Political Interview, A Study of the Genre Based on Texual Analysis of BBC HARDTalk Interviews

Bc. Zuzana Nedorostová

Diplomová práce

Abstract:

This thesis deals with the speech behaviour utilized in the genre of the political interview. The features, constraints and requirements that are closely related to this type of discourse are examined. The analysis of the text deals primarily with the communication processes connected to the negotiation of claims. These are proposed by interviewers in their questions which are viewed in terms of elicitation and assigned validity status by interviewees: accept, reject and neutral stances. The thesis analyzes the elicitation types that are used from the perspective of Tsui (1992). Moreover, interviewing techniques are examined in terms of the hosts’ degree of involvement manifested in different levels such as self-references, interruptions and simultaneous speech and certainty and uncertainty presented in the claims proposed. To identify these features, three sets of transcribed language data are examined. The analyzed texts come from the television programmes HARDTalk and HARDTalk Extra that were broadcast on BBC. Each text contains an interview that features a different interviewer: Tim Sebastian, Patrick O’Connell and Gavin Esler; and interviewee: Václav Klaus, Norah Vincent and Carlos Fuentes, respectively. The interviews are based on interaction in an institutionalized environment and discuss subject matters related to politics, e.g. the succession of the Czech Republic to the European Union in May 2003, politics of the Americas and gender politics.

Keywords

Political Interview, Pragmatics, Elicitations, Involvement, References, Accentuation, Attenuation

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 11. 6. 2007

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 11. 6. 2007
• Vedoucí: prof. PhDr. Ludmila Urbanová, CSc.

Masarykova univerzita

Filozofická fakulta

Magisterský studijní program / obor:
Filologie / Anglický jazyk a literatura