Speech and Gesture in Populist Rhetoric - A comparative study of the Sweden Democrats and the Social Democrats
(2024) SPVR01 20241General Linguistics
Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
- Abstract
- Gesture has been acknowledged as a pivotal part of delivery in political rhetoric for millennia. Typically, politicians are seen as adhering to a style of gesturing encouraging pragmatic gestures, namely those that operate on the level of discourse such as providing emphasis, while being discouraged from using representational gestures, namely those depicting the content of speech iconically, as the latter are often deemed to be lacking persuasive import. However, few studies have taken ideological variation into account, rather seeming to assume that all politicians gesture more or less the same. One understudied political rhetorical tradition is that of populism, and while populist politicians have achieved vast electoral success, not... (More)
- Gesture has been acknowledged as a pivotal part of delivery in political rhetoric for millennia. Typically, politicians are seen as adhering to a style of gesturing encouraging pragmatic gestures, namely those that operate on the level of discourse such as providing emphasis, while being discouraged from using representational gestures, namely those depicting the content of speech iconically, as the latter are often deemed to be lacking persuasive import. However, few studies have taken ideological variation into account, rather seeming to assume that all politicians gesture more or less the same. One understudied political rhetorical tradition is that of populism, and while populist politicians have achieved vast electoral success, not least in Western Europe, their persuasive strategies remain poorly understood. This thesis alleviates prior knowledge gaps regarding political rhetoric via novel research questions in a new context, deducing that populists should differ from traditional politicians not only in speech, but also in their gestures. Thus, ten populists and ten traditional politicians in the Swedish parliament were analysed for both rhetorical content in speech and gestural production, comprising in total one hour of video, or 1117 spoken clauses and 578 gestures. Speech was analysed for traits argued typical of populism, namely people-centrism, anti-elitism, colourful language, appeals to crises, and arguments rooted in pathos, while gesture was analysed for both rate and function. The results revealed that the populists were significantly more likely to use people-centrist rhetoric, and also used significantly more representational gestures. The conventional politicians, instead, were significantly more likely to use pragmatic gestures, and also had significantly greater rates of gesture. The findings suggest that populists, at least in Sweden, seem to use a different rhetorical style, both in terms of the content of speech and gestural behaviour. It is suggested that this difference arises as a consequence of the populist politician aiming to differentiate themself from traditional styles of rhetoric, with the ultimate goal of persuading the audience of voters. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9176313
- author
- Polfeldt, Harry LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SPVR01 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- gesture, rhetoric, populism, politics, Sweden Democrats, Social Democrats, parliamentary speech
- language
- English
- id
- 9176313
- date added to LUP
- 2024-10-09 08:44:28
- date last changed
- 2025-03-25 03:43:12
@misc{9176313,
abstract = {{Gesture has been acknowledged as a pivotal part of delivery in political rhetoric for millennia. Typically, politicians are seen as adhering to a style of gesturing encouraging pragmatic gestures, namely those that operate on the level of discourse such as providing emphasis, while being discouraged from using representational gestures, namely those depicting the content of speech iconically, as the latter are often deemed to be lacking persuasive import. However, few studies have taken ideological variation into account, rather seeming to assume that all politicians gesture more or less the same. One understudied political rhetorical tradition is that of populism, and while populist politicians have achieved vast electoral success, not least in Western Europe, their persuasive strategies remain poorly understood. This thesis alleviates prior knowledge gaps regarding political rhetoric via novel research questions in a new context, deducing that populists should differ from traditional politicians not only in speech, but also in their gestures. Thus, ten populists and ten traditional politicians in the Swedish parliament were analysed for both rhetorical content in speech and gestural production, comprising in total one hour of video, or 1117 spoken clauses and 578 gestures. Speech was analysed for traits argued typical of populism, namely people-centrism, anti-elitism, colourful language, appeals to crises, and arguments rooted in pathos, while gesture was analysed for both rate and function. The results revealed that the populists were significantly more likely to use people-centrist rhetoric, and also used significantly more representational gestures. The conventional politicians, instead, were significantly more likely to use pragmatic gestures, and also had significantly greater rates of gesture. The findings suggest that populists, at least in Sweden, seem to use a different rhetorical style, both in terms of the content of speech and gestural behaviour. It is suggested that this difference arises as a consequence of the populist politician aiming to differentiate themself from traditional styles of rhetoric, with the ultimate goal of persuading the audience of voters.}},
author = {{Polfeldt, Harry}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Speech and Gesture in Populist Rhetoric
- A comparative study of the Sweden Democrats and the Social Democrats}},
year = {{2024}},
}