Positioning in pre-prepared and spontaneous parliamentary discourse: Choice of person in the Parliament of Montenegro

Abstract

Pronominal choice in political talk reflects hidden ideologies, which is why it has been a muchstudied phenomenon in the discourse analytic research of politics in western democracies. However, similar topics remain largely unexplored in eastern and transition countries. With this in mind, the aim of the present article is to explore the use of subject pronouns and the person of the verb in the Parliament of Montenegro. The budget debate conducted in December 2009 was chosen for the corpus and was later subdivided into 10-minute pre-prepared 'Speeches' and three-minute 'Comments', which represent spontaneous responses. The two subcorpora were then compared with respect to person deixis. The results of the study point to the fact that, when given the chance to carefully plan their talk in advance, the MPs used the first-person plural and positive self-campaign much more often. On the other hand, in their spontaneous talk, the MPs more often referred to themselves as individuals and resorted more readily to addressing others using negative presentation strategies. Their prepared talk was therefore crafted and tailored for political effect through the use of consciously employed persuasive strategies that relate to the choice of person. It is suggested that the comparison of pre-scripted and unscripted political talk can reveal underlying political ideologies.

“I'm very Good at and maybe that's Why I'm Center Stage…”: Pronominal Deixis and Trump

“…The study analyzed every clause containing a verb since verbs were considered the heart of an utterance or proposition. Voković (2012), in examining political speech, suggests that for a null subject language, researchers cannot conduct a comprehensive examination of person deixis without taking into account the person of the verb. However, since English is a language in which subjects are expressed, every verb's subject was coded and categorized as having the presence of a lexical subject, PSP (e.g., first, second person) and for person deictic clusters such as those people.…”

“…On the other hand, you and they and lexical forms such as those people are considered distal from the speaker's position. Fairclough (2015) has noted that switches in positions occur in political discourse such as vote for us, vote for me (Voković, 2012). Furthermore, in using we, for example, a speaker may index different hearers or groups or, may use this form for self reference.…”

Modaliti dalam Wacana Perbahasan Parlimen (Modality in Parliamentary Debates)

“…Analisis wacana parlimen telah banyak diteliti sama ada kajian wacana parlimen luar negara mahupun dalam negara dengan fokus kajian yang pelbagai. Antara kajian wacana parlimen luar negara ialah kajian Vukovic (2012) yang telah menganalisis penggunaan kata ganti nama yang digunakan dalam wacana perbahasan belanjawan Parlimen Montenegro. Kajian Kirkwood (2017) meneliti transkrip lima perbahasan Parlimen UK berkaitan 'krisis' pelarian Eropah dari September 2015 hingga Januari 2016.…”

We is More Than You Plus I. The Interpretation of the We-Forms in Internal Business Communications

“…Temmerman [51] and Deschouwer and Temmerman [52] examine the use of the we-form in the discourse of Belgian politicians during the federal coalition formation of 2007. Vukovicc [53] compares the use of the first person plural in prepared and spontaneous talks of politicians in the parliament of Montenegro. The we-form has also been studied frequently in academic discourse.…”