Comminicative strategies of american polititians (basing on the 2016 election campaign)

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Abstract

The article contains the analysis of basic communicative strategies employed by the participants of TV debates, a type of a political discourse. The study was conducted using the videos of Trump - Clinton debate during 2016 US presidential campaign. The major principles of building of a political dialogue of this type were singled out by means of a linguistic analysis, showmanship, competiveness and personification being the top ones. The article illustrates different types of turn-taking, shows the difference between turns and backchannels, simple overlaps and deliberate interruptions of a partner. However, the choice of turn-taking type is not random. It depends on the strategic planning of the candidates, who view it as a means of projecting their personality as well as their political programme onto the audience. Thus the dual nature of discourse is highlighted: a dialogue between the candidates and the dialogue with the audience. The communicative strategies chosen by the politicians are viewed by the author as a means of influencing the opponent and the electorate in general, one of them being denigrating the opponent for the purpose of creating a more beneficial personal profile. In the end the author suggests using the conclusions made in teaching students oratory and effective public speaking techniques.

About the authors

Alexey Alexeevich Tymbay

MGIMO University

Author for correspondence.
Email: tymbay@inbox.ru

PhD, Associate Professor of the Chair of the English Language № 1, MGIMO University. Research interests: communicative linguistics, political discourse, pragmatics

76, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, Russia, 119454

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Copyright (c) 2018 Tymbay A.A.

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