THE PARTY CONFERENCE SPEECH AS A GENRE EVENT

A MULTIMODAL APPROACH

EMILIE L’HÔTE & CAMILLE DEBRAS UNIVERSITÉ PARIS 7 DENIS DIDEROT

UNIVERSITÉ PARIS OUEST NANTERRE LA DEFENSE

TONY BLAIR, PARTY CONFERENCE SPEECH, 2006

SUB-GENRE OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Faucher-King 2006 Heritage & Greatbatch 1986 Finlayson and Martin (2008, 455)

A STAGE UPON WHICH A LEADER IS PLACED

MULTIMODAL GENRE EVENT

Steen 2011

A STAGE UPON WHICH A LEADER IS PLACED

A STAGE UPON WHICH A LEADER IS PLACED

Finlayson and Martin (2008, 455)

“THIS IS A PARTY CONFERENCE SPEECH”

ENACTING THE GENRE EVENT

1. CORPUS AND METHODS

2. AN INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL 3. STRUCTURED INFORMALITY 4. A DIALOGUE WITHOUT DEBATE

1. CORPUS AND METHODS

2. AN INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL 3. STRUCTURED INFORMALITY 4. A DIALOGUE WITHOUT DEBATE

A CORPUS-BASED MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL

DISCOURSE

Baker et al. 2008 (274)

CORPUS DATA

LPCS 20 speeches 119,805 words

LnPCS 46 speeches 144,786 words

1994-2013

1994-2013

TPCS 20 speeches 107,245 words

TnPCS 28 speeches 85,791 words

PCS 40 speeches 227,052 words

nPCS 74 speeches 230,581 words

1994-2013

TONY BLAIR’S 2006 PCS 56 MINUTES 23 SECONDS 5,227 WORDS

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Steen 2011, 28

LANGUAGE

COGNITION

COMMUNICATION

TEXT

CONTEXT

CODE

Bateman 2008

CONTEXT

CODE CODE TEXT

TEXT

GENRE RECOGNITION

PARTY BRANDING

QUANTITATIVE METHODS

WMATRIX Rayson 2009, 2003

A N N O T A T I O N (SEMANTIC + POS)

FREQUENCY LISTS CONCORDANCE LISTS COLLOCATIONS

KEYNESS ANALYSIS

Rayson 2009, 2003

NEW NEW

LL>15.13 p<0.0001

Corpus 1 Corpus 2

MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS

EPISODES AND MOVES

Bradley et al 2014 Bhatia 2014, 10

1. PROLOGUE

2. GOVERNMENT ACHIEVEMENTS …

8. TERRORISM 9. ANNOUNCEMENT 2: WAR IN IRAQ

12. CALL TO BATTLE 13. CLOSING

…

EPISODES AND MOVES

Bradley et al 2014 Bhatia 2014, 10

THANKING CONTEXTUALISATION OF ISSUE

PHILOSOPHY/ADVICE

ANECDOTE/HUMOUR/IRONY

TAKING STOCK/MAKING PLANS NO ALTERNATIVE CHOICE

DISMISSAL/REFRAMING OF DISSENT

ELAN Max Plank Institute,

Nijmegen

VIDEO ANNOTATION

PRAAT Boersma and Weenink 2015

VOICE ANNOTATION

NON-VERBAL ELEMENTS

1. HEAD MOVEMENTS

2. HAND GESTURE FORMS

3. HAND GESTURE FUNCTIONS

4. AUDIENCE REACTION

ANNOTATION TEMPLATE

McNeill 2005, 38-41 Müller 1998 Kendon 2004, 158-159

1. CORPUS AND METHODS

2. AN INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL 3. STRUCTURED INFORMALITY 4. A DIALOGUE WITHOUT DEBATE

DEBATE PROBLEMS

Mr PRESIDENT

CONFERENCE WEEK

NEXT_YEAR

BILL

PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTIONAL

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

GORDON, CONFERENCE, BEFORE I BEGIN MY SPEECH I WOULD JUST LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO SOMEONE SITTING ON THE PLATFORM (LPCS).

DEBATE PROBLEMS

Mr PRESIDENT

CONFERENCE WEEK

NEXT_YEAR

BILL

PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTIONAL

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

Mariot 2006; 2009

1. CORPUS AND METHODS

2. AN INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL 3. STRUCTURED INFORMALITY 4. A DIALOGUE WITHOUT DEBATE

Bradley et al 2014

YOUR

I YOU

MINE PEOPLE

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

WELL I’M GLAD YOU CAME! SHALL I TELL YOU WHAT I FELT WHEN I FIRST USED TO COME TO THIS CONFERENCE AND I SAT DOWN THERE, WHERE YOU ARE AT THE MOMENT? (TPCS).

