The life of a political speech(writer)
Metadiscursive text trajectories in high-end language work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2286402 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gwynne Mapes (0000-0002-9669-5251, University of Bern Switzerland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 264-284 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Linguistic Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1055-1360 • E-ISSN: 1548-1395 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jola.12391 |
| OpenAlex | W4366769828 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 40 |
Following Thurlow's (2020b) understanding of "wordsmiths," in this paper I document an underexplored and markedly high-end area of language work: political speechwriting. Drawing on Macgilchrist and Van Hout's (2011) text trajectory approach to ethnographic discourse analysis I engage with two primary areas of scholarship: metadiscourse and entextualization (see Silverstein and Urban 1996), both of which facilitate a deeper understanding of the role of "elite" linguistic labor in contemporary markets. Ultimately, I demonstrate the ways in which political speechwriters come to claim skill and value - not only based on the unique "production format" (Goffman 1981) of the profession, but also related to the wider sociopolitical context of their work
Context (archaeology · Elite · Ethnography · Linguistics · Media studies · Metadiscourse · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Work (physics · Anthropology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · History · Law
The Language of Evaluation
Talking Voices
The Discourse of Politics in Action
Cognitive constraints on information flow
Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”
Natural histories of discourse
Metalanguage
Language in Late Capitalism
From Doing Work to Talking Work
Textual trajectories
Recruiting Frontstage Entextualization
Introduction
National pride, global capital
A corpus-based study of stance-taking as seen from critical points in interpreted political discourse
Framing the news
Brief History of Neoliberalism
The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited
Language, commodification and labour
Messy creativity
Styling the worker
Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity
Writing and interacting in the discourse community of engineering
Text trajectories in a multilingual call centre
Language style as audience design
Poetics and Performances as Critical Perspectives on Language and Social Life
Semiotic Dimensions of Creativity
Language Management/Labor
Creativity and discourse
Neoliberal Agency
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |