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- Volume 16, Issue, 2017
Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 16, Issue 5, 2017
Volume 16, Issue 5, 2017
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Truths, lies and figurative scenarios
Author(s): Andreas Musolffpp.: 641–657 (17)More LessThis article studies one of the key-metaphors that has dominated British EU-debates for the past 25 years, i.e. the slogan, Britain at the heart of Europe. The discourse career of this metaphor up to the Brexit referendum shows a decline in its affirmative, optimistic use, and a converse increase of deriding uses to the point of declaring the heart of Europe irredeemably diseased, dead, non-existent or rotten. We argue that these changes in the metaphor scenario of the heart of Europe concept helped to entice the British public to integrate the information supplied by pro-Brexit campaigners into a narrative of a dying EU, which motivated their voting preferences. Even statements that were exposed as factually wrong or implausible before the Brexit referendum were still accepted as fitting the narrative and thus considered as more reliable than unframed pieces of counter-information supplied by the Brexit critics.
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Talking security and rights
Author(s): Ipek Demirsupp.: 658–682 (25)More LessThis article addresses the question of how draconian counter-terrorism policies are legitimized in long-established democracies. Being the heartland of liberal rights, the UK comes to the fore as a striking case where some of the most controversial security policies have been enacted. The study undertakes a systematic frame analysis of UK parliamentary debates with the help of ATLAS.ti, which allows the analyst to trace and map out recurrent concepts, themes, and arguments as well as their overall distribution. While demonstrating the workings of securitization in the formulation of key counter-terrorism legislation, the study unearths how the security narrative in the UK context evidently relies on the language of rights in invoking legitimacy. The study suggests that far from negating the indispensable status of human rights, security narrative resorts to the latter’s moral power and mimics rights language, heralding the weight of these international norms even in hard-core security matters.
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Constructing ‘the French people’ – On Sarkozy’s populism
Author(s): Damon Mayaffre and Ronny Scholzpp.: 683–705 (23)More LessElection campaigns represent a particular moment of political practice in democracies where political strategy and political discourse become one activity. Campaigns take effect through the speeches of candidates communicated to the electorate. This article analyses speeches of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaigns in 2007 and 2012. Based on text statistical methods developed in French discourse analysis it examines his political position and his rhetorical techniques. In comparison to other presidents of the Fifth Republic, Sarkozy’s discourse seems to be freed from typical party political positions. Whilst favouring direct encounters with the audience and pretending to speak to the whole nation he is embodying a form of populism which bestows his image of a charismatic leader.
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Discursive double-legitimation of (avoiding) another war in Obama’s 2013 address on Syria
Author(s): Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseinipp.: 706–730 (25)More LessThis article explores legitimacy-building in United States President’s 2013 Address to the Nation on Syria. Based on a slightly modified version of Theo van Leeuwen’s (2008) model of the discursive construction of legitimation and with a view of the war in Syria as the super-macro context of the Address, the investigation illustrates how the speech attempts to legitimate the prospect of a direct American military engagement in Syria on the one hand, and to justify avoiding another war that may prove too costly, on the other. Through the illustration of such double-legitimation discursive practices, the study portrays how critical discourse studies can provide the ground for awareness of a delicate aspect of the discourse of politics and the rhetoric of politicians in shaping public consent and projecting an always-legitimate image of even contradictory political positions, decisions, and actions.
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Macedonia outside “Macedonia”
Author(s): Aleksandar Takovski and Nenad Markovikjpp.: 731–750 (20)More LessThe name dispute between Republic of Macedonia and Greece manifests itself in Greece’s objections to the use of the noun “Macedonia” or the adjective “Macedonian” to refer to any other ethnicity, culture, tradition and history except Greek. In order to promote itself as a sole claimant to the name, Greece has constructed a discourse which legitimizes its exclusive right to it, while at the same time it delegitimizes such right to Macedonia. However, this discourse does not only deny Macedonia the right to the name but it also denies Macedonia the right to discuss identity issues, while at the same time it obliterates Macedonian presence in the discourse in any relation to the disputed term. In this respect, this study seeks to analyze the specific linguistic strategies underlying these discursive effects.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 24 (2025)
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Volume 23 (2024)
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Volume 22 (2023)
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Volume 21 (2022)
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2015)
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Volume 13 (2014)
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Volume 12 (2013)
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Volume 11 (2012)
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Volume 10 (2011)
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Volume 9 (2010)
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Volume 8 (2009)
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Volume 7 (2008)
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Volume 6 (2007)
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Volume 5 (2006)
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Volume 4 (2005)
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Volume 3 (2004)
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Volume 2 (2003)
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Volume 1 (2002)
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