The Linguistics of Political Argument: The Spin-Doctor and the Wolf-Pack at the White House (Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics)

The spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the White House How does the White House 'sell' its message to the press? How hostile or docile are political reporters? Do they really try to 'transcend the Spin to find The Truth' (Business Week), or do they have agendas of their own? How many roles does the spokesperson (or 'podium') enjoy and how many the journalist? How are political -and personal -arguments fought and resolved? What rules of politeness prevail? How does the podium employ 'invisible' metaphors to constrain the audience's world view? Is modern political spin really so novel or does it have any precedent in standard rhetoric?This book examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps through an analysis of the language used by both sides. A corpus was compiled of around 50 press briefings from the late Clinton years. A wide range of topics are discussed from the Kosovo crisis to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. This was a particularly intriguing and stressful time in the White House-Press relationship.The work is highly original in demonstrating how concordance technology and the detailed linguistic evidence available in corpora can be used to study discourse features of text and the communicative strategies of speakers. It will be of vital interest to all linguists interested in corpora, discourse and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguists and students of communications, politics and the media. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Foreword: the spin-doctor and the wolf-pack......Page 7 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Introduction: corpora, discourse, politics and the press......Page 10 Briefings as a type of discourse......Page 39 Footing: who says what to whom......Page 57 Voices of the press......Page 69 Voices of the podium......Page 81 Footing shift for attribution: 'according to the New York Times this morning'......Page 99 'Rules of engagement': the interpersonal relationship between the podium and the press......Page 118 Politics, power and politeness......Page 133 Conflict talk......Page 165 The form of words......Page 177 Metaphors of the world......Page 207 Rhetoric, bluster and on-line gaffes......Page 221 Evasion and pursuit......Page 243 General conclusions......Page 265 Notes......Page 271 Bibliography......Page 277 Index......Page 285 This book examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps through a linguistic analysis of the language used by both sides. A corpus was compiled of around fifty press briefings from the late Clinton years. A wide range of topics are discussed from the Kosovo crisis to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. This work is highly original in demonstrating how concordance technology and the detailed linguistic evidence available in corpora can be used to study discourse features of text and the communicative strategies of speakers. It will be of vital interest to all linguists interested in corpus-based linguistics and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguists and students and scholars of communications, politics and the media. This text examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps through a linguistic analysis of the language used by both sides. A corpus was compiled of around 50 press briefings from 1996 to 1999, covering the period of the Kosovo crisis as well as covering a number of topics, from the budget to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.; This work demonstrates how concordance technology and the detailed linguistic evidence available in corpora can be used to study discourse features of text and communicative strategies of speakers. It should be of interest to linguists involved in corpus-based linguistics and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguists and students and scholars interested in communications, politics and the media

This book examines the relationship between the White House, in the person of its press secretary, and the press corps, through a linguistic analysis of the language used by both sides.