Does the boss voice solidarity? Identification ethos in the hegemonic political discourse of Nicolas Sarkozy
Abstract
Hegemonic political discourse is currently manufactured according to the modes of interaction, but also, and perhaps primarily, according to the identity of the actors involved (Patrick Charaudeau 2005). Apprehended from this point of view, this type of discourse seems to reveal much more its communication mechanisms, namely the discursive tactic, than the strength of its content. Indeed, the discursive tactic relies on the use of manifold strategies, among which persuasive strategies introduced in the discourse through the rhetorical figures appear to play a preponderant role. However, it is important to note that the aforementioned figures, being intertwined with the effects of pathos and ethos, which substitute for the values of truth, are supposed to stir the hearts of its receivers. In this paper, we are going to focus principally on the discursive ethos of the speaker considered here as a discursive means enabling the sender of the message to build an image of oneself. In conformity with the hypothesis that, in the discourse of Nicolas Sarkozy constituting the object of our study based on a corpus encompassing a dozen public speeches by the president (or approximately 65,000 words), some ethos of identification stem from the social affectation to become a central element of the discursive tactic implemented in the discourse analyzed. In other words, Sarkozy’s discourse, with its range of language instruments, seems to create the imaginaries which, through a process of irrational identification, will enable its receivers to intermingle their identity with the speaker’s, and therefore to get thrilled to a gust of adhesion to his political discourse.Keywords:
discourse, rhetoric, identityReferences
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