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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 35:1 (2022) ► pp.332–359

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The evaluation of status in Boris Johnson’s political speeches

From foreign secretary to prime minister

ORCiD logo with link | Universitat de València
Published online: 17 January 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.20040.dol
Abstract
This study compares two seminal speeches given by Boris Johnson in the context of Brexit. The first is from 2018 during his tenure as Foreign Secretary, and the second from 2020, by which time he had become Prime Minister. The transcripts of the two complete speeches together constitute a corpus of 7,270 words. The current study applies Hunston’s (Hunston, S. (2000). Evaluation and the planes of discourse: Status and value in persuasive texts. In S. Hunston & G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in text: Authorial status and the construction of discourse (pp. 176–207). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2008). The evaluation of status in multi-modal texts. Functions of Language 15(1), 64–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2011). Corpus approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative language. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) model of evaluation as a means of testing Johnson’s attitude towards the propositions he develops through his political oratory. Using the concepts of evaluation of status and value, this model allows us to identify Johnson’s degree of alignment with his representation of the world, and to perceive an ideological component in his choices here. It is hypothesized that the changes which took place in the political landscape in the time that separated the two speeches, a period of two years in which Johnson became Prime Minister and Britain left the European Union, may have had an effect on his use of evaluative language. The study reveals statistically significant findings. Johnson is found to have changed from contributing primarily world-creating propositional content in his 2018 speech to a more significant use of world-reflecting statements in his 2020 speech, and to rely in both speeches most importantly on himself as the source of information. The study also reveals a reluctance to display any hypothetical speech behaviour, and a strong preference for truth driven statements.
Resumen
La evaluación de estatus en el discurso político de Boris Johnson: De ministro de asuntos exteriores a primer ministro
El presente estudio compara los dos discursos políticos más influyentes pronunciados por Boris Johnson en el contexto del Brexit. El primero se sitúa en 2018, durante su mandato como Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores. El segundo, en 2020, ya detentando el cargo de Primer Ministro. La transcripción completa de ambos discursos nos proporciona un corpus de 7.270 palabras. El estudio aplica el modelo de evaluación de Hunston (Hunston, S. (2000). Evaluation and the planes of discourse: Status and value in persuasive texts. In S. Hunston & G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in text: Authorial status and the construction of discourse (pp. 176–207). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2008). The evaluation of status in multi-modal texts. Functions of Language 15(1), 64–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2011). Corpus approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative language. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), a través del cual se pretende comprobar la actitud de Johnson hacia los contenidos proposicionales que recrea en su oratoria política. Apoyándose en los conceptos de evaluación de estatus y valor, el modelo nos permite identificar el nivel de alineamiento de Johnson con las representaciones del mundo que proyecta, y captar el componente ideológico que subyace a sus elecciones. Partimos de la hipótesis de que los cambios que tuvieron lugar en el escenario político en el tiempo que separa los dos discursos, en los que Johnson se convirtió en Primer Ministro y Gran Bretaña abandonó la Unión Europea, puedan haber influido en su empleo de lenguaje evaluativo. El estudio pone de relieve hallazgos estadísticamente significativos. Johnson cambia, pasando de aportar primordialmente contenido proposicional que ‘crea’ una visión del mundo en su discurso de 2018, al empleo más significativo de enunciados que ‘representan’ una visión de mundo en 2020. En ambos discursos el político se apoya de forma destacada en su propia figura como fuente de la información que aporta. El estudio también pone de relieve una clara reticencia a exhibir cualquier tipo de conducta oral hipotética, frente a una manifiesta preferencia por enunciados regidos por hechos comprobables.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evaluation and political discourse
  • 3.Context of the study
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Results and discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
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