The Diverse and Dynamic World of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ in Political Discourse

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the diversity and dynamics of interpersonal relationships represented in political discourse. In almost every political activity there is the opposition camp (‘them’), as well as that of the allies (‘us’), as a result of which relations of inclusion and exclusion are invariably present. The present study deals with ‘us’ and ‘them’ constructions from a pragma-cognitive perspective. The means by which these relations are structured depend on the speaker’s intentions in the discourse, which in turn determine the way the ‘us’ and ‘them’ are presented. What is more, relationships of inclusion and exclusion within a single discursive event are dynamic and prone to alternations, since motives behind and implications of particular fragments which constitute the discursive event as a whole, may vary. All this will be exemplified on the basis of selected fragments of a speech delivered by Nick Griffin (available at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b9e_1272829239).