Abstract
Abstract
The article examines two key-speeches given by Greek PMs, at crucial junctures of the Greek crisis, both aiming to
legitimize austerity programs to the Greek population. The speeches by Papandreou (Socialists) and Tsipras (Radical Left)
represent critical moments of the crisis as the two PMs prepared to annul their pre-election promises for a cessation of
austerity. Within a CDS framework, we combine Systemic-Functional and Cognitive-Linguistic perspectives to demonstrate that both
speeches, contrary to depoliticized/technocratic (neoliberal) discourse, converge on the construction of a discourse that
privileges ‘the people/nation’ while, contrary to left-populist discourse, obscure any references to ‘the-establishment’. We,
thus, offer evidence of how left-wing discourses (of both established socialists and radical left) publicly (pro-)claim the
reconfiguration of social-democracy while, in fact, capitulating to market demands for neoliberal austerity policies. Findings
corroborate the view that real social-democracy has been neutered at the European level.
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Article metrics loading...
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19040.kit
2020-04-03
2024-03-28
-
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19040.kit
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Full text loading...
References
-
Bakhtin, Mikhail
1986 Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Berger, Peter, and Thomas Luckmann
1966 The Social Construction of Reality: The Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Garden City.
[Google Scholar]
-
Block, David
2018 Political Economy and Sociolinguistics: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Social Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
[Google Scholar]
-
Borriello, Arthur
2017 “‘There is no Alternative’: How Italian and Spanish Leaders’ Discourse Obscured the Political Nature of Austerity.”
Discourse & Society28 (3): 241–261. doi:
10.1177/0957926516687419
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926516687419
[Google Scholar]
-
Boukala, Salomi
2014 “Waiting for Democracy: Political Crisis and the Discursive (Re)invention of the ‘National Enemy’ in Times of ‘Grecovery’.”
Discourse & Society25 (4): 483–499. doi:
10.1177/0957926514536961
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926514536961
[Google Scholar]
-
Boukala, Salomi, and Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou
2017 “The Politics of Fear vs. the Politics of Hope: Analysing the 2015 Greek Election and Referendum Campaigns.”
Critical Discourse Studies14 (1): 39–55. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2016.1182933
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2016.1182933
[Google Scholar]
-
Butt, Myriam
2010 “The Light Verb Jungle: Still Hacking Away”. In
Complex Predicates: Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Event Structure, edited by
Mengistu Amberber, Brett Baker, and Mark Harvey, 48–78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.1017/CBO9780511712234.004
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511712234.004
[Google Scholar]
-
Charteris-Black, Jonathan
2005 Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
10.1057/9780230501706
https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501706
[Google Scholar]
-
Charteris-Black, Jonathan
2018 Analysing Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor2nd edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[Google Scholar]
-
Chun, Christian W.
2018 “Neoliberalism, Globalization and Critical Discourse Studies.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, edited byJohn Flowerdew, and John E. Richardson, 421–433. London: Routledge.
[Google Scholar]
-
Dinas, Elias, and Lamprini Rori
2013 “The 2012 Greek Parliamentary Elections: Fear and Loathing in the Polls.”
West European Politics36 (1): 270–282. doi:
10.1080/01402382.2013.742762
https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2013.742762
[Google Scholar]
-
Eurogroup
-
Fairclough, Norman
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203697078
[Google Scholar]
-
Fairclough, Norman, and Ruth Wodak
1997 “Critical Discourse Analysis.” InDiscourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Volume2, edited byTeun A. Van Dijk, 258–284. London: Sage.
[Google Scholar]
-
Forceville, Charles J., and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110215366
[Google Scholar]
-
Gemenis, Kostas
2010 “Winning Votes and Weathering Storms: The 2009 European and Parliamentary Elections in Greece.”
Representation46 (3): 353–362. doi:
10.1080/00344893.2010.499704
https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2010.499704
[Google Scholar]
-
Giovanopoulos, Christos, and Dimitris Mitropoulos
eds. 2011 Δημοκρατία Under Construction: Από τους Δρόμους στις Πλατείες. [Democracy under Construction: From the Streets to the Squares]. Athens: A/sinechia.
[Google Scholar]
-
Goutsos, Dionysis, and George Polymeneas
2014 “Identity as Space: Localism in the Greek Protests of Syntagma Square.”
Journal of Language and Politics13 (1): 675–701. doi:
10.1075/jlp.13.4.05gou
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.13.4.05gou
[Google Scholar]
-
Halliday, Michael A. K., and Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
2004 An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd revised edn.London: Arnold.
[Google Scholar]
-
Hart, Christopher J.
