Linguistics of Political Argument

Alan Partington is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Faculty of Political Science, Camerino University (Italy). He has published in the fields of phonetics, CALL, lexicology and corpus linguistics, and is the author of Patterns and Meanings: Using corpora for English language research and teaching (1998, Benjamins). He is currently researching ways in which corpus techniques can be used to study features of discourse.

• Foreword: The spin-doctor and the wolf-packIntroduction: Corpora, discourse, politics and the press1. Briefings as a type of discourse2. Footing: Who says what to whom3. Voices of the press4. Voices of the podium5. Footing shift for attribution: 'According to the New York Times this morning'6. 'Rules of Engagement': The interpersonal relationship between the podium and the press7. Politics, power and politeness8. Conflict talk9. The form of words10. Metaphors of the world11. Rhetoric, bluster and on-line gaffes12. Evasion and pursuit13. General Conclusions