Understanding and believing: Interpreting pragmatic meanings in political discourse
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | This chapter explores the interdependence of coherence and persuasion in political discourse. It argues that since the aim of politicians is not only to be understood but also to make the audience accept their representation of reality and act in accordance with what they say, the persuasive force of political rhetoric reflects the ability of the speaker to construe a coherent discourse in which the orator is represented as a reliable source of information and the information conveyed is in agreement with the previous knowledge of the participants in the communication. The investigation focuses on the genre of opening addresses and explores a corpus of speeches delivered by the Directors-General of UNESCO at the opening of international conferences and meetings. Based on an analysis of the pragmatic functions of deictic pronouns and modal expressions, the study shows that the orators use these linguistic devices for opening a dialogic space in which the speaker strives to construct an in-group ideology which transcends national boundaries and persuade the audience to support the suggested course of action. |
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