week2-political-vocabulary-and-language

Up: political-communication Prev: week1-introduction-political-communcation Next: week3-textsorten-der-politik

Lecture Notes

Grundsätzlic.

Grundsätzlich	Wortschatzfelder
polity — System	Institutionensprache	- Organisationssprache - Verfahrenssprache	Interaktionsvokabular
politics — Prozess	Institutionensprache
policy/policies — Politikfeld	Ideologiesprache

Ideologiesprache

• evaluativ (positiv vs negativ)
• deontisch
• Differenzierung durch Evaluation
  • Miranda vs Anti-Miranda
  • Klima-activist vs Klima-terrorist
• Differenzierung nach Funktion
  • Fahnenwörter
  • Stigmawörter

---

• Langue — Perspektive
  • Satzart
  • Satzkomplexität / Sonderform, Slogan
  • Passiv/Aktiv
  • Modalität
• Parole-Perspektive
  • Sprecheakte/Sprachhandlung
  • Textsortenspezik
  • saliente Sätze

Unterschied zwischen:

• Leichte Sprache
• Einfache Sprache

Die Linke Wahlprogramm Analysis

• “Wir sind verschieden, aber die meisten von uns wollen das Gleiche” → creating new surfaces
• 2nd paragraph — emotional weight is on hope: “Es ist möglich.”
• Menschen mit niedrigen un mittleren Einkommen belastet

Reading Notes:

Niehr (2014)

2.1. Sprache (in) der Politik — Politische Sprache

• Language and politics are deeply intertwined, with language serving as the foundation of political action.
• Politolinguistics examines how language is used in political contexts, from public speeches to internal party discussions.
• Language as Political Action
  • Politics is not possible without language use. Politicians:
    • give speeches in assembly,
    • participate in negotiations,
    • conduct electoral campaigns,
    • attend to talk-shows,
    • hold intra-party discussions.
  • All of these activities are speech acts.
• Definition of Politics
  • Politics involves:
    • actions by governments, parliaments, parties to achieve goals and shape public life.
• Democracy and Language
  • In democracies, decision processes are:
    • discursive,
    • conducted through communication.
  • Democracy depends on communication and information
    • thus language and speech is the basis of democratic decision.
  • Democracy works through with the possibility of people to express their opinion freely and build a consensus.
  • diskursive Meinungsbildung
• Symbols are also political
  • non-linguistic elements are also there
  • flags, medals, anthems, …
  • Political communication is multimodal.

2.2. Funktion(en) politischer Sprache

• Political language aims to generate public support (Zustimmungsbereitschaft)
  • It aims to influence public opinion
  • generate approval in the public sphere.
    • similar to advertising language (Werbesprache)
    • transmitting information is not the primary purpose. 🎯 Key Point: Political language is less about informing and more about influencing and mobilizing.
• Bühler’s Organon Model
  • Karl Bühler identifies 3 core functions of language:
    • Representational Function — to inform or describe reality,
    • Expressive Function — to express the speaker’s feelings,
    • Appellative Function (Appellfunktion) — to influence the listener.
  • in political language, the appellative function is the most important.
  • during election campaigns, politicians use evaluative and persuasive language:
    • to legitimize their own positions,
    • to delegitimize or devalue their opponents.
  • 🎯 Key: Political language is inherently evaluative and partisan, not neutral.
• Political language is ideologically charged
  • Political communication is shaped by conflicting interests, worldviews and ideologies.
  • “Tax adjustment” vs “tax increase”
  • “War” vs “peacekeeping measure” or “military operation”
  • “Kill” vs “neutralize”
  • Language shapes reality by offering alternative designations

3.1 Die Analyse der Wortbene (Word-level Analysis)

• Word level analysis involves examining politically significant vocabulary.
• Political language is largely non-technical, rooted in everyday speech
  • unlike specialized fields like medicine
  • this is true especially while seeking public support

• Vocabulary Subcategories (Dieckmann 2005)

  • Institutionsvokabular: Neutral terms for institutions and processes (parlamentarische Demokratie, Grundgesetz)
  • Ressortvokabular: Expert terminology used internally (Gesundheitsfonds, Abwrackprämie) — they sometimes overlap with ideological vocabulary
  • Ideologievokabular: Value-laden terms central to public discourse (Frieden, Demokratie) — has strong evaluative and prescriptive (deontisch) potential.
  • Allgemeines Interaktionsvokabular: General language used in political contexts (Affäre, Beschluss), debated as part of educated speech.

• Denotation — Konnotation — Deontik

  • Political words carry multiple meaning components:
    • Denotation: The core, descriptive meaning of a word (“Steuererhöhung” as a tax increase).
    • Konnotation: Emotional or evaluative associations (“Sportwagen” implies expense; “Vollbeschäftigung” is positive) These shape how recipient perceive words.
    • Deontik: Prescriptive meaning that implies actions or obligations (“Freiheit” suggests a value to be pursued). Deontic meanings are less explicit but powerful in political contexts.
      • Deontic terms like “parasit” or “solidarität” are highly persuasive. They have high political impact.

• Schlagwörter — Fahnenwörter — Stigmawörter

  • Political keywords (Schlagwörter) are strategic tools used to emotionalize and simplify complex issues. They include flag words (Fahnenwörter) and stigma words (Stigmawörter) — these two are categorized by their function and impact
    • Schlagwörter: Words gaining prominence at specific times to promote programs or goals (Bildungskatastrophe, Leitkultur)
      • Reduce complexity, add emotional tone, condense programs
      • Simplify reality into binary oppositions.
    • Fahnenwörter: Words that signal ideological positions (Energiewende)
      • Rallying supporters, provoking opponents
      • They act like flags, marking party stances
    • Stigmawörter: Negative terms used to denounce or stigmatize (Chaoten, Islamist).
      • They highlight issues to be opposed.
    • Affirmationswörter:. Positive Schlagwörter, universally accepted as positive (Umweltschutz, Demokratie).
  • All these Schlagwörter are historical-context-dependent.
  • Examples: CDU’s 1976 slogan: “Freiheit statt Sozialismus” and Sahra Wagenknecht’s “Freiheit statt Kapitalismus” use Schlagwörter to frame ideological oppositions.

• Frames

  • Cognitive structures that organize knowledge
    • linking words to predefined meanings and expectations.
    • activate contextual understanding.
  • Example: The “Entführung” (kidnapping) frame evokes scenarios of victims, perpetrators, and demands
  • There are slots and fillers within frames. These expectations guide interpretation.

• Strategien im politischen Sprachgebrauch

  • Political language strategies aim to gain public support
    • by convincing audiences of a communicator’s credibility and relevance
    • more capable than competitors.
  • Grice’s Maxims: Effective communication assumes:
    • truthfulness (quality) — yanlış veya kanıtsız şeyler söyleme
    • appropriate information (quantity) — gerektiği kadar bilgi ver
    • relevance (relation) — konuyla ilgili konuş
    • clarity (modality) — belirsizlikten ve gereksiz detaydan kaçın
  • Political actors may violate these for strategic purposes. They may use:
    • ambiguity (against modality)
    • selective information (against quantity)
  • Strategy Categories:
    • Basisstrategien: Tailoring messages to audiences, emphasizing credibility.
    • Kaschierstrategien: Concealing deficits in information, truth, or clarity.
    • Konkurrenszstrategien: Competing for ideological terms, discrediting opponents.