INSTITUTIONAL DISCOURSE I: POLITICS

Question 1

MAIN FEATURES

Answer 1

• Structurally asymmetrical:
  
  • different turn types
  • number, length and position of turns
  • genres
• Conventional participant roles pre-defined by context
• Asymmetrical rights and obligations for participants
• Utterances more or less legitimate
• Restriction on access to texts and production of texts
• Task-oriented and relational
• Top-down, bottom-up or lateral communication

Question 2

POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND POLITICS

Answer 2

Language use as social practice, based on representing and creating knowledge, in the social domain of politics

Question 3

POLITICAL GENRES AND INTERACTION

Answer 3

• In canonical conversations interaction is managed by certain social conventions
• In institutional genres of ‘conversation’, specific institutional codes of conduct also operate over interaction
• Two political genres in which such ‘conversation’ occurs are Prime Minister’s Questions and broadcast news interviews