1schaffner_christina_editor_analysing_political_speeches
.pdfhas never been to California, never to Hollywood, but he still understands something about PR. Goebbels, too, understood something about PR. We have to be clear about this'.)
8.' Has Kohlforgotten that the honour and dignity of a state, of a people are at stake here? If so, we are forced to remind him of that. In view of all this, political reason and decency require that in this situation things are made clear. Without clarification a normal relationship with the German government seems impossible.'
9. Goffman himself (see Goffman, 1981: 128, footnote) considered 'footing' an elaboration of hisframe analysis (as expounded in Goffman, 1974). Levinson (1988: 168) points out that the notion of 'footing' itself is not very clear. The term refers to the way in which the communicative participant is involved in the situation, and the grounds for this. The clearest description Goffman offers is: 'A change in footing implies a change in the alignment we take up to ourselves and the others present as expressed in the way we manage the production or reception of an utterance'. (Goffman, 1981: 128). As Levinson points out, study of footing phenomena isfrom a linguistic point of viewrelevant because these phenomena are at the heart of the concept of deixis.
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10.The notion of 'hearer' is decomposed similarly. Goffman distinguishes 'addressed recipients' from 'unaddressed recipients'. Both categories are officially ratified participants of the situation. Furthermore, there may be 'unofficial' or 'unratified' participants, such as 'bystanders', 'overhearers' and 'eavesdroppers' (Goffman, 1981: 131-3).
11.Goffman (1981: 140) indeed suggests a different approach for speech events other than ordinary conversation, which he considers the paradigm case for describing the different speaker and hearer roles.
12.Levinson's framework has recently been applied by Antaki, Díaz and Collins (1996).
13.In political interviews politicians do not have a 'negative face' of their own, since their utterances are seen in relation to their public function as a politician (Ensink, 1986: 337-8).
14.In Ensink and Sauer (1995), the deliberate attempt at fitting words in different perspectives is termed 'multidimensionality'. The literature on political communication and political language use provides many examples of politicians trying to have their words accepted by their audience. Thus, Atkinson (1984) analyses devices used by politicians in their speeches in order to catch applause. Two of these devicesfavourable reference to 'us', and unfavourable reference to 'them'are essentially aiming at the nature of representation and identification. In a similar fashion, Bormann (1986) analysed speeches by American Presidential Candidates to audiences of party members. The most important aim of these speeches was to be recognisable and to do this they used the audiences' favourite themes, firing their enthusiasm and getting them in the mood for victory.
15.Except, of course, in the case of totalitarian states. The totalitarian leader and his words are to be identified with the state itself.
16.From the point of view of classical rhetoric, representative speeches are 'epideictic' (i.e. focused on positive or negative aspects of the theme talked about), whereas political speeches e.g. to party rallies, as those analysed by Atkinson (1984), are 'deliberativum' (i.e. aimed at gaining the audience's approval). See Klein (1995: 70, 75) and Lausberg (1987).
17.Although ten years later, in 1995, at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of German capitulation, a right wing lobby in German politics wanted to restore the idea of Germany having been defeated.
18.In the Dutch Constitution, the word 'King' is used, regardless of the sex of the actual incumbent. In practice, the government's liability for the king's actions extends to the whole royal family.
19.Sometimes, this situation is even stronger: the Queen has to do what the government has decided. Thus, every year on the third Tuesday in September, the Queen addresses the first and second Chamber of Parliament. In this address, the government's intentions for the next year are stated. In its form, this address is an address of and by the Queen. In fact, the address is
written by the Prime Minister.
20.When Queen Beatrix speaks, her articulation is very careful and measured. Her immaculate presentation precludes the sense of spontaneity.
21.The Dutch press release by the Netherland's Information Service states that 'only the spoken word is valid'. The text may be the same, but it is the official act of speaking that text that counts. Any discrepancy between printed text and spoken text leads to a 'denial' of the written text.
