Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 19, Issue 2, 2020

Abstract

This article analyses the use of (deliberate) metaphors in political discourse produced by French-speaking Belgian regional parliamentarians during non-institutional political interviews. The article first investigates if the use of deliberate metaphor limits itself to a particular type of political discourse (i.e. public and institutional political discourse) or if metaphor use is also found in other types of settings (i.e. non-institutional political discourse). Second, the article analyses the variation of deliberate metaphor use between political actors depending on gender, seniority and political affiliation. To this end, the article applies Steen’s (2008) three-dimensional model of metaphor analysis on biographical interviews conducted with French-speaking Belgian regional parliamentarians (RMPs). Our results indicate that RMPs, when using non-deliberate metaphors, mostly rely on source domains such as construction, battle and relationships. This is in contrast with the use of deliberate metaphors, where source domains like sports, nature and container take the upper hand.

Abstract

The general opinion among scholars is that Eastern Europe is primarily a Cold-War term. Although the connection between Eastern Europe and the Cold War cannot be denied, it must be kept in mind that the term was well known and used much earlier. This article provides a synthetic review and discussion of how the phrase (name, term, concept) Eastern Europe was used in western English-language press in a better part of the twentieth century, from around 1900 to 1988. Drawing on the results of a search of a journalistic database, this study examines how the term Eastern Europe combines with other lexical units in press texts in this time period. The architecture of its use is revealed through a detailed analysis of collocations which the key term prefers in journalistic texts. In its numerous uses, the term triggers the sense of otherness in its different incarnations throughout the twentieth century.

Abstract

Why do Thai governments fail in maintaining peace through conducting a reconciliation process? This article answers this question through an assessment of how the term reconciliation has been defined and used by the Thai governments and political leaders during the past decades. This article finds that the political conflicts in Thailand have never been solved because several times, reconciliation in the Thai language is a term that has been dynamically interpreted and applied by leaders of the conflicting groups as a means to defeat the people of the opposing groups rather that a means of resolving problems and reconciling society.

This article reviews Cognitive Rhetoric978-90-272-0154-6

Abstract

Populism has been on the rise in Europe, especially in the last decade. Finland is no exception, and a populist party ‘The Finns Party’ has gained momentum since the 2011 parliamentary election. The purpose of this paper is to examine the discourses of the Finns Party in their official releases on immigration and language in the 2015 parliamentary election. The socio-politically situated examination draws from Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, especially the concepts of biopower, biopolitics, racism, governmentality and subject position. In addition, language identity, language ideologies, and populism are used to discuss how linguistic identity and ideology are perceived and constructed in the data, especially in terms of discourses of inclusion and exclusion of ethnically Finnish but linguistically non-dominant groups, and immigrants.

Abstract

This article provides a rhetorical discourse analysis of constructions of unemployed people’s deservingness. Data consist of transcripts from Finnish parliament members debating the ‘Activation Model for Unemployment Security’, from December 2017. In the analysis, three discursive constructions of unemployed people’s deservingness were identified: an ‘effortful citizen lacking control’, a ‘needy citizen deserving the welfare state’s reciprocal acts’ and an ‘undeserving freeloader in need of an attitude adjustment’. Analysis focuses on how deservingness and undeservingness are rhetorically accomplished and treated as factual in parliament members’ accounts. The analysis pays particular attention to the question of how speakers build factuality through the management of categories, extreme case formulations, ‘truth talk’ and maximisation and minimisation strategies. The results reflect the negotiated nature of deservingness as well as varying constructions of unemployed people’s responsibility in the contemporary Nordic welfare state context.

Abstract

The analysis of the different ideological constructions around the languages of Spain shows two main metaphors that support the linguistic conflict experienced in the last three or four decades: the container metaphor (languages conceived as entities that are completely independent of each other) and the ecological metaphor (each language occupies a specific niche for historical reasons). The study of complexity provides a new metaphor as a new solution for this conflict, i.e. the eco-biosociological metaphor, which is based on the assumption that what is human cannot be explained exclusively by biological factors, but instead by communicative action in cooperation with others above all. To illustrate the first two metaphors, in this paper we consider the linguistic position of two new parties: En Marea and En Comú-Podem.

Abstract

Based on identity theory and previous studies of crisis discourse, this paper systematically analyzes the process of identity construction and negotiation between political discourse and social discourse representing the event of a fire at Xinjian Village, Daxing District in the southern suburb of Beijing. It is found that in the first phase, the political discourse focuses on the meta-discourse of “for Renmin’s sake, we carry out a campaign of thorough inspection, cleaning-up and rectification to eliminate safety hazards.” In the second phase of the event the Renmin category is then represented concretely as “residents”, “migrant workers”, “people who need help” and so on. These discursive practices have constructed a relatively acknowledged identification with the social groups concerned, and thus positively affect the governance and management of this crisis event.

This article reviews Europe at the Crossroads: Confronting Populist, Nationalist and Global Challenges

This article reviews Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Politics, Policies and Practices in a Globalized Society

This article reviews Critical Discourse Studies and Technology: A Multimodal Approach to Analysing Technoculture

This article reviews The Politics and Rhetoric of Commemoration: How the Portuguese Parliament Celebrates the 1974 Revolution

This article reviews Language, Gender and Ideology: Constructions of Femininity for Marriage978-1-138-24357-6$140.00