studies, and entered political discourse. With the aim of delving into and determining the characteristic features of Spanish politicians' discourse on disinformation, a methodology of quantitative and qualitative content analysis is applied to a total of 1,115 interventions by members of the Congress of Deputies during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. This period is chosen due to its high levels of disinformation and polarization. The results indicate that the issue of disinformation is a minor topic on the Spanish political agenda. Furthermore, metrics confirm a much higher use of terms such as lie, false, and hoax, to the detriment of other words like disinformation or post-truth. An impact of the pandemic on the main themes related to this phenomenon is also detected, with health and the economy being the primary frames identified. From an interpretative perspective, this is attributed to the tendency of Spanish politicians to use this issue as just one element within a polarizing and confrontational rhetoric, generally eschewing proactive debates on the measures needed to address disinformation.

PECULARITIES CONCERNING THE TRANSLATION OF POLITICAL SPEECHES IN THE MODERN PERIOD

The article is devoted to the study of the terminology of political discourse in modern English and the ways of its transmission in the process of translation. The difference between translation and paraphrase or summary, or any kind of adaptation, lies in the correctness and completeness of the information transference. Nowadays, the language is used not only as a means of forming and expressing thoughts, but also as a means of concealing them. In the context of political struggle and the process of transition in the world, the awareness of the fact that political discourse is a linguistic and cultural problem is becoming increasingly stronger. Difficulties in translating political discourse texts are often related to the fact that the boundaries between certain types of political texts are not always clearly defined in scientific research, which makes this topic relevant. Since political discourse is created for the speakers of a particular culture, the translator faces a number of additional challenges when interpreting it into another language. The purpose of translation is to convey the essence of the original thought as accurately as possible to a reader (listener) who does not know the source language. To translate means to express correctly and completely, using the tools of one language, what has already been expressed earlier by means of another language. That is why the purpose of this article is to identify the ways to preserve the fullness of meaning when translating political texts from English into Ukrainian. To define the concept of political discourse; to study the main characteristics of political speeches as a subtype of political discourse; to identify the features of English political speeches; to analyze the ways of translating speeches into Ukrainian. Modern political discourse is characterized by a number of specific features. The point here is not only the use of specific vocabulary determined by political activity, but also in the proper selection and organization of certain structures of expression in accordance with the pragmatic guidelines. Today, in both Ukrainian and foreign societies, the ability of language to influence people's attitudes to facts and events, in particular the impact of language on the political sphere is quite clear, which makes scholars interested in the language of politics. In order to reproduce certain characteristics of the speech in translation, the translator sometimes needs to use translation grammatical transformations, which are changes in the grammatical character of a word, phrase or sentence in the translation. To analyze political speeches, we have taken the speech of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Munich Security Conference and the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a joint session of both houses of the US Congress.

The discourse of American and British political interviews

The aim is to conduct a comparative analysis of the political discourse of Great Britain and the United States, in particular the study of the speech style of the leaders, the context and the role of the media in the formation of public opinion. Methods. The study employs the method of analysis of lexical units, the linguistic method of field structures, and the method of stylistic analysis of markers. Standard methods of mathematical statistics were used, as well as Cronbach’s alpha to check the reliability of the research methods. Conclusions. The study reveals the importance of the media’s role in political discourse, especially in the dissemination of political interviews and their public perception. A comparison of UK and US political discourse reveals both similarities and differences in the communication of political leaders, and helps analyse each country’s response to common challenges and issues. Prospects. Further research could focus on gendered aspects of political speech, including the analysis of the gender’s role in shaping political discourse and identifying gender stereotypes.