22.Of course, a 'paragraph' is a unit of written speech. The paragraphs are based on the text of the address as issued by the Netherland's Information Service. In the Queen's diction, paragraphs may or may not be recognisable. If they are, this is done by means of a short pause, or by stressing the introduction of the next topic, and so on. In fact, the speaker's behaviour can be described as footing phenomena.
23.In terms of Table 2, us would include both all ratified present parties (R1 and R2), and all intended recipients (R3).
24.The literature about inferences (implications, implicatures) is enormous. Since I am dealing with a text as monologue, I refer to a system of analysing inferences by asking which propositions are necessary in order to make the combination of two utterances
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coherent (see Mann & Thompson, 1986). In this text, one might try to prove the operation of these inferences by asking whether an explicit formulation fits the speaker's intentions: 'Though your country may be relatively young as a state, your people can look back on a very old history'. In my opinion, this formulation is interchangeable with the formulation from the text.
25.Beatrix leaves it open whether or not 'biblical' is only Old Testament, or New Testament as well.
26.Note that between the three parts of her address, explicit forms of address occurs. The function of these is to put a bracket between the thematic lines. The content of paragraphs 10 and 11 is not specifically restricted to the Chairman.
27.In representative speeches to a foreign audience, the use of the audience's language is a symbolic act of the willingness to approach the audience in its own identity. The classic case is undoubtedly John F. Kennedy's speech in Berlin, in which he used English, apart from the sentence 'Ich bin ein Berliner'.Here, the propositional content of what Kennedy said matches its symbolic value. In the case of Beatrix' address, there is not such a perfect fit. The Queen uses a Hebrew phrase from the Old Testament, but she utters a wish which fits the general perspective of the desired Middle East's development, as adopted in Paragraph 11.
28.Apart from the fact that the phrase 'solutions for your country' probably intends to refer to 'solutions for the conflict between your country and neighbouring countries', this sentence is rather unfortunate. The fact that it is uttered at all presupposes its relevance. And it is only relevant if Israel considers 'non-democratic solutions'.
29.'Representative' is used in a different sense here from the one I used throughout this paper. Searle divided speech acts into several categories, notably 'representatives', 'directives', 'commissives', 'expressives' and 'declaratives'; 'representatives' are those speech acts in which the speaker is committed to the truth of the expressed proposition.
30.Dutch foreign policies favour Israel, but in a balanced way. Arab interests are considered as well.
References
Antaki, C., Díaz, F. and Collins, A.F. (1996) Keeping your footing: Conversational completion in three-part sentences. Journal of Pragmatics 25, 151-71.
Atkinson, M. (1984) Our Masters' Voices. The Language and Body Language of Politics.London/New York: Methuen.
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge.Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Bormann, E.G. (1986) Fantasy theme analysis of presidential debates. In T. Ensink, A. van
Essen and T. van der Geest (eds) Discourse Analysis and Public Life. Papers of the Groningen Conference on Medical and Political Discourse (pp. 289-36). Dordrecht/Providence: Foris Publications.
Canetti, E. (1960) Masse und Macht.Munich: Claassen Verlag.
Ensink, T. (1986) Political interviews. In T. Ensink, A. van Essen and T. van der Geest (eds)
Discourse Analysis and Public Life. Papers of the Groningen Conference on Medical and Political Discourse (pp. 331-54). Dordrecht/Providence: Foris Publications.
Ensink, T. (1992) Jenninger: De ontvangst van een Duitse rede in Nederland. Een tekstwetenschappelijke en communicatiewetenschappelijke analyse (Jenninger: The reception of a German speech in the Netherlands. A textlinguistic and communicative analysis). Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers.
Ensink, T. (1995) Rhetorical problems of addressing the shameful past: Success and failure of German politicians. Paper presented at the Annual Conference 1995 of the Belgian Linguistic Association Political Linguistics, Antwerp, December 1995.
Ensink, T. and Sauer, C. (1995) Political communication as tightrope walking: German President Roman Herzog's commemorative address in Warsaw, August 1 1994. Politics,
Groups, and the Individual 5, (2), 37-50.
