Coherence and persuasion in political speeches: Ideological coherence in coherent discourse
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | This chapter explores coherence in political discourse. It approaches coherence as a multifaceted phenomenon comprising conceptual connectedness, evaluative and dialogical consistency, and textual relatedness and suggests a model for the analysis of discourse coherence. While applying this model to the analysis of political speeches, the study focuses on discourse strategies and linguistic devices which contribute to the persuasive force of political rhetoric by creating a coherent discourse representing the speaker as a reliable and credible political actor. The findings of the investigation demonstrate the primacy of interpersonal meanings in the perception of coherence in political discourse. The author argues that the interpersonal dimension of meaning in political speeches provides a frame of reference for the perception of ideational coherence, which is based on discourse topic organization, continuity of referents and temporal anchoring of the discourse in the moment of speaking, and for the interpretation of cohesive signals. The choice of strategies for the construal of coherence is regarded as closely interwoven with persuasion strategies which orators use to achieve their communicative intentions. |
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