Euphemism as a discursive strategy in US local and state politics

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6084883
AutoresEliecer Crespo-Fernández (0000-0002-3156-615X)
Año2018
Volumen17
Número6
Páginas789-811
Fecha de publicación2018-12-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Language and Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1569-2159 • E-ISSN: 1569-9862
EditorialJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/jlp.17040.cre
OpenAlexW2794338326
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas27

Euphemism is a discursive strategy that politicians use to approach unsettling, embarrassing, or distasteful, i.e. taboo, topics without appearing inconsiderate to people’s concerns. Following a critical discourse-analytic approach to political language, this paper discusses the communicative functions that euphemism performs in the discourse of local and state politicians from New Jersey (USA) in a sample of language data excerpted from The Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper. The analysis reveals that (metaphorical and non-metaphorical) euphemism constitutes a major strategy of self-protection and positive self-presentation for legislators which allows them – mostly by understatement, periphrasis, and metaphor – first, to refer to socially disadvantaged groups or address delicate subjects without sounding insensitive; second, to criticize their political opponents in a socially acceptable way; and third, to purposely conceal from the public unsettling or controversial topics

Critical discourse analysis · Epistemology · Euphemism · Linguistics · Media studies · Metaphor · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Taboo · Anthropology · Computer Science · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism · Law · Philosophy