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Goffman, E. (1974) Frame Analysis. An Essay on the Organization of Experience.New York: Harper & Row.
Goffman, E. (1979) Footing. Semiotica 25, 1-29.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Klein, J. (1995) Politische Rhetorik. Eine Theorieskizze in Rhetorik-kritischer Absicht mit Analysen zu Reden van Goebbels, Herzog und Kohl. Sprache und Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 75/76,62-99.
Kopperschmidt, J. (1989) Öffentliche Rede in Deutschland. Muttersprache 99, 213-30.
Lausberg, H. (1987) Elemente der literarischen Rhetorik Munich: Hueber.
Levinson, S.C. (1983) Pragmatics.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, S.C. (1988) Putting linguistics on a proper footing: Explorations in Goffman's concepts of participation. In P. Drew and Wootton, A. (eds) Erving Goffman. Exploring the Interaction Order (pp. 161-227). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Mann, W.C. and Thompson, S.A. (1986) Relational propositions in discourse. Discourse Processes 9, 57-79.
Sauer, C. (forthcoming) Der Blick nach Rückwärts. 'Befreiung' und 'Selbstbefreiung' in zwei deutschen Gedenkreden (von Weizsäcker 1985, Jenninger 1988).
Searle, J.R. (1976) The classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5, 1-24.
Verhey, E. (1995) De zin van Beatrix. Wat Hare Majesteit kreeg voorgezegd en wat zij zelf wilde zeggen (Beatrix' sentence. What Her Majesty was told to say and what she wanted to say herself). Vrij Nederland 8 April 1995, 7-8.
Wortham, S.E.F. (1996) Mapping participant deictics: A technique for discovering speaker's footing. Journal of Pragmatics 25, 331-48.
Appendix: Address by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix to the Knesset on Tuesday, March 28th, 1995, on the occasion of the State Visit to Israel
Mr Speaker, Members of the Knesset,
(1) The very name of your parliament, Knesset, takes us back to a distant past. As early as 3000 years ago your forefathers congregated in national assemblies. Though Israel may be relatively young as a state, the Jewish people can look back on a very old history. The traces of those early times are present here in many places and in many forms. Travelling through these biblical lands is therefore like travelling through time. Jerusalem and Jericho, the river Jordanthese old names are in the news even today, but also revive for everyone memories of that long and rich past.
(2)These places and the many memories that are associated with them are of particular significance not only for the Jewish people but also for the Dutch. When our ancestors took up arms against the King of Spain more than four centuries ago and started the war of liberation that led to the establishing of the Dutch state, the history of the Jewish people was one of their sources of inspiration. Our forefathers, too, were driven by a strong faith. They, too, sought a promised land and a New Jerusalem.
(3)All the early history of our country is imbued with references to and comparisons with the people of Israel. For the citizens of our young republic the Bible was a source of inspiration not only in their personal lives and religious experiences but also for politics and society, art and culture. Rembrandt's famous paintings and etchings of Biblical subjects provide eloquent testimony of this. The Royal Palace in Amsterdam too was embellished, by sculptors of our Golden Age, with scenes from the Old Testament which were then familiar to everyone.
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(4)The arrival in the Netherlands of a large number of Jewish immigrants, from Southern Europe and later also from Eastern Europe, led in a natural way, to a closer acquaintance with Jewish culture and Jewish religion. These immigrants, many taking refuge from persecution, found a safe haven in our country. They contributed significantly to the great economic and cultural flowering our country experienced at that stage of her history. Particularly in trade and business they were competitors but also colleagues. Jewish bankers, many of whom practised this profession because, as non-Christians, they were denied admittance to the existing closed guilds, financed the armies that eventually won the Netherlands her struggle for independence.