Языковые особенности общественно-политического дискурса: на примере сопоставления политических речей британских и американских политиков

The paper examines the linguistic features of political discourse. Using British and American political speeches, the researchers identify the general and specific features in the political discourse of statesmen speaking different national languages. The aim of the study is to describe the linguistic means and axiological categories used in the political speeches of British and American politicians that reflect the national and cultural specifics of the two states at the level of political discourse. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the choice of the object and subject of analysis: using the example of linguistic means, the paper is the first to identify and compare the common and specific characteristics of the two nations in terms of modeling political discourse in British English and American English. As a result of examining transcripts of political speeches, certain coincidences have been revealed, on the one hand, in the use of linguistic means and axiological categories when creating political speeches, on the other hand, the peculiarities of the national and cultural specificity of American discourse, which manifested itself in such tropes as alliteration, gradation, comparison, syntactic parallelism. It has been found that in the creation of British political speeches, preference is given to repetition and polysyndeton, which are barely represented in American discourse.

Understanding Political persuasion: Analyzing Image Schemas as Catalysts in Campaign Strategies

This study delves into the role of image schemas in language with a specific focus on their presence in the construction of metaphors in political speeches delivered during the 2018 electoral campaigns in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Image schemas refer to recurring patterns of understanding that arise from our bodily movements through space. To achieve this, the study utilizes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Image-Schema Theory, which investigate the presence of image schemas in political discourse. The study centers on the PATH, CONTAINER and FORCE image schemas, examining their role in the formation of metaphors and how they structure the relationship between source domains (journey and container) and the target domain (politics). Precisely, the study examines how politicians conceptualize politics as a journey or container, identifying four structural elements that define this relationship. The research also considers the persuasive techniques employed by Kurdish politicians and how they impact voting patterns. Overall, the study shows that image schemas are an essential tool in gaining public support and influencing voters, and they work as source domains for accessing target domains.

Study on the Effectiveness of Commitment Speech Act from the Perspective of Force Dynamics Theory

Commitment speech acts play an important role in various fields, but compared to other speech acts, they have not yet received sufficient attention. In political discourse, the implementation frequency of commitment speech acts is quite high, while their usage characteristics, pragmatic strategies, and the influence of social domain factors still need to be explored. The correct implementation of commitment speech acts is helpful to achieve the purpose of communication and promote the success of communication. Therefore, based on Talmy’s force-dynamic theory, this paper collects relevant language materials of commitment speech acts contained in British Prime Minister’s “Brexit” political speech discourse, attempts to consider pragmatic factors on the basis of the force-dynamics model to construct force dynamics models about commitment speech acts for analysis. By analyzing the working mechanism between internal and external parameters in force dynamic schema under different promise strategies, this paper explores the action mode of “illocutionary force” in speech acts of commitment and the implementation path of commissives under the influence of social domain factors and other factors. This paper interprets commitment speech act from the cognitive perspective, expecting to broaden the research paradigm of commitment speech acts and provide ideas for future multi-dimensional study on speech act theory.

Манипулятивный потенциал вербальных репрезентаций в американском политическом дискурсе

The paper provides a comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative verbal representations of various population groups in American political speeches on the topic of the Palestinian-Israeli and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts in two chronological periods from February 2022 to October 6, 2023 and from October 7, 2022 to the end of November 2023. The aim of the work is to highlight manipulative tactics and methods of pragmatic influence on addressees in America in various population groups, taking into account the quantity and quality of verbal representations and means of naming over time. The scientific novelty of the work is due to the results of identifying quantitative and qualitative differences in verbal representations and means of naming representatives of population groups in four countries, manipulative techniques and means of pragmatic influence based on the material of modern public speeches of US political leaders in the two chronological periods. As a result of the study, 1) quantitative differences in names and verbal representations of various population groups were identified; 2) recurring qualitative differences in their verbal representations were discovered: “slaughtered”, “massacred”, “murdered”, “butchered” – in relation to the losses of Israelis, “killed”, “died” – those of Ukrainians, “loss of life”, “loss”, “targets”, “annihilate” – those of Palestinians; 3) typical manipulative tactics of omission, leveling of facts, contrasting “good – evil”, as well as the characteristic expressive language means of their implementation, i.e., repetitions, amplifications, superlatives, evaluative vocabulary, selective names, antithesis, were found.

