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Changing Strategies of Persuasion in Political Rhetoric: A Corpus-Based Critical Analysis

This presentation explores the changing strategies of persuasion in UK government discourse from 1972-2005, focusing on the rhetoric of Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair. It utilizes critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and political economic theory to analyze key trends such as 'personalization' and 'managerialization' discourse, particularly in relation to education and the capitalist state. The presentation also examines the functions of 'we' as a keyword and explores the role of managerialism in governance.

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Changing Strategies of Persuasion in Political Rhetoric: A Corpus-Based Critical Analysis

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  1. Changing Strategies of Persuasion in Political Rhetoric: a corpus-based critical analysis of UK government discourse 1972-2005 • Jane Mulderrig • University of Lancaster • j.mulderrig@lancaster.ac.uk

  2. Presentation Overview • Object of study: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair • Methods: Critical Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Political Economic Theory • Key Trends: ‘Personalisation’, ‘Managerialisation’

  3. Discourse, Education, and the Capitalist State • The political economy of education policy discourse • Historical Context: late capitalist Britain - towards the ‘lifelong learning’ knowledge economy (Jessop, 2002) • Dilemmas of Governance: textual strategies of representation and legitimation (Rose, 1999; Van Leeuwen, 1996a)… Exploring Identity

  4. Questions, Data, Linguistic Tools • Identity, roles, relations: the government, teachers, pupils, parents • Problems with CDA: eclecticism, replicability • Digital corpus: education ‘White Papers’ (a genre of persuasion) • Wordsmith, SFL, Van Leeuwen, Keywords as ‘Emergent Discourses’

  5. Key Trend 1: Personalisation • Keywords search: patterns of self-representation • Textually prominent forms: government (1875)+ we (2654) • We as KEYWORD under Blair • Coding Senses of we: inclusive [I], exclusive [E], ambivalent [?]

  6. The Functions of ‘We’ • Exclusive we - government boasts • Inclusive we - evaluative comparisons • Ambivalent we - imperatives driven by economic globalisation • Textual Sequencing: (I) evaluation, (?) exhortation, (E) promise

  7. Hegemonic Role of we: inclusion and shared responsibility • Beyond these subjects, we[?] need to be confident that everyone leaving education is equipped to be an informed, responsible, active citizen. In an ever more complex, interdependent world, where an engaged population is crucial to the health of our society, we[E] continue to put citizenship at its heart too. And we[?] need real confidence that our schools and colleges really do give young people the skills they need for employability • Juxtaposition: ‘we (I) live in a changing world’, ‘we (?) must respond with X activity’, and ‘we (E) will provide X policy solution’

  8. Key Trend 2 - Managerialisation • Towards Managerialism in Governance • Getting people to do things: enable, allow (causatives), ensure, require, expect, support, help, give X greater choice • Beyond SFL: a typology of managing

  9. Managed Actions • Cline of coercion • Overseer (ensure) ‘Without X, Y wouldn’t do it’ • Leader (require, expect) • Facilitator (enable, help) ‘Without X, Y couldn’t do it’

  10. Typology of Managed Actions [1] OverseerEnsure (that) -- does, Make sure (that) -- does [2] Leader Require – to, Expect – to, Look to – to, Want – to, Envisage that – should, Urge – to, Encourage – to, Ask -- to, Invite -- to, Promote [+ nominalization meaning ‘the doing of X by MA’] [3] Facilitator Ability Support – (to/in doing), Help – to, Facilitate – to, Let – do, Allow – to, Enable – to, (Transform/Enhance) the capacity of – to, Make it easier (for--) to, Opportunity Free –to, Give –(greater/more) freedom(s) to, Provide/Increase/widen the) opportunities for -- to, Provide for – to

  11. General Findings • Managerialisation (9, 43, 358) • Heath-Thatcher: ‘leader’ role in eroding LEA power • Major: ‘overseeing’ Competitiveness • Blair:’leader’ role to benchmark, monitor, set targets • Ensure: A key resource in modern governance: managing complexity and setting targets for excellence

  12. SUMMARY • Key Trends: Personalisation and Managerialisation • New Labour: prominent, personalised, managerial • We - an ‘inclusive’ tool of policy legitimation • Rhetoric: ’We offer an active, enabling government’’ • Reality: more coercive leader role (expect, want, urge… excellence and economic responsiveness)

  13. References Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State Cambridge: Polity Rose, N. (1999b) Powers of Freedom: reframing political thought Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Mulderrig, J. (forthcoming) “Using Keywords Analysis in CDA: evolving discourses of the knowledge economy in education”, in Fairclough, N., Wodak, R., and Jessop, B. (eds.): Critical Semiotic Approaches to Education and the Knowledge Economy, Brighton: Falmer Van Leeuwen, T. (1996a) The Grammar of Legitimation Unpublished manuscript Van Leeuwen, T. (1996b) The Representation of Social Actors, In Caldas-Coulthard, C. R., and Coulthard M. (eds.), Texts and Practices: readings in critical discourse analysis London: Routledge Van Leeuwen, T. and Wodak, R. (1999) Legitimizing Immigration Control: a discourse-historical analysis, In Discourse Studies 1.1

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