Argumentative markers in the spanish political discourse

Abstract

The paper explores the features and functioning of discourse markers in the Spanish political discourse. The discourse markers are used as explicit means of argumentation in the speech of Spanish politicians. The paper discusses mainstream approaches to the political discourse and to the concept of discourse markers. Special attention is paid to the classification of discourse markers of argumentation; main types of these markers and the languages means which function as argumentative markers are described. The study is based on the analysis of speeches made by the six candidates for the position of the Spanish Prime Minister in the Congress of Deputies of the Cortes Generales of Spain. The total amount of transcripts of public speeches made by Leopold Calvo (1981), Felipe Gonzalez (1989), Maria Jose Aznar (1996), Jose Luis Zapatero (2004), Mariano Rajoy (2016) and Pedro Sanchez (2016) is 51781 tokens. By using the method of continuous sampling 285 contexts of use of argumentative discourse markers were found. Other methods used in the research include observations, comparative method and quantitative methods. The results of the research include frequency calculations and conclusions about specific features of various argumentative markers (explicatives, consecutives and counter-argumentatives) in the speeches of Spanish politicians. The authors describe a number of regularities in the use of the argumentative markers in public political speeches in similar conditions and list strategies, tactics and patterns characteristic of the speech manners of various politicians.