77762 - Analysis of Political Language

Learning outcomes

The course, which is taught in English, deals with quantitative and qualitative methods for the analysis of political and institutional language. At the end of the course, the student: - is able to identify various genres of political and institutional discourse with particular reference to Great Britain, the US, as well as institutions of international relations; - can analyze the contextual features which determine the lexical and grammatical characteristics of different varieties of political and institutional language; - is able to make a semantic and lexical analysis of political discourse and of a corpus of political and institutional discourse; - has an English language competence not inferior to B2 (CEFR).

Course contents

The course aims at introducing students to quantitative and quantitative methods of (critical) discourse analysis of political and institutional language, with particular reference to the USA and Great Britain, by focusing on a variety of text types and genres. Specifically, the following issues will be presented and discussed: - definition of political language; relationships between language, text and context; the concept of linguistic register; basic lexico-grammatical categories for a functional analysis of a text; political lexis, linguistic and rhetorical features of political language; creation of a specialized corpora of political language; quantitative and qualitative tools for corpus-assisted analysis: concordances, collocations, keywords, clusters.

Readings/Bibliography

• Bayley P. 2005. Analysing Language and Politics, MediAzioni, 1.
• Cap, P (ed.) 2023. Handbook of Political Discourse, Edward Elgar Publishing (Selected Chapters: Ch.1, Ch.9, Ch.10, Ch.12, Ch.16, Ch.21, Ch. 22)
• Chilton, Paul A. and C. Shaffner 2002. Introduction: Themes and principles in the analysis of political discourse. In Chilton & Schaffner (eds.) Politics as Text and Talk: Analytical Approaches to Political Discourse, p.1-44
• Charteris-Black, J. 2011. Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 (1 Chapter)
• Partington, A. and Taylor, C. 2017. The Language of Persuasion in Politics: An Introduction, New York, Routledge
• van Dijk, T. 1998 "What is Political Discourse Analysis?", Political Linguistics, J. Blommaert J and C. Bulcaen, C. (eds), pp. 11–52.
• Wodak, R. 2009. Language and Politics, English Language, pp.576-593
• Wodak, R. & B. Forchtner (eds) 2018. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. London: Routledge (Selected Chapters: Ch.9, Ch.21, Ch.22, Ch.24, Ch.26, Ch. 32, Ch.34, Ch. 44)

Other resources

• Simpson, P. Mayr A. and Statham S. 2019, Language and Power. A Resource Book for Students. London and New York: Routledge
• Bartlett, T. 2014,Analysing Language and Power. A Practical Guide. London and New York: Routledge.
• Heywood A. 2015, Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations, Bloomsbury Academic

Selected chapters and other readings will be chosen based on the areas of application of corpus-assisted discourse studies focused upon political and institutional discourse language.

 

Teaching methods

Both lecture-like and workshop-like sessions take place in a computer lab equipped with PCs and a data projector, so as to be able to switch back and forth between the two teaching methods. The laboratory sessions aim to provide occasions practice and for in-depth discussions, making use of specialized corpora and software for corpus analysis. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of laboratory - active participation through presentations and case studies will also be expected.

A set of specialized corpora of political language will be made available during the course.

As concerns the teaching methods of this course unit, all students must attend the [https://www.unibo.it/en/services-and-opportunities/health-and-assistance/health-and-safety/online-course-on-health-and-safety-in-study-and-internship-areas.

Assessment methods

Students will have to prepare a paper (2,500/3,000 words max) and take an oral exam. The choice of argument for the paper shall be agreed upon by the end of the course with the teacher,and can be either a quantitative & qualitative analysis of a specialized corpus, or of a single text.

 

Students are also encouraged to make a ppt presentation of their own work project, dealing with main topic, aims and initial data.
The final paper is to be handed in via email 10 days before the exam date. Overall assessment is based on oral presentation, final paper, oral exam. The oral exam will take into consideration various aspects such as the students' knowledge of the basic concepts dealt with during the course, their capacity for critical reasoning and their capacity to organize discursively an argument.

Teaching tools

PC, internet, Software
Each student will be given a one-year license for the software WordSmith Tools 8.0

Slides are used for both lectures and workshops and subsequently made available to the students via the Virtual platform, in pdf format.

 

Office hours

See the website of Cinzia Bevitori