This is to Say You’re either In or Out: Some Remarks on Clusivity

Abstract

This paper aims at contributing to the general understanding of the way linguistic indicators of inclusion and exclusion operate in political discourse. Clusivity, a fairly recent phenomenon comprising various linguistic means of expressing inclusionary and exclusionary reference to the actors presented in a discursive representation of reality, rests on at least two conceptualisation schemata: a) that of a container, with its elements inside, outside, and somewhere near the borderline, and b) centre-periphery, with the elements being manoeuvred inwards and outwards (Wieczorek 2009). Social groups themselves are structured in terms of the container metaphor, having a boundary, a centre, and areas inside and outside. The speaker may intentionally impose boundaries demarcating ‘us’ and ‘them’ territories along three complementary and overarching dimensions (i.e. spatial, temporal and axiological), all of which are metaphorically conceptualised in terms of space. Time bears spatial properties of length and front-back orientation and axiological relations closeness and remoteness (cf. Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Cognitive processes involved in clusivity comprehension induce the addressee to locate various discourse elements inside and outside the deictic centre. This anchor point for conceptualisations, from its very nature, is largely dependent on ‘cognitive frames that embody conventional shared understandings of the structure of society, groups and relations with other societies’ (Chilton 2004: 56). Therefore metaphors are employed as both devices of intrinsic reason about the location of actors with relation to the deictic centre and underlying frames for the speaker’s linguistic choices.