Linguistic Specification of the Genre of Political Interview

Mgr. Markéta Kovaříková

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This thesis deals with linguistic specifications of the language of politics, the genre of political interview in particular. Political talk is dealt with in two categories of political discourse and political interview as its inseparable part respectively. It is stated that the analysis of the discourse depends on a particular context and communicative event. A list of characteristic aspects of political interview is offered. Four features typical of political language: deixis, hedges, boosters and vagueness are analysed in detail and their functions for the aims politicians wish to reach are provided. In order to identify these features, a corpus is examined. The tape script analysed was taken from an interview with President George W. Bush that was shot in the Oval Office on 7 February 2004. The corpus consists a political interview where two participants interact in an institutionalised surrounding, discussing the subject matter of politics. It is argued and later proved that the strategies employed by politicians in political interviews are to establish solidarity and positive image of themselves and their actions in the eyes of the public, avoid or turn away from face-threatening questions and topics raised by interviewers, hedge the criticism implied by interviewers.

Keywords

Political Language, Political Discourse, Political Interview, Pragmatics, Deixis, Hedges, Boosters, Vagueness.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 29. 1. 2007

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 5. 2. 2007
• Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Ludmila Urbanová, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature