A discourse analysis study of manipulation and persuasion as means of doublespeak in British political debate

Abstract EN

The current study focuses on ‘the language of Doublespeak’ in political debate precisely the British one.

Doublespeak refers to language that intentionally conceals, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words.

The term’s origin is a little vague (though it might be linked back to George Orwell’s prophetic novel (1984), notably the notions of ‘Doublethink’ and ‘Newspeak’).

However, it is evident that doublespeak is an aggressive form of a socially damaging linguistic form identified 2,500 years ago by Confucius.

This study explores the everyday attempts to manipulate and persuade people, as well as the strategies used by persuaders from a wide range of social groups who employ different kinds of Orwellian "doublespeak." The researcher is expected to have answers to the following questions by the end of the study: are all politicians using the same types of doublespeak in order to manipulate and persuade the recipients? And which politician uses the language of doublespeak more? This study aims to explore the language of doublespeak in the British debate.

Identifying and categorizing doublespeak, Shedding light on the framework used to analyze cases of misleading language in selected samples of political discourse "from a discourse analysis perspective." Investigating the language of doublespeak and how politicians use it to manipulate and persuade the public to serve their own interests.

Finding out how the types of doublespeak used in politicians' debate speeches affect the audience's decisions and choices.

Considering the most common type of doublespeak in British debate.

It is hypothesized that: British politicians use the same types of doublespeak, Jeremy Hunt discourse has a higher frequency of using doublespeak than Boris Johnson's.

In order to achieve the aims of the study, the adopted model is Hugh Rank (1976/1989) because it was a well-known model of Doublespeak and one of the most important writers on this topic.

The study's findings have revealed that from the percentages and frequencies, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt do not use the same types of doublespeak, because the frequency numbers show that there is a difference between them.

And it seems clear that Jeremy Hunt uses the language of doublespeak more than Boris Johnson does.

It is important to note that the researcher completed the current study using the 6th edition APA style.