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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 19:4 (2020) ► pp.604–623

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Why do politicians cite others in political debates?

A functional analysis of reported speech in a Japanese political debate

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Sydney
Published online: 15 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19061.shi
Abstract
Politicians often quote opponents in political debates so as to highlight contradictions between the opponents’ prior statements and their current political actions, thus construing their political character negatively. From a dialogic perspective, reported speech, alternatively termed “extra-vocalisation”, can be defined as a tool used by speakers to deny alternative points of view and justify their own positions, while simultaneously positioning the audience in agreement with the speaker’s own views. Drawing on this notion of extra-vocalisation, the current study analyses a Japanese political debate to show how politicians use different types of voice to validate their own political ideologies and devalue opposing views. In doing so, the study also identifies the relevant linguistic resources of Japanese in order to show how dialogic positioning via extra-vocalisation is manifested in Japanese, and highlight the fact each language provides its own resources to convey such meanings.
Article outline
  • 1.Political discourse analysis
  • 2.Dialogic positioning via extra-vocalisation
  • 3.Data and background of the debate
  • 4.Justifying one’s own political stance via extra-vocalisation
    • 4.1The citizens’ voice
    • 4.2The aligned parties’ voice
    • 4.3The professionals’ voice
  • 5.Rejecting opposing points of view via extra-vocalisation
    • 5.1The opponents’ voice
    • 5.2The heavyweight speaker voice: The Prime Minister
      • 5.2.1Prime Minister’s voice: Criticism via adversative structure
      • 5.2.2Prime Minister’s voice: Criticism via attitudinal grammatical resources
    • 5.3Citizens’ voice: Criticism of Japanese view
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
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