ARGUMENTATIONAL TACTICS OF PROBLEM ACCENTUATION IN THE UK PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES

Abstract

This article focuses on the peculiarities of the strategy of argumentation in the parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This strategy is realized via the involvement of the problem accentuation tactics. The tactics of problem accentuation provides for the acknowledgement of the existing problems, their consideration and the solutions to them. It turns participants’ attention to the political, economic and political issues, as well as it serves as a means of discrediting the opponents in the political communication and lowering their image in the eyes of the potential electorate. For this research the transcripts of the parliamentary debates in the UK in the post-Thatcher period are chosen, particularly the transcripts of the debates in the House of Commons during the Conservative and the Labour lead. It defines such linguistic phenomenon as communicative interaction and the linguistic, extralinguistic, semiotic, social and cognitive factors providing for its effectiveness. The linguistic notions of communicative strategy and tactics stipulating its realization are represented. It also points out the correlation between these linguistic notions. The paper analyses specific language means such as metaphors, evaluative, expressive and emotive language units emphasizing the argumentation, idioms etc. Here the stylistic means used by the debates’ participants to provide strong arguments during the meetings of the UK House of Commons in the post-Thatcher period are also represented. These stylistic means include antithesis that helps to give additional emphasis to the communicants’ interactions. It also specifies the speech acts and communicative moves involved in expressing grounded arguments to persuade the opponents of the political communication.