BENVENISTE 1966

pause (0,7 sec) thank you pause (1,6 sec)

50

300

100

150

200

250

Pitc

h (H

z)

Time (s)0 3.013

thank_you

pause (1,4 sec) thank you the Labour party pause (0,8 sec)

50

300

100

150

200

250

Pitc

h (H

z)

Time (s)0 4.902

thank_you_the_labour_party

IT’S USUAL AFTER YOU THANK THE FAMILY, YOU THANK YOUR AGENT AND YES I DO WANT TO THANK HIM AND THROUGH HIM THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF SEDGEFIELD.

1. CORPUS AND METHODS

2. AN INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL 3. STRUCTURED INFORMALITY 4. A DIALOGUE WITHOUT DEBATE

SAID I BELIEVE

TELL KNOW YES

ARGUED

NO

CLAIM

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

YOU_KNOW SAY THINK

LOOK

HEAR

I_SAY

TOLD

WHEN I SIT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND HEAR LABOUR MINISTERS TALKING ABOUT THIS OR THAT NEW PIECE OF REGULATION I THINK TO MYSELF: IT’S TIME T H E Y L I S T E N E D T O T H E S M A L L BUSINESSMAN I MET IN NOTTINGHAM LAST MONTH WHO SAID TO ME AT THIS RATE, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ONE MAN WORKING IN THIS COUNTRY AND 55 MILLION CHECKING UP ON HIM. BRITAIN NEEDS A COMMON SENSE REVOLUTION (TPCS).

I HEAR PEOPLE SAY WE HAVE TO STOP AND DEBATE GLOBALISATION. YOU MIGHT AS WELL DEBATE WHETHER AUTUMN SHOULD FOLLOW SUMMER (LPCS).

SAID I BELIEVE

TELL KNOW YES

ARGUED

NO

CLAIM

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

YOU_KNOW SAY THINK

LOOK

HEAR

I_SAY

TOLD

WE OUR

US

PCS – nPCS, LL>15.13, p<1e-4

THEY all

party

nation

together public

govern

LL>15.13, p<1e-4

Bavelas et al 1992 Müller 2004

AND THE DANGER IN ALL OF THIS, FOR US AS A PARTY, IS NOT DITCHING NEW LABOUR, THE DANGER IS…

Cienki 2008

Cienki 2005 Kendon 2004

AND ALLOWING THINGS THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BANNED… CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS FOR GAY PEOPLE.

Streeck 1994; 2009 Bavelas et al 1995

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

emilie.lhote@univ-paris-diderot.fr cdebras@u-paris10.fr

LPCS-TPCS

TPCS-TnPCS

LnPCS-TnPCS

LPCS-LnPCS

PCS-nPCS 336 173

107

115

161

QUANTITATIVE OVERVIEW KEYWORDS

LPCS-TPCS

TPCS-TnPCS

LnPCS-TnPCS

LPCS-LnPCS

PCS-nPCS 77 50

35

31

48

QUANTITATIVE OVERVIEW KEY CONCEPTS

UNIQUE EVENT

CONTEXT

INSTITUTIONAL RITUAL

MODERN DAY POLITICS

Garzone and Ilie 2014

I’D LIKE TO START BY SAYING SOMETHING VERY SIMPLE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU TO YOU, OUR PARTY, OUR MEMBERS, OUR SUPPORTERS, THE PEOPLE WHO WEEK IN, WEEK OUT DO THE WORK, TAKE THE FLAK BUT DON’T OFTEN GET THE CREDIT. THANK YOU, THE LABOUR PARTY FOR GIVING ME THE EXTRAORDINARY PRIVILEGE OF LEADING YOU THESE PAST 12 YEARS.

LONG AFTER THE LABOUR PARTY HAS BECOME TOO SNOBBISH TO GO ALMOST ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY, WE’RE COMING BACK TO BLACKPOOL. I’VE E N J O Y E D T H I S C O N F E R E N C E TREMENDOUSLY BECAUSE OF YOUR ENTHUSIASM - AND BECAUSE, AS EVER, I’VE HAD THE TERRIFIC SUPPORT AND COMPANIONSHIP OF MY WIFE, FFION (TPCS).

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