Political linguistics
Political linguistics (also known as "political communication") is a relatively young sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with the scientific investigation and criticism of political communication. It is largely empirically oriented and can be assigned primarily to the field of applied linguistics . Politolinguistic studies can relate to all essential aspects of language, especially those that can be assigned to semantics and pragmatics .
history
The term political linguistics was introduced in 1996 by Armin Burkhardt in an essay that also bears it as the main title, as a term for the “previously nameless” sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with the critical analysis of political language. The term has now largely established itself. Political linguistics is located in the border area between linguistics and political science (political science) and in both sciences “less to the 'theoretical' than to the 'applied' and within the 'applied' to the 'critical' sub-area."
The subject of the linguistic analysis was the political language in Germany around 1900. Here it was initially part of the then current keyword research. Exactly in 1900 Richard M. Meyer's "Four Hundred Keywords" appeared and soon afterwards Otto Ladendorf's "Historisches Keywordbuch" (1906), in which, however, in addition to important political lexicons of the late 19th century, " buzzwords " and neologisms of the time (such as " Mob "or" cat music ") are treated. And already in 1898 the lexicographer Hermann Wunderlich had linguistically honored the 50th anniversary of the Constituent German National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in an essay .
The actual historical starting point for the emergence of a linguistics of political language in the German-speaking area, however, formed studies on the language of National Socialism and on divergences in the political vocabulary of the two German states. These works have been created since the 1950s and 1960s and were initially largely limited to the subject areas mentioned. It was only as a result of the domestic political turning point in 1968/69 that public communication on political issues has increasingly become the subject of linguistic and political research since the early 1970s.
After a slight decline in interest towards the end of the social-liberal era , the number of publications on political language has increased noticeably since 1982/83, the years of retrofitting discussions and the liberal-conservative " turnaround ". The initial focus on military-political language was gradually abandoned in favor of examining more general issues such as 'parliamentary communication', 'semantic struggles' or 'political language in the media'. In addition, numerous individual studies on political types of text and the linguistic processing of domestic and foreign political events have been created.
Since 1989, the language of the " Wende " in the GDR and the language of the "post-Wende" in the Federal Republic, which has been enlarged by the state unification, have become the determining topics. In addition to the analysis of the discourses on migration and the use of nuclear power, parliamentary communication, the language of the election campaign and political media communication are increasingly being examined. In addition, there is an increasing trend towards the historiography of political language, such as Diekmannshenke's study on the key words of the time of the peasant wars (1994) or the discourse-analytical studies published by Stötzel / Wengeler (1995) and Böke / Liedtke / Wengeler (1996) testify to the leading vocabulary of the Federal Republic. Even if more and more pragmatic approaches play a role, the description and (critical) analysis of political lexicons have always been in the foreground of efforts.
In Austria, the political-linguistic field of activity has so far been essentially limited to the primarily discourse-analytical work at the University of Vienna, with the work of the linguist Ruth Wodak having a school-building role. There were also approaches to politolinguistic research and some publications in Salzburg in the 1990s and 2000s under the leadership of Oswald Panagl .
Investigation areas
According to Klein (1998, p. 194 ff.), Politolinguistic studies mainly take place in three specific areas. In some cases, these areas of investigation cannot be separated from one another, as the transitions can be fluid. It is a categorization of political action established in political science.
Language and political system (polity)
The aspect of polity in political linguistics refers to the relationship between language and the prevailing political system in which it is used. The influence of this system is great enough (or is considered to be great enough) to justify declaring linguistic findings to be indicators for such a system or justifying their forms by reference to this system.
In connection with political systems, “language, especially lexicons, is seen as an expression or constitutional condition of ideology” (Klein 1998, p. 195). In this regard, the "languages of opinion" or "ideology" that are common in various political currents are examined. Often these investigations are characterized by a special proximity to catchphrase research that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Examples of polity-related linguistic studies include studies on the language of / during National Socialism and on parliamentary communication.
Language and political process (politics)
However, the peculiarities of political language are not limited to its ideological reference. A strategic aspect is also ascribed to them. Both the classic rhetorical means and the strategies of so-called “concept occupation” (for example in election campaigns), the use of vagueness and ambiguity or conversational rhetorical strategies in television talk shows are of interest in this sense for politolinguistic linguistic research. In the context of corresponding studies, political processes are seen primarily as linguistically constituted political communication processes.
