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Since the times of Aristotle, politicians have
resorted to the skilful use of rhetoric in order to persuade their audience and,
in modern times, voters, of the validity of their views, among other things.
Specifically, through a number of rhetorical
strategies politicians,
(1) increase the impact of their ideas;
(2) legitimise their claims and
(3) delegitimise those of their political opponents.
Strategy (2) “legitimize their claims� can be related
to the expression of affiliation with in-group members and with a positive
description of the self, of US.
Strategy (3) “delegitimize the claims of others�, can be related to the expression of disaffiliation with out-group members, and with a negative description of the others, of THEM.
In what follows we look at a small body of rhetorical
resources commonly used in English political discourse. Understanding the political
texts of a given society is an important step towards learning about the
culture in which the texts were produced.
Let’s look in more detail at some of these rhetorical strategies.
1.
Metaphor
a.
Metaphor & Simile
b.
Personification
2.
Euphemism
3.
The ‘rule of three’
4. Parallelism
1. METAPHOR
Metaphor is,
basically, a way of comparing two different concepts.
A distinction can be
established between metaphor and simile.
“The neighbours agreed to a truce
over their barbeque dispute�.
This metaphor evokes the mechanics
of war in relation to a dispute among neighbours.
The relation is one of similarity,
as we can see in:
Dispute among neighbours = War
Therefore the neighbours’ agreement in the sentence above is presented as a “truce�
e.g. a period in a battle
during which it is agreed to stop fighting.
Other examples include:
The city is a jungle;
The mind is an ocean;
She is a tiger when she’s angry.
Through a SIMILE /ʹsɪmɪli/ we state that something
is like something else.
Similes always contain the words “as� or “like� e.g.
She’s as fierce as a tiger
Other examples include:
The city is like a
jungle;
The mind is like an
ocean.
PERSONIFICATION is a
special type of metaphor. Through this strategy, inanimate objects or abstract
ideas and concepts take on human characteristics.
When Martin Luther
King was shot dead in 1968, the then US President, Lyndon Johnson, said: “Once
again the heart of America is heavy�.
In this example, the
President talked of the country in human terms, as if it had a heart.
2.
EUPHEMISM
EUPHEMISM /ˈjuË?.fÉ™.mɪ.zÉ™m/ is a figure of speech
which uses mild, inoffensive or vague language in order to present some idea or
action in a more positive way.
An example would be to refer to a country’s military
intervention in another country in terms of being “on a military mission�
instead of being “at war� with that country.
3.
THE RULE OF THREE
The ‘Rule of Three’ refers to a structural device
extremely common in political rhetoric that presents statements or ideas into
three parts.
Examine the following statement by the British
Conservative Party election pamphlet of 1997:
“This is the result of four years of Liberal Democrat
and Labour waste, whinge and weakness�
The rule of three – alongside the alliteration of
initial “w-“ - enhances the efficiency of the message in “waste, whinge and
weakness�.
Look now at Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of 1863:
... that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth.
-
The use of “of the people, by the people, for the
people� is a clear example of the ‘Rule of three’.
4.
PARALLELISM
In order to make part of a speech stand out from the
rest, politicians may draw on PARALLELISM or the expression of several ideas in
a series of similar structures. This emphasizes the importance of the ideas,
adds rhythm and symmetry and makes the speech more memorable.
In Lincoln’s speech above, parallelism is expressed in
a three-part structure:
... that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
This
can be seen in the repetition of THAT + NOUN + SHALL + VERB.
Winston
Churchill, well-known for his oratory skills, used parallelism in his famous
speech encouraging the British people to keep on fighting against the Germans,
after British withdrawal at Dunkirk in 1940. Here is an extract from that
speech:
We
shall fight on the beaches,
We
shall fight on the landing grounds,
We
shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We
shall fight in the hills;
We
shall never surrender
In this section, we have looked at metaphor, simile and personification, euphemism, rule of three and parallelism as examples of rhetorical devices commonly used in political discourse. We have also related these to the US versus THEM configuration generally established in political discourse. Now do the quizz below.
Sources
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, P., Lorenzo-Dus, N. & Bou-Franch, P. (forthcoming, 2012). Relational work in anomynous, asynchronous communication: A study of (dis)affiliation in YouTube. In I. Kecskes and J. Romero-Trillo (eds). Linguistic aspects of intercultural pragmatics. Mouton de Gruyter.
Thomas, L. Et al. (2004) Language, Society and Power: An Introduction. London: Routledge.
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1998. Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
London: Sage.
http://knowgramming.com/war_metaphors.htm
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.h