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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 17:3 (2018) ► pp.405–427

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Morality, loyalty and eloquence

Conversational challenges and resources in a televised confrontational dialogue

 | Bar Ilan University |
 | The David Yellin College of Education |
Published online: 20 July 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17001.liv
Abstract
The new dialogic, conversational nature of television broadcast news (Hamo, Michal. 2009. “Style, Form and Function in Conversational Formats on Television News: The Case of Ulpan Shishi .” Hebrew Linguistics 62–63: 323–346 [Hebrew].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) poses a challenge to traditional commentators, who are forced to move from an authoritative monologue to a confrontational dialogue that requires additional flexibility and conversational skills. The paper focuses on an Israeli case study which presents a confrontational dialogue in which one of the discussants is an experienced military correspondent and commentator. We demonstrate the various resources he uses in order to cope with a complex discursive challenge by using multimodal tools, both verbal and visual (Kress, Gunther. 2010. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Kress, Gunther and Theo Van Leeuwen. 2001. Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Jewitt, Carey and Rumiko Oyama. 2001. “Visual Meaning: A Social Semiotic Approach.” In Handbook of Visual Analysis, edited by Theo Van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, 134–156. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Besides interrupting his interlocutor’s eloquent discourse in any possible way, demonstrating his well-known direct and involved television persona, the military correspondent employs institutional discursive resources such as using authoritative voice and taking the role of the mediator. Concession structures (Anscombre, Jean-Claude. 1985. “Grammaire Traditionelle et Grammaire Argumentative de la Concession.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 39 (4): 333–349.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) reflect his inner moral conflict toward the issue (Livnat, Zohar. 2012. Dialogue, Science and Academic Writing, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.The Israeli context
  • 2.The case
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Part A
    • 3.2Part B
    • 3.3Part C
  • 4.Discursive challenges in a multi-conflictual confrontation
    • 4.1Professionalism
    • 4.2Morality and loyalty
    • 4.3Eloquence
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
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2021. Resonance and engagement through (dis-)agreement: Evidence of persistent constructional priming from Mandarin naturalistic interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 175 ► pp. 94 ff. DOI logo
Tantucci, Vittorio & Aiqing Wang
2022. Resonance as an Applied Predictor of Cross-Cultural Interaction: Constructional Priming in Mandarin and American English Interaction. Applied Linguistics 43:1 ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
Teomim Ben-Menachem, Esty & Zohar Livnat
2018. Desirable and undesirable disagreements: Jewish women studying the talmudic texts. Journal of Pragmatics 138 ► pp. 30 ff. DOI logo

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