Pensiero e retropensiero. Limiti e legittimità della critica antisionista al vaglio della Corte Europea dei Diritti dell’Uomo


 
 Thought and counter-thought. The limits and legitimacy of Israel-critical speech under the European Court of Human Rights
 ABSTRACT: In May 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted a working definition of antisemitism as a non-binding guide for states and policymakers to identify criminal anti-Jewish behaviour. Critics, however, argue that the IHRA definition hastily conflates illegitimate forms of antisemitism with legitimate political speech against Israel's government and policies. Therefore, if integrated into national legislation, they warn that the IHRA definition could easily become a legal tool to stifle critics of the Israeli government and advocates for Palestinian rights. Political agendas apart, the terminological imprecision of the IHRA definition raises timely questions about the boundaries between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, as well as between legitimate and illegitimate Israel-critical speech. This is especially relevant, particularly after Palestinian militant group Ḥamās launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. The ongoing war thus raises the questions: Apart from open calls to violence, how to assess when legitimate, anti-Israel speech might spiral into illegitimate, harmful discourses? And what factors should be brought to bear on legal balancing? Although not dealing with a war-torn scenario, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has offered some insights on the issue that will be addressed in this paper.
 SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Legittimità della critica antisionista: Baldassi c. Francia - 3. Limiti della critica antisionista: status pubblico del divulgatore e natura antisemita della divulgazione - 3.1. Bonnet c. Francia - 4. Conclusioni.
 

Investigating political news coverage patterns in Bangladesh during 2013-2022 using computational methods

The political landscape in Bangladesh is complex and multifaceted, with limited exploration in relation to the rapidly growing news industry. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing 15,801 news articles, utilizing trend analysis and topic modeling. The findings reveal a consistent decline in political news coverage, with sporadic increases during parliamentary election years. The dominant focus of news topics revolves around the two major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), indicating the country’s two-party-centric nature of politics. Smaller political parties receive media coverage primarily when they form coalitions with major parties, further highlighting the dominance of the two major parties in political news coverage. The study also uncovers a preference for individual political figures over incidents or events in news coverage, suggesting a patron-client relationship within major political parties and a hierarchical decision-making system. In addition, the study identifies shifts in news framing during significant events, such as national elections, indicating changes in person-centric news frames, but always involving one of the two major political parties. Finally, the study highlights and raises important questions about potential political control over media and journalistic activities, stimulating discourse on journalistic freedom and political free speech.

THE STRATEGIES OF ARGUMENTATION IN POLITICAL SPEECHES

Background. Political discourse is the most value-oriented of other types of discourse. The most compelling political arguments during the presidential campaigns include four key criteria: democracy, moral persuasion, social questions and ideological problems. The current political discourse presents characterizations of events from the standpoint of individual values, party values, and personal interests. In this case, the concept of political/ideological characterizations is associated with a system of values, which determine the position of the subject of speech. Nowadays, argumentation is studied by a special method – the theory of argumentation, but at the same time it becomes an interest for linguistic research, because argumentation exists only in one of the forms of speeches.
 The purpose. Is to characterize the specific linguo-stylistic features of political speeches, identify the argumentation tools in the politicians’ speeches and analyze the ways and peculiarities of their translation, which help translators to preserve the completeness of the content and transmit the argumentation tools into the translation of political texts from English into Ukrainian.
 Methods. The following linguistic research methods were used in our study: descriptive method to describe the characteristics of argumentation tools and their equivalents, which were studied and comparative method to make comparisons between argumentation tools in source and target languages. 
 Results. The functional specificity of political discourse in relation to other types of discourse is manifested in its basic instrumental function (the struggle for power). At the same time, political discourse, along with religious and advertising, is included in the group of discourses for which the regulatory function is leading, since it emphasizes the role of language in regulating the behavior of the. The main function of political discourse is to use it as an instrument of political power. Political communication performs the function of an intermediary link, often replacing physical violence itself and makes possible changes in society towards ordering, paves the way for compromises, making facts and arguments well-known for public. Various lexico-stylistic devices, figures and tropes emphasize the language of a political leader and have a direct impact on the image of politicians. It turned out that the main ones are: extensive usage of colloquial and slang vocabulary and composite words. We discovered the following stylistic figures: antithesis, inversion, ellipsis, parceling, repetitions and rhetorical questions. The most frequently used among them were repetitions, rhetorical questions and parceling. 
 Discussion. The dominant aspect of the political discourse is the concept of value, which must be reproduced in the translated political text, taking into account the value hierarchy of different cultures. Translation includes several stages: first translator should understand and clearly explore what he/she translates, analyze (if the original text causes difficulties), and after that choose appropriate means of expression in the target language.The investigation of different lexico-stylistic devices, types of preservation of argumentation in the translation of political speeches of American politicians is not exhaustive and requires further study by structural, grammatical and morphological analysis.