2014 Discourse, Grammar and Ideology: Functional and Cognitive Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury.
[Google Scholar]
-
Hart, Christopher J.
2018 “‘Riots Engulfed the City’: An Experimental Study Investigating the Legitimating Effects of Fire Metaphors in Discourses of Disorder.”
Discourse and Society29 (3): 279–298. doi:
10.1177/0957926517734663
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926517734663
[Google Scholar]
-
Harvey, David
2005 A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Hatzidaki, Ourania
2017 “The ‘Theory of the two Extremes’: A Rhetorical Topography for Self- and Other-identification across the Greek Political Spectrum.” In
Greece in Crisis: Combining Critical Discourse and Corpus Linguistics Perspectives, edited by
Ourania Hatzidaki, and Dionysis Goutsos, 151–190. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10.1075/dapsac.70.05our
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.70.05our
[Google Scholar]
-
Hatzidaki, Ourania, and Dionysis Goutsos
eds. 2017 Greece in Crisis: Combining Critical Discourse and Corpus Linguistics Perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10.1075/dapsac.70
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.70
[Google Scholar]
-
IMF
-
INE-GSEE
INE-GSEE 2015 Η Ελληνική οικονομία και απασχόληση: Ετήσια Έκθεση, 17 [The Greek economy and employment: Annual Report, 17]. Athens: INE-GSEE.
[Google Scholar]
-
Karavasilis, Lazaros
[Google Scholar]
-
Kelsey, Darren, Frank Mueller, Andrea Whittle, and Majid KhosraviNik
2016 “Financial Crisis and Austerity: Interdisciplinary Concerns in Critical Discourse Studies.”
Critical Discourse Studies13 (1): 1–19. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2015.1074600
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2015.1074600
[Google Scholar]
-
Kitis, Eliza, and E. Dimitris Kitis
2015 “Meaning Ruptures and Meaningful Eruptions in the Service of Rhetoric: Populist Flare-up Hits the Greek Political Pitch.” In
The Exercise of Power in Communication: Devices, Reception and Reaction, edited by
Rainer Schulze, and Hanna Pishwa, 43–84. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
10.1057/9781137478382_3
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137478382_3
[Google Scholar]
-
Kitis, E. Dimitris, and Tommaso M. Milani
2015 “The performativity of the body: Turbulent spaces in Greece.
Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal1 (3): 268–290. doi:
10.1075/ll.1.3.04kit
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.1.3.04kit
[Google Scholar]
-
Kontogiorgis, Giorgos
2012 Κομματοκρατία και δυναστικό κράτος [Partitocracy and the dynastic state]. Athens: Savvalas.
[Google Scholar]
-
Kranert, Michael
2019 Discourse and Political Culture: The Language of the Third Way in Germany and the UK. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10.1075/dapsac.86
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.86
[Google Scholar]
-
Kratzer, Angelika
1995 “Stage-level and Individual-level Predicates.” InThe Generic Book, edited byGregory N. Carlson, and Francis J. Pelletier, 125–175. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Laclau, Ernesto
1980 “Populist rupture and discourse.” Screen Education34: 87–93.
[Google Scholar]
-
Mautner, Gerlinde
2010 Language in the Market Society: Critical Reflections on Discourse and Dominance. London: Routledge.
10.4324/9780203855997
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203855997
[Google Scholar]
-
Ministry of Interior
-
Mylonas, Yannis
2014 “Crisis, Austerity and Opposition in Mainstream Media Discourses of Greece.”
Critical Discourse Studies11 (3): 305–321. doi:
10.1080/17405904.2014.915862
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2014.915862
[Google Scholar]
-
Musolff, Andreas
2010 Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust: The Concept of the Body Politic. London: Routledge.
10.4324/9780203847282
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203847282
[Google Scholar]
-
Pappas, Takis S.
2014 “Populist democracies: Post-authoritarian Greece and post-communist Hungary.”
Government and Opposition49(1): 1–23. doi:
10.1017/gov.2013.21
https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2013.21
[Google Scholar]
-
Polymeneas, George
2017 “‘Today I know, we know, that these sacrifices are heavy, but necessary’: Constructing Governmental Knowledge on Greece’s Sovereign Debt Crisis.” In
Greece in Crisis: Combining Critical Discourse and Corpus Linguistics Perspectives, edited by
Ourania Hatzidaki, and Dionysis Goutsos, 83–110. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10.1075/dapsac.70.03pol
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.70.03pol
[Google Scholar]
-
Rori, Lamprini
2016 “The 2015 Greek Parliamentary Elections: From Great Expectations to no Expectations.”
