THE INDIVIDUAL CONCEPT-SPHERE OF A BRITISH POLITICAL LEADER (BASED ON D. CAMERON’S DISCOURSE)

Abstract

The peculiarity of political discourse is the combination of institutional and individual features: discourse conducted by a political institute within the political framework is the “matrix”, “cells” of which are filled with characteristics conditioned by institutional discourse. The “unknown variable” features are represented by a politician’s individual concept-sphere. The research deals with the individual concept-sphere of a politician within the framework of the rational sphere, emotional sphere and ethos-sphere, which discursive means appeal to the corresponding concept-spheres of the addressee. Thus, having an influence on the target audience, the political leader appeals to the means of the aforementioned concept-spheres, which are supposed to impact on the corresponding concept-spheres of the addressee. The research is based on the institutional discourse of David William Donald Cameron, the Prime-minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2010-2016. The study is aimed at distinguishing concrete means which form the rational sphere, emotional sphere and ethos-sphere of D. Cameron’s individual concept-sphere while appealing to various groups of the internal addressee. The main research method is discursive analysis which incorporates the following stages: revealing types of textual and discursive modality; distinguishing types of argumentation; consideration of strategies and tactics. The discursive analysis of the empirical material is conducted in regard to the addressee of the political speeches. The research of D. Cameron’s political speeches in 2009–2016 shows that an appeal to the internal target audience is characterised by a certain individual concept-sphere assigned as a dominant one for each addressee group: political institutions and leaders, the young, and working people – the rational sphere; the army – the emotional sphere; the Welsh – the ethos-sphere; people on welfare benefits – the emotional sphere and ethos-sphere. As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that discursive means determined by the politician’s individual concept-sphere are addressee-driven. Despite the same or similar discursive means while addressing various addressee groups, addressee-driven means (or some other factors, for instance, their correlation) are a key feature of a political leader’s discourse. Situations of communicative success or failure in the discourse result from mutual interaction between the individual concept-spheres of a leader and a target addressee.