Political persuasion in a Spanish electoral debate Intonation and affectivity in openings and closings
Articles
Overview
published in
- Spanish in Context Journal
publication date
- October 2021
start page
- 192
end page
- 217
issue
- 2
volume
- 18
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1571-0718
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1571-0726
abstract
- In this paper, we study the elements of political discourse where persuasion is present as communicative strategy. In particular, we focus on the analysis of intonation and affectivity in a two-candidate Spanish electoral debate (Hidalgo Downing and Nieto y Otero 2014; Ponsonnet 2014; Reber 2012).The methodology consisted in selecting the openings and closings of each turn, taking the act as analysis unit (Briz 2003); for the acoustic analysis we have examined three parameters – fundamental frequency, intensity and vowel durations –, and four strategies for the positive affective bonds: assertiveness, inclusion, specificity and naturalization, in order to pursue the initial hypothesis on whether it is possible to find relations between intonation and affectivity. The analysis shows that both candidates use affective bonds and intonation to enhance persuasion, although there are interesting differences between candidates and between openings and closings. While openings show greater number and variety of strategies, both verbal and intonational, closings show lower intonational contours and less variation, therefore openings showing higher use of positive persuasive strategies, whereas in closings, there are no strategies addressed to the hearer, the most frequent being assertiveness. As for intonational contours, there is a general lowering in all values.
Classification
subjects
- Law
- Politics
keywords
- affective bonding; affectivity; intonation; persuasion; political debate