Some political speeches were so significant or controversial in terms of their effect because of their context or their linguistic or rhetorical properties that they became the subject of linguistic research as individual phenomena. This applies, for example, to the much-noticed speech by the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war or the unsuccessful commemorative speech by the former Bundestag President Philipp Jenninger on November 10, 1988 on the 50th anniversary of the November pogroms in 1938 . The so-called " Sportpalastrede " of the Nazi Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels on February 18, 1943 is also a prominent example of an examined speech .
In connection with political processes, (political) linguistic criticism has always been of particular importance and can be defined as the form “in which, on the basis of linguistic competence, the political communication process can be intervened” (ibid.) Politolinguistic efforts since the 1960s mainly on the Federal Republic. After linguistic criticism was often abused in the 1970s by representatives of scientific fields other than linguistics to discredit their respective political opponents, in today's practice emphasis is placed above all on the independence of the analysis from one's own political convictions.
Language and policy fields (policies)
Politolinguistic studies can relate to different policy fields . However, not all subject areas have been considered equally so far. Often the choice was more or less dependent on the public interest and one's own convictions. Genuinely politolinguistic contributions are in principle neutral and "primarily [of] analytical interest" (ibid.), So that the recipient himself should or can come to a political judgment. Since the late 1970s, numerous contributions have been made on the language of armaments and disarmament policy; since the 1990s, on the other hand, the linguistic aspects of asylum and migration as well as economic and social policy have been the subject of discussion or “tendencies that discriminate against women, firstly in the German language and secondly in certain linguistic communication patterns ” (ibid., p. 198).
theory
Competition in meaning and designation
Particularly in the context of the investigation of ideological vocabulary, "meaning competition" and "designation competition" are two important technical terms. Meaning competition is understood to mean when the same word is used in different meanings without making this explicitly clear, for example the high-value word "socialism" is used in a socialist context with the characteristics of class and struggle and in a non-socialist context without these characteristics. Designation competition is used when the same political issue is referred to by different political groups with different expressions, for example when supporters call a certain measure restructuring and this means dismantling for the opponents ('restructuring the social system' versus 'social dismantling').
Competition for meaning and designation are the two most important forms of semantic struggle.
Campaigns
Political communication is built up in campaigns. The ultimate goal of a campaign is to get a majority of a political decision moving. Much of this is achieved by having campaigns planned to attract attention. It is important to ensure that this is characterized by a uniform appearance in pictures and words. The messages that are central to political communication serve this purpose. A campaign only sets itself apart from others if the candidate, the party or the content is clearly different from others. The most successful strategy to convince the majority of your campaign is a constant presence and repetition of the contact. The recipients must not lose their attention.
Recipients
Political communication is aimed at different recipients. These can be divided into three different groups according to the so-called SSS model:
- Sinners
- Saveables
- Saints
Sinners
The so-called Sinners include the group of people who are fundamentally averse to the person, party or cause. Your deepest political beliefs are very different from those of our campaign, and any attempt to convince them are wasted resources. The aim of political communication at this point must therefore be to demobilize the Sinners. This means formulating the messages in such a way that members of this group do not want to participate in the decision.
Saveables
The so-called saveables include the group of people who are still indifferent to the person, party or cause. You are still undecided and join different parties, people or things in different campaigns. The aim of political communication at this point must therefore be to convince the saveables of their cause. Information events, marketing and good argumentation strategies are the focus of the messages.
Saints
The so-called Saints include the group of people who have a fundamentally positive attitude towards the person, party or cause. Your deepest political convictions are clearly in line with those of our campaign, and attempts to entice you from other people or parties are very unlikely. The aim of political communication at this point must be to mobilize the Saints. This means formulating the messages in such a way that members of this group want to actively participate in the decision and must be shielded from attempts at demobilization.
Embassies
When formulating messages, there are some basic rules to be observed. The most important rule to be observed is the fact that any form of communication can be accepted by all three recipient groups and accordingly interpreted differently. (See: Reactions to the proposal of a " veggie day " by the Bündnis 90 / Die Grüne party)
In addition, messages should always use the basic-level language:
- Simple: understandable for everyone (no technical terms)
- Effective: Recipients should remember the content
- Effective: Linking with emotions and experiences
The use of emotions and experiences represents a great challenge in the formulation of concrete messages. Certain terms are connected with certain associations. These can be negative as well as positive. In general, it is important to avoid negative terms in your own messages and ideally to replace them with positive alternatives. Former President Georg W. Bush, who often spoke of so-called “tax relief” in his messages of tax cuts, serves as an example. The term relief literally means salvation and is closely related to biblical texts. This basically means that it has a positive connotation with the relevant recipients, and it is difficult for political opponents to argue against “redemption”. (See also: Framing )
Professional associations
Since 1994, the working group 'Sprach in der Politik' eV, which emerged from an 'Initiative Linguists for Peace' founded in Paderborn in the early 1990s, has been analyzing and criticizing political language in the present and history. It is an association of linguists who have a research focus in the field of political language and who have come to the fore by organizing numerous specialist conferences on political-linguistic topics and publishing their results. The current chairman is Thomas Niehr (RWTH Aachen).