(5)The cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam, above all, became the centre of a flourishing and extensive Jewish community, so much so indeed that our capital acquired an enduring nickname, Mokumthe 'Makom'safe place. Jewish libraries and seminaries arose. The Jewish synagogue became one of the most beautiful and most serene buildings in the city, as it still is, restored recently to its old splendour. The studies of medicine and law, among other disciplines, attracted many talented Jewish students and scholars. One of these was the controversial Spinoza, who lives on as one of the great philosophers of European history. In a later age Dutch Jews played a significant part in quite different areas as well. The early trade union movement for example drew its membership largely from trades in which Jewish workers figured prominently. The Dutch diamond-workers union, which was initiated by Jewish diamond cutters, served as a model for the development of the trade union movement in the Netherlands.
(6)During the most difficult years of the twentieth century, which has been so filled with disaster, Mokum, alas, proved not to be the safe city its name suggested. It is not necessary to call to mind here, in this place, the horrors that the Nazi-occupation of 1940-1945 brought our country's Jewish population. Most of our Dutch Jews were carried off to concentration camps where they would eventually meet their death. We know that many of our fellowcountrymen put up courageous and sometimes successful resistance, and often, exposing themselves to mortal danger, stood by their threatened fellow men. During our visit to Yad Vashem 1 yesterday we saw their names too among those remembered forever under the trees planted there. But we also know that they were the exceptional ones and that the people of the Netherlands could not prevent the destruction of their Jewish fellow-citizens.
(7)Fifty years after the end of the war we cannot joyfully commemorate the restoration of our freedom without at the same time asking ourselves in bewilderment and dismay how this could have happened. The recent solemn celebrations at Auschwitz where you, Mr. Chairman, and we were present, evoked those events for us in all their horror. These atrocious memories are a permanent incitement to us all to remain vigilant against the emergence of new forms of racism, discrimination and xenophobia. It is an urgent duty, not only for governments but also for every individual citizen,
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to be on the alert and react without hesitation to every sign of a revival of these dangers.
(8)Experiences of the war, in particular, greatly contributed to the special bond that developed between our two countries after the war. The founding of the state of Israel was welcomed with great enthusiasm in the Netherlands: this state gave the Jewish people a place of its own and the legal security the countries of Europe had failed to provide. For all the Jews in the world this new country was therefore not only a refuge but also a source of inspiration and self-assurance. Thousands of Dutchmen too, found a new life here. Others worked here temporarily, with dedication and enthusiasm, on the impressive making of the young country, and have kept a precious memory of that pioneer time. In all the conflicts that threatened the existence of the young state, the people and the government of the Netherlands stood unhesitatingly by Israel. This feeling of solidarity is still alive today. For many Dutch people it is beyond question that a special relationship exists between our countries.
(9)The history of the state of Israel is almost half a century old. Over the years much has happened and much has changed. From all parts of the world, but in particular from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, immigrants have streamed in here. Other countries, often confronted with refugee problems of their own, have seen with admiration how your country has taken in these large numbers and absorbed them into the community. The influx has led to a population that displays wide varieties of culture. This has enriched your country and has increased respect for others among your people. The confusion of tongues that threatened to follow the building of this tower of Babel you have averted by teaching everyone Hebrew. Another distinctive feature of Israel is religious diversity. It is the cross roads of the three great monotheistic world religions, predestined by history to coexist here in peace. In many countries there is great admiration for the patience and dedication with which Israel seeks solutions for this multitude of problems. Among people interested in Israel, this recalls memories of the pioneer days which they may remember from personal experience, and of the idealism and the inspiration which this land then radiated. Now that Israel has more young people than ever, it is an important obligation for the older generation to pass on that spark of hope and solidarity which then animated everyone, to a new generation.
Mr Speaker,
(10)Many wars have torn the Middle East. Often your country was even at stake in these conflicts. War, violence, and terrorism have taken a heavy toll. Throughout the world people have been moved by the suffering of the Israeli and the Palestinian population. Fortunately there are at present signs that point in the direction of a new future, although the road that leads there will be difficult, and everyone who follows your efforts towards this goal remains poised between hope and anxiety.
(11)Hope has been the stronger of these feelings. The breakthrough that was brought about by the visit of the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to your land remains unforgettable. The whole world remembers the pictures of him