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Article published In: New perspectives on conflict:
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 9:2] 2021
► pp. 237–270

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Discussion, dispute or controversy?

Paradigms of conflict-driven parliamentary practices

ORCiD logo with link | Strömstad Academy, Sweden
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00047.ili
Abstract
As parliamentary debates increasingly display rising levels of political conflict, the polarized and aggressive polemical exchanges in Prime Minister’s Questions are impacting the current agenda-setting and consequently public perceptions and assessments. To get a deeper understanding of the discourse strategies and argumentation practices used in the conflict-driven interaction between opposition MPs (particularly the Leader of the Opposition) and the Prime Minister, the present investigation has been carried out at macro- and micro-levels in an interdisciplinary perspective integrating Dascal’s (Dascal, Marcelo. 1998. “Types of Polemics and Types of Polemical Moves.” In Dialoganalyse VI, vol. 1, edited by Světla Čmejrková, Jana Hoffmannová, Olga Müllerová, and Jindra Světlá, 15–33. Tubingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2008. “Dichotomies and Types of Debate.” In Controversy and Confrontation: Relating Controversy Analysis with Argumentation Theory, edited by Frans H. van Eemeren and Bart Garssen, 27–49. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) typology of polemical exchanges and Ilie’s (. 2015a. “Metadiscursive Strategies in Dialogue: Legitimising Confrontational Rhetoric.” In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, edited by Alessandro Capone and Jacob L. Mey, 601–613. Berlin: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2018. “Pragmatics vs Rhetoric: Political Discourse at the Pragmatics-Rhetoric Interface.” In Pragmatics and Its Interfaces, edited by Cornelia Ilie and Neal Norrick, 85–119. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) pragma-rhetorical approach. At the macro-level, the aim is to account for the context-specific functions of three main types of polemical exchanges, i.e. discussions (focused on establishing the truth), disputes (focused on winning the argument) and controversies (focused on persuading the adversary/audience). At the micro-level, the aim is to examine the interplay and the extent to which the three polemical exchanges crisscross, overlap and/or complement each other through the use of three recurring metadiscourse strategies, i.e. definitions, quotations and parentheticals.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical approaches to conflict and polemics
  • 3.Data and analytical approaches to polemical forms of political interaction
  • 4.Parliamentary macro-level polemical practices
    • 4.1PMQs as a conflict-driven parliamentary discourse sub-genre
    • 4.2Typology of conflict-driven polemical exchanges
      • 4.2.1PMQs as a hub of conflict-driven polemical exchanges
      • 4.2.2Polemical shifts in PMQs
  • 5.Parliamentary micro-level polemical exchange strategies
    • 5.1Purpose-built definitions
    • 5.2Polarizing quotations
    • 5.3Challenging parentheticals
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • References
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