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Syllabus from Language & Politics Fall 2006
Syllabus from Language & Politics Fall 2006
E104: LANGUAGE AND POLITICS
Fall: 2006
DAYS: MW
TIME: 02: 30P-03: 20P
VENUE: RB 110
INSTRUCTOR: DR. SAMUEL GYASI OBENG
OFFICE: MEMORIAL 319
OFFICE HOURS: M: 10:30 A.M. - 12: 00 NOON
ASSOCIATE INSTRUCTORS: TRISTAN PURVIS AND JOSHUA HERRING
Course Description
There is often talk by non-politicians about issues such as: how political actors evade questions by providing answers unrelated to questions they are asked, how they refuse to answer questions, use divisive language especially inclusive and exclusive pronouns like "we" and "them" to signal polarization of in-groups and out-groups, how untruthful they are; how they use negative advertisements to attack their political opponents, how they avoid the obvious and how they speak indirectly by using metaphors and other indirectness devices. There is also talk about how politicians systematically establish a contrast between their parties’ properties (usually good characteristics or actions) and the ostensibly bad actions of others, how they compare what their opponents do (usually negative actions) and what their party does (usually positive acts), as well as how hedging, ambiguity, or vagueness is employed to save and maintain a politician’s face. Regarding political campaigning, in the minds of some people, politicians often mention the aggressive acts such as invasions, sexual practices, bad policies, ban on free speech, etc. of their opponents and play down the opponents positive characteristics while emphasizing their negative characteristics on sensitive issues like immigration and the death penalty.
This course explores the language of politics. In particular, it examines how politicians or political actors and political commentators use language to talk about politics and how politics also influences language. The language to be studied includes that used in the domain of politics such as; speeches of politicians, party propaganda, slogans, the language used in communicative events like political ads, political campaigns, congressional or parliamentary sessions, cabinet meetings, state of the union address, and so forth. The political actors whose language will be examined include presidents and vice presidents, members of Congress, parliamentarians, senators, governors, and action group members.
The course aims at engaging students in a critical examination of the various ways in which language and politics influence each other. We will try to understand why politicians refer to their opponents the way they do, why they answer questions the way they do, and why/how the general public speaks about political actors the way they do. This course will address these strategies by providing students with the analytical tools to critically synthesize and analyze political discourse.
Important course topics include: Political Speech Making (answering questions, evasion, propaganda, slogans, and truth in politics); Some Basic Speaking Strategies (intertextuality, vagueness, pronoun usage, rhetoric, etc.); Speaking the unspeakable (metaphor, analogy, innuendo, circumlocution/spin, and exaggeration); Symbolism in politics, Political campaigning (manifestoes, name-calling); and the politics about Languages.
Because the course involves investigating how language and politics influence each other, the course will cross disciplines like anthropology, political science, journalism, and communication and culture. To help broaden students’ perspectives on language and politics, the course will not focus exclusively on language and politics in the United States. To this end, the course will cross cultural/national boundaries by observing data from the United Kingdom and non- Western cultures.
Course Textbooks
(1) Beard, Adrian (2000) The Language of Politics. Rutledge.
(2) Chomsky, Noam (2004) Language and Politics. London: AK Press.
Evaluation
1. Assignments 20% of final grade
2. Quizzes 40 % of final grade
3. Class Attendance 10% of final grade
4. Final Examination 30% of final grade
Course Policy
1. All assignments must be neatly typed. No late assignments will be allowed for the semester.
2. Incompletes will be considered (by instructor) only on receipt of a written request from the student and only in compliance with university guidelines for use of Incompletes.
3. Exam retakes, extra credit: NONE
4. Course Changes: Students shall be responsible for all announcements and changes in the course program that are given in class, whether they attend the class in which the announcement is made or not.
5. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. However, if for some legitimate reason, you are unable to attend a class, it is your responsibilities to arrange in advance to have a classmate pick up handouts, assignments, for you. You can however come to the instructor for further information or clarification WHEN NECESSARY.
6. Tardiness Policy: Students who arrive late to class distract both the instructor and other students from the lesson. As a courtesy to your fellow students and your instructor, please make every effort to arrive on time.
7. Religious Holidays: If you cannot come to class due to a religious occasion, it is your responsibility to bring the paperwork form the Dean of Faculties office for me to sign and then return the original copy to you. If you fail to do this and if you absent yourself from class, you will lose marks under Attendance Participation.
TENTATIVE COURSE CALENDAR
Week 1 Monday, August 28 & 30: Important Terminologies: Language and Linguistics
Reading List
Parker, Frank and Riley, Kathryn (2000) Linguistics for Non-linguists.
Boston, London: Allyn and Bacon.
Chapter 27 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Week 2 September 4 & 6: Important Terminologies: Language & Politics
Reading List
Chapters 50 & 35 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1998a) What is Political Discourse Analysis? In Jan Blommaert & Chris Bulcaen (Eds.) Political linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 11-52.
Parker, Frank and Riley, Kathryn (2000) Linguistics for Non-linguists. Boston, London: Allyn and Bacon.
Week 3 September 11 & 13: Rhetoric
The relevance of rhetoric in the articulation of identities under conditions of social diversity and political pluralism. Rhetoric in the mediation of social conflicts. Rhetoric in democracy, dissent and protest. The discourse and culture of war.