West European Politics39 (6): 1–21. doi:
10.1080/01402382.2016.1171577
https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2016.1171577
[Google Scholar]
-
Serafis, Dimitris, and Thierry Herman
2018 “Media Discourse and Pathos: Sketching a Critical and Integrationist Approach – Greek and French Headlines Before the Greek Referendum of 2015.”
Social Semiotics28 (2): 184–200. doi:
10.1080/10350330.2017.1291139
https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2017.1291139
[Google Scholar]
-
Serafis, Dimitris, E. Dimitris Kitis, and Argiris Archakis
2018 “Graffiti Slogans and the Construction of Collective Identity: Evidence from the Anti-austerity Protests in Greece.”
Text & Talk38 (6): 775–797. doi:
10.1515/text‑2018‑0023
https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2018-0023
[Google Scholar]
-
Stavrakakis, Yannis, and Giorgos Katsambekis
2014 “Left-wing Populism in the European Periphery: The Case of SYRIZA.”
Journal of Political Ideologies19 (2): 119–142. doi:
10.1080/13569317.2014.909266
https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2014.909266
[Google Scholar]
-
Theodoropoulou, Irene
2019 “Social Class Struggle as a Greek Political Discourse.”
Discourse & Society30 (1): 85–102. doi:
10.1177/0957926518801080
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926518801080
[Google Scholar]
-
Triandafyllidou, Anna, Ruby Gropas, and Hara, Kouki
eds. 2013 The Greek Crisis and European Modernity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
10.1057/9781137276254
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276254
[Google Scholar]
-
Tsakalotos, Euclid
1998 “The Political Economy of Social Democratic Economic Policies: The PASOK Experiment in Greece.”
Oxford Review of Economic Policy14(1): 114–138. doi:
10.1093/oxrep/14.1.114
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/14.1.114
[Google Scholar]
-
Van Dijk, Teun A.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07299-3
[Google Scholar]
-
Van Leeuwen, Theo
2007 “Legitimation in discourse and communication.”
Discourse & Communication1 (1): 91–112. doi:
10.1177/1750481307071986
https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307071986
[Google Scholar]
-
Van Leeuwen, Theo
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001
[Google Scholar]
-
Varoufakis, Yanis
2017 Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe’s Deep Establishment. London: The Bodley Head.
[Google Scholar]
-
Vasilopoulou, Sofia, and Daphne Halikiopoulou
2013 “In the Shadow of Grexit: The Greek Election of 17 June 2012.”
South European Society and Politics18 (4): 523–542. doi:
10.1080/13608746.2013.779784
https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2013.779784
[Google Scholar]
-
Vasilopoulou, Sofia, and Dafne Halikiopoulou
2015 Greek Politics: Economic Crisis or Crisis of Democracy?World Affairs178 (3): 13–18.
[Google Scholar]
-
Vasilopoulou, Sofia, Daphne Halikiopoulou, and Theofanis Exadaktylos
2014 “Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame.”
Journal of Common Market Studies52 (2): 388–402. doi:
10.1111/jcms.12093
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12093
[Google Scholar]
-
Vernardakis, Christoforos
2011 Πολιτικά κόμματα, εκλογές και κομματικό σύστημα: Οι μετασχηματισμοί της πολιτικής αντιπροσώπευσης 1990–2010 [Political parties, elections and the party system: The transformations of political representation 1990–2010]. Athens: Sakkoulas.
[Google Scholar]
-
Vernardakis, Christoforos
[Google Scholar]
-
Verney, Susannah
2014 ‘Broken and can’t be fixed’: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Greek Party System.
The International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs, 49 (1): 18–35. doi:
10.1080/03932729.2014.877222
https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2014.877222
[Google Scholar]
-
Voulgaris, Giannis, and Ilias Nikolakopoulos
eds. 2014 2012. Ο διπλός εκλογικός σεισμός [The 2012 double election earthquake]. Athens: Themelio.
[Google Scholar]
-
Wales, Kate
1996 Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[Google Scholar]
-
Wodak, Ruth
2009 The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[Google Scholar]
-
Wodak, Ruth, and Jo Angouri
2014 “From Grexit to Grecovery: Euro/Crisis discourses.”
Discourse & Society25 (4): 417–577. doi:
10.1177/0957926514536967
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926514536967
[Google Scholar]
-
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer
eds. 2001 Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
10.4135/9780857028020
https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020
[Google Scholar]
-
Wright, Will
1975 Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
[Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19040.kit