Chapter 7 - Reported Speech and Rhetorical Structures

Summary

Chapter 7 offers an analysis of the organisation of reported speech in rhetorical structures characteristic to political oratory. Lists and contrast relations are found in the 1978–1988 and 2003–2013 data sets to deliver reported speech, while combined structures (list, contrast, and puzzle–solution) are only performed in the 2003–2013 sample in this context. The use of these rhetorical structures constitutes a speaker’s resource to accomplish a denser packaging of incisive messages presented as reported speech, and the findings show that this rhetorical effect has even been increased through a tighter chunking of 2003–2013 reported speech in list constructions, and the overall use of combined structures. Crucially, these rhetorical devices are functional in forming hostile actions in an engaging way, which the speakers from 2003–2013 deploy to rally their audiences behind them, leading to an audible (and visible) opposition and polarisation in the House which communicates in a more accessible, i.e., popularised, style to mediated audiences.