Reading List
Chapters 11, 18 & 40 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Aristotle (1954). Rhetoric. (Translated by W.R. Roberts.) New York: Random House.
Cross, D.W. (1989). Politics: The art of bamboozling. In G. Goshgarian (Ed.) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co.
Rapley, Mark (1998). Just an ordinary Australian: Self-categorization and the discursive construction of facticity in new racist political rhetoric. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37:325-344.
Richards, I.A. (1936) The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Week 4 September 18 Quiz 1
September 20 Metaphor
Reading List
Chapters 51, 35, & 55 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Brenneis, D.L. and Myers, F (1984). Dangerous words. Language and politics in the Pacific. New York: New Your University Press.
Chilton, P. (1985). Language and the nuclear arms debate: Nukespeak today. London: Francis Pinter.
Chilton, P. and llyin, M. (1993). Metaphor in political discourse: The case of the "Common European House" Discourse and Society, 4(1), 7-32.
Goatly, A. (1997) The Language of Metaphors. Routledge, London.
Lakoff, George & Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Obeng, S. G. (1997) Language and Politics: Indirectness in Political Discourse. Discourse and Society 8 (1): 49-83.
Orwell, George (1989). Politics and the English Language. In Gary Goshgarian (ed.) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co. p. 77-89.
Steinhart, E. and Kittay, E. F. (1998) Metaphor. In Jacob L. Mey & Asher, R.E. (Eds.) Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. Amsterdam, New York: Elsevier.756-781.
Week 5: September 25 & 27: Analogy, Innuendo & Simile
Reading List
Chapters 43 & 52 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Obeng, S. G. (2003) Language in African Social Interaction. Indirectness in Akan Communication. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Orwell, George (1989). Politics and the English Language. In Gary Goshgarian (ed.) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co. p. 77-89.
Week 6: October 2 & 4: Answering Questions [Evasion & Circumlocution]
Reading List
Chapter 11 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Dillon, J.T. (1990). The practice of questioning. London: Routledge.
Goshgarian, G. (1989) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co.
Wilson, John (1990) Politically Speaking: The Pragmatic Analysis of
Political Language. London: Blackwell.
Week 7:
October 9: Spin & Exaggeration
Reading List
Chapters 55, 56, 57, & 58 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Chilton, P. (1987). Cooperation and non-cooperation: ethical and political aspects of pragmatics Language and Communication, 7(3), 221-39.
Dickerson, P. (1997) It’s not just me who’s saying this . . . The deployment of cited others in televised political discourse. British Journal of Social Psychology, 36:33-48.
Goshgarian, G. (1989) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co.
October 11: Quiz 2
Week 8 October 16 & 18: Imitation & Influence
Reading List
Chapters 15, 50, & 58 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Goshgarian, G. (1989) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co.
Rojo, Luisa Martin and Van Dijk, Teun A. (1997) There was a problem and it was solved. Legitimizing the expulsion of Illegal migrants in Spanish parliamentary discourse. Discourse and Society, 8(4): 523-566.
Week 9 October 23 & 25: Pronoun Usage, Name-Calling & Labeling
Reading List
Chapters 36, 48, 51 & 58 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Goshgarian, G. (1989) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co.
Week 10 October 30 Quiz 3
November 1 Manifestoes
Reading List
The Democratic Party’s (USA) Manifesto
The Republican Party’s (USA) Manifesto
The Labour Party’s (UK) Manifesto
The Conservative Party’s (UK) Manifesto
Week 11 November 6 & 8 Manifestoes & Party Posters
Reading List
The Democratic Party’s (USA) Manifesto
The Republican Party’s (USA) Manifesto
The Labour Party’s (UK) Manifesto
The Conservative Party’s (UK) Manifesto
Week 12 November 13 & 15: Propaganda
Reading List
Chapters 13, 26, 41, 43, 49 & 53 of Chomsky’s Language & Politics
Goshgarian, G. (1989) Exploring Language. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreman and Co. [ON E-RESERVE: http://ereserves.indiana.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=718 PASSWORD="cartoon"]
Feldman, O and De Landtsheer (1998) Politically Speaking. A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere. London: Praeger.
Week 13 November 20 Presidential and Party Slogans
Reading List
Feldman, O and De Landtsheer (1998) Politically Speaking. A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere. London: Praeger.
Week 14: November 27: Political Correctness, Censorship and Free Speech
November 29: Quiz 4
Reading List
United States Constitution
United States Bill of Rights
Week 15 December 4 & 6: Language and Ethnicity
The Politics about Languages (in Africa, United States, & Asia )
Reading List
Abbas, S. (1993) The power of English in Pakistan. World Englishes, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 147-56.
Bamgbose, Ayo (1991) Language and the Nation: The Language Question in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Brass, Paul (1991) Ethnicity and Nationalism. Newbury park, CA: Sage.
Fishman, Joshua (1999) Language & Ethnicity. New York: OUP
Obeng, S. G. & Beverly Hartford (2002). Political Independence with Linguistic Servitude: The Politics about Languages in the Developing World. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
December 13 Final Examination: 2:45 p.m.-4:45 p.m. NO EXCEPTIONS
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