Does centralization of online content regulation affect political hate speech in a country? A public choice perspective

This study primarily examines how the centralization of online content regulation increases political hate speech in a country. It also explores the roles of the government's social media surveillance and disinformation in this relationship. Calhoun's public choice theory is used as a theoretical foundation to examine relationships. Data from 179 nations are analyzed using a mixed-method approach (i.e., path analysis and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis), and the findings reveal how centralization of online content regulation results in higher levels of political hate speech by increasing social media surveillance of political content and disinformation through social media by the government.

Discourse and language of war: A comparison of the linguistic and rhetorical strategies employed in Russian, United States, and Ukrainian presidential speeches

In the context of war, political speeches employ emotionally charged language in the form of linguistic devices, in an attempt to persuade the audience and appeal to their emotions. This study examines how the Russia-Ukraine War was presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This study identifies the linguistic features as well as the rhetorical strategies employed in the three presidential speeches which reflect the power and dominance of the conflicting parties in the Russia-Ukraine war. Therefore, a critical discourse analysis of three presidential speeches on the Russia-Ukraine War was conducted. The study analyzed and compared the use of vocabulary, semantic structure, grammatical devices, and rhetorical strategies used by the three presidents to reveal the extent of language manipulation and ideologies in the context war. The study revealed the power of language in political speeches in three different narratives of the war. The findings of this study indicate that word choice, grammatical structures, and rhetorical devices were employed to evoke public emotions, to reflect power and influence beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies. The study revealed that language manipulation is clearly evident through the use of linguistic strategies such as powerful word choices, pronouns, modals, tenses etc., as well as emotional and logical appeals in the form of rhetorical strategies.

“If You Destroy Our Children, I Will Kill You”: Biopolitical Childhood in Southeast Asia’s War on Drugs

Abstract This article explores how the war on drugs in Southeast Asia upholds the protection of the young as a key justification for extrajudicial killings carried out by the state. As many as 30,000 extrajudicial killings took place during Philippine former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs between 2016 and 2022, echoing a similar anti-drug campaign in Thailand in 2003, which saw around 3,000 people murdered. Drawing on political speeches, this article argues that Duterte and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra deployed biopolitical patterns of discourse to legitimize the murder of those associated with the drug trade. Both leaders framed the threat of drugs to children through the biopolitical lens of the integrity of the family, national health, and therefore the future of the nation. Further, this article demonstrates how in the Philippine drug war, children were effectively denied their childhood status and presented as “dangerous becomings.” This reveals the contingent nature of childhood, as biopolitical criteria were also used to establish which children were perceived to be dangerous in the context of the drug war. In doing so, this paper serves to nuance and problematize how children are depicted in security studies, and international relations more broadly.

Fairness and fluency: the political audibility of ‘newcomers’ in Victorian debating clubs and public meetings, 1870–1910