In addition, the German Association for Political Science has a working group 'Politics and Culture', whose spokesmen are currently Wolfgang Bergem (Bergische Universität Wuppertal) and Reinhard Wesel (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg).
See also
literature
- Marco Althaus: Strategies for Campaigns. Classic lessons and modern targeting. In: Marco Althaus (Ed.): Campaign! New strategies for election campaigns, PR and lobbying. 3rd edition, LIT, Münster u. a. O. 2002, pp. 11-44.
- Armin Burkhardt : Politolinguistics. Attempt to determine the location. In: Josef Klein / Hajo Diekmannshenke (eds.): Language strategies and dialogue blockades. Linguistic and political science studies on political communication. De Gruyter, Berlin 1996 (= Series Language, Politics, Public 7), pp. 75–100.
- Armin Burkhardt: German language history and political history. In: Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann, Stefan Sonderegger (eds.): History of language. A handbook on the history of the German language and its research. 2. completely reworked u. exp. Ed., De Gruyter, Berlin 1998, pp. 98-122.
- Armin Burkhardt: Political Language. Approaches and methods of their analysis and criticism. In: Dispute Language. Language criticism as applied linguistics? Edited by Jürgen Spitzmüller u. a. Pp. 75–114 (Freiburg contributions to linguistics; 3). Bremen 2002.
- Armin Burkhardt: Parliament and its language. Studies on the theory and history of parliamentary communication. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2003, ISBN 3-484-31241-6 .
- Walther Dieckmann: Language in Politics. Introduction to the pragmatics and semantics of political language. Heidelberg: Carl Winter 1975, ISBN 3-533-02467-9
- Hans-Joachim Diekmannshenke: The key words of the radicals of the Reformation period (1520-1536). Frankfurt / M .: Peter Lang 1994.
- Heiko Girnth: Language and Use of Language in Politics. An introduction to the linguistic analysis of public-political communication. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2002, ISBN 3-484-25139-5 .
- Heiko Girnth, Andy Alexander Hofmann: Politolinguistics. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8253-6603-2 .
- Andrea Hausberg: Analysis of political language using current examples. Rhetorical-argumentative strategies in speeches on the Iraq war. Saarbrücken: VDM-Verlag 2007, ISBN 3-8364-3368-0 .
- Klaus Kamps: Political Communication Management. Chapter 2, pp. 33-81.
- Josef Kopperschmidt (Ed.): Politics and Rhetoric. Functional models of political speech. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1995, ISBN 3-531-12558-3 .
- Jörg Kilian (Ed.): Language and Politics. German in a democratic state. Mannheim: Dudenverlag 2005, ISBN 3-411-04221-4 .
- Josef Klein : Political Communication - Linguistic Perspectives , in: Otfried Jarren , Ulrich Sarcinelli , Ulrich Saxer (Ed.): Political Communication in the Democratic Society A manual with a dictionary. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1998, pp. 187–199, ISBN 3-531-12678-4 .
- Otto Ladendorf : Historical keyword book. One try. Strasbourg – Berlin 1906 [new publisher: Hildesheim 1968].
- Frank Liedtke , Karin Böke, Martin Wengeler: Leading political vocabulary in the Adenauer era. Berlin: De Gruyter 1996, ISBN 978-3-11-014236-5 .
- Thomas Niehr : Introduction to Political Linguistics. Objects and methods. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-4173-5 .
- Peter von Polenz : German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present. Volume III, chap. 6.16: Political language. Berlin: De Gruyter 1999, pp. 523-575, ISBN 3-11-014344-5 (brosch.) Or ISBN 3-11-016426-4 ( hardcover )
- Georg Stötzel , Martin Wengeler: Controversial terms. History of public language use in the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin: De Gruyter 1994, ISBN 3-11-014652-5 (hardcover) or ISBN 3-11-014106-X (paperback)
- Daniel Valente: Political Language in the Chancellor's Duel: A Politolinguistic Analysis. Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 3-639-28971-4 .
