Talking with the President : the pragmatics of Presidential language /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Wilson, John, 1954 December 12- author.
Imprint:	Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2015] ©2015
Description:	1 online resource
Language:	English
Subject:	Rhetoric -- Political aspects -- United States. Communication in politics -- United States. Presidents -- United States -- Language. Pragmatics -- Political aspects. Discourse analysis -- Political aspects. Communication in politics. Discourse analysis -- Political aspects. Presidents -- Language. Rhetoric -- Political aspects. United States. Electronic books.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12398430

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780199858811 0199858810 9780199858798 9780199858804
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. English. Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed February 9, 2015).
Summary:	This book provides a pragmatic analysis of presidential language. Pragmatics is concerned with "meaning in context," or the relationship between what we say and what we mean. John Wilson explores the various ways in which U.S. Presidents have used language within specific social contexts to achieve specific objectives. This includes obfuscation, misdirection, the use of metaphor or ambiguity, or in some cases simply lying. He focuses on six presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald W. Reagan, William F. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama. These presidents cover most of the last half of the twentieth century, and the first decade of the twenty first century, and each has been associated with a specific linguistic quality. John F. Kennedy was famed for his quality of oratory, Nixon for his manipulative use of language, Reagan for his gift of telling stories, Clinton for his ability to engage the public and to linguistically turn arguments and descriptions in particular directions. Bush, on the other hand, was famed for his inability to use language appropriately, and Obama returns us to the rhetorical flourishes of early Kennedy. In the case of each president, a range of specific examples are explored in order to highlight the ways in which a pragmatic analysis may provide an insight into presidential language. In many cases, what the president says is not necessarily what the president means.
Other form:	Print version: Wilson, John. Talking with the President : The Pragmatics of Presidential Language. Cary : Oxford University Press, ©2015 9780199858798

Table of Contents:

Hail to the Chief: Pragmatics and the President
Chapter Two: Talking pragmatics with the best and the brightest: John F Kennedy
Chapter Three: Lies, truth, and somewhere in between: Richard M. Nixon
Chapter Four: The narrative Presidency: Ronald Regan and stories from the White House
Chapter Five: It's language Jim, but not as we know it: William J Clinton
Chapter Six: Bring em on! the empire strikes back: George W Bush
Chapter Seven: There and back again with Barack H Obama.

Talking with the President : the pragmatics of Presidential language /

Similar Items