ABSTRACT The turn of the twentieth century saw a significant change in the accessibility of political debate: various reforms made the Second Chamber open to religious, ethnic and gendered ‘others’. These newcomers would eventually contribute to changes in political practice. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, however, their gradual inclusion in political speech in extra-parliamentary spaces was also marked by a process of assimilation and negotiation. Like the elite men who already enjoyed exclusive access to political decision-making, these newcomers had to abide by the ‘rules’ of debate, and therefore needed to learn how to behave and how to speak in a manner that would make them politically audible in a system that was largely underpinned by ideologies and ideals of free debate and rational, individual speech. This article argues that embodied practices of speech had an important role to play in the process of inclusion, assimilation and rebellion of newcomers in political debates and parliamentary politics . Taking the appearance of colonial ‘others’ and women in debating clubs as its point of departure and leaning on sources documenting the ideals and practices of various debating clubs in and beyond Victorian Britain, this article aims to show how the often implicit rules of political debate and behaviour were taught and instilled in the second half of the nineteenth century. Assumptions and normative expectations about what constituted legitimate and effective, or ‘fluent’, political speech worked to exclude numerous speakers, but also provided various historical actors with opportunities to make themselves heard.

LINGUO-AXIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF POLITICO-DIPLOMATIC SPEECHES

The article is devoted to studying the political speeches of Ukrainian presidents (the last decade) at the United Nations (UN), particularly the theoretical and methodological foundations of studying the specifics of political discourse in international communication, namely, in the politico-diplomatic aspect. This study aims to deepen the theoretical understanding of political discourse and reveal the linguistic aspects that determine the communicative nature of political speeches at the UN. In particular, the authors pay attention to the linguistic aspect of politicians' speeches in English at the UN, and conduct a detailed analysis of the axiological language tools used by the Ukrainian presidents to express their assessments and views. The use of specific lexical units that help structure and formulate political ideas, considering the international nature of diplomatic relations, is considered. Understanding the linguistic axiological features of political and diplomatic speech helps to improve communication between representatives of different countries. The study of effective ways of linguistic influence through lexical units with an evocative load can also help to reduce misunderstandings in international relations. This research has used a wide range of scientific methods, including content analysis of the English-language speeches of politicians on the background of political and diplomatic discourse using structural and semantic identification and categorization of lexical features, functional and pragmatic analysis of linguistic means of axiological nature, as well as the method of generalization and systematization to summarize and arrange the information obtained in the course of the study.

An Anatomy of Firms’ Political Speech

An Anatomy of Firms’ Political Speech

The Power of Language: Exploring the Role of Language in Politics

The relationship between language and politics is intricate and multifaceted. Language is not just a means of communication but also plays a crucial role in politics and diplomacy. Language is a powerful tool for persuasion and manipulation in politics and a tool in political discourse. This study aimed at gaining a more in-depth understanding of the role of language in politics and international relations. It also aimed at identifying, describing, and explaining the linguistic features found in the speech of politicians. The researcher used the qualitative research approach in the study, notably; secondary data were used for collecting reliable conclusions for the research. The findings suggested that language is a powerful tool in politics, used to shape public opinion, frame issues, and create political identities. In diplomacy, careful and formal language helps countries communicate and resolve conflicts. Globally, language connects different cultures, with English often being the common language used in international relations as the linqua-franca. Politicians use emotional language in speeches to connect with people and gain support. Key features of political language include rhetorical devices, metaphors, metonymy, pronouns, presuppositions, repetition of words and stylistic devices were used. These tools help create persuasive messages that influence how people think and act. Understanding the role of language in politics shows its impact on diplomacy, international communication, and the power of political speeches.

A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Political Speech on COVID-19 from the Perspective of Speech Act Theory

As crucial instruments of power, political speeches significantly impact individuals’ political lives. Utilizing Austin’s Speech Act theory as a theoretical framework, this study comparatively analyzes the initial speeches given by the presidents of China and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to uncover the manner in which both presidents convey their political attitudes through illocutionary acts and investigate the value disparities embedded within their speech acts. The results indicate that the Chinese political address related to COVID-19 includes a greater frequency of directive and representative speech, accentuating the significance of summation and guidance while mirroring China’s status as a socialist nation that prioritizes its citizens. Conversely, the American discourse features more expressive and directive language, underlining the role of speech in modulating public emotions and articulating the speaker’s personal political agenda. This research substantiates and illustrates the practicality of employing Speech Act Theory in political discourse analysis, aiming to enlighten future research within the realm of discourse investigation.