The Language of Persuasion in Politics and the Media

This bestselling introductory textbook examines the relationship between politicians, the press and the public through the language they employ. It is now fully revised with new material on delegitimisation, 'fake news', disinformation, (self-)censorship, 'conspiracy theories' and 'Zombie' narratives.

Alan Partington has been Professor of English Linguistics at the Universities of Camerino and Bologna, Italy, at the School of Political Science and the Department for Interpreters and Translators. He is the author of The Linguistics of Political Argument and The Linguistics of Laughter, both published by Routledge, and was the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Corpora and Discourse.

List of figures and tablesPrefaceAcknowledgements Unit 1: Politics, the media and us: The language of persuasion Unit 2: But then along came social media ... Unit 3: Evaluation: What's good and what's bad Unit 4: Evaluation by language choice: Selection and omission Unit 5: Sounding good: Rhetorical effects in action: 'Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!' (But not for all ...) Unit 6: Strategies of persuasion Unit 7: High-risk tactics. Fooling and insulting your audience. The Garden Path technique Unit 8: 'Joined-up' thinking: Propositional and evaluative cohesion Unit 9: Dirty tricks: Really? Caveat emptor! Unit 10: Dirty tricks? Perhaps: Dis/information wars, collusion with tyrants and conspiracy (theories) Unit 11: The importance of importance marking in persuasion Unit 12: Metaphors and company: The subtle persuaders Unit 13: Questions and responses. Softball questions, hardball questions and how to handle them Unit 14: Humour, irony and satire in politics Unit 15: The language of referendum campaigns Unit 16: The year of the six elections Conclusion Glossary References Index