Page 181 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
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Political Discourse on Croatia’s 181
EU Accession: A Rhetorical Analysis
of the Presentation of the European
Union among Supporters
and Opponents of the EU
Gabrijela Kišiček, University of Zagreb
Summary
This article describes salient argumentation strategies used in speeches of members
of the political majority in support of Croatian EU membership as well as and those
who opposed it. The analysis includes the usage of ideologically marked words, ex-
pressive terms with emotional value, and figures of speech, particularly metaphor.
Corpora for this research were political speeches broadcast on television and radio
collected over a period of 3 months, including the most important political figures of
the previous and the present government as well as representatives of “Europhobes,”
such as leaders of right wing political parties and civil organizations. The main goal
of the analysis is to determine what kinds of arguments are frequently used, which
fallacies are most frequent, and what are the differences and similarities in rhetoric-
al means and argumentative strategies between two opposed sides? Analysis showed
very weak argumentation and frequent use of appeals to emotions, especially appeal
to fear, for both supporters and opponents to EU.
Key words: argumentation, fallacies, political discourse, Europhobes, Europhiles
C1. Introduction
roatia, which was formerly part of the Republic of Yugoslavia,
gained independence in 1991. In 2003 it applied for membership
in the European Union and in early 2004 the European Com-
mission recommended Croatia be granted candidate country status.
By mid-2004 the European Council granted Croatia’s application for
candidate status. Membership negotiations officially started in Octo-
ber 2005. They were concluded on June 30th 2011 and followig the sign-
EU Accession: A Rhetorical Analysis
of the Presentation of the European
Union among Supporters
and Opponents of the EU
Gabrijela Kišiček, University of Zagreb
Summary
This article describes salient argumentation strategies used in speeches of members
of the political majority in support of Croatian EU membership as well as and those
who opposed it. The analysis includes the usage of ideologically marked words, ex-
pressive terms with emotional value, and figures of speech, particularly metaphor.
Corpora for this research were political speeches broadcast on television and radio
collected over a period of 3 months, including the most important political figures of
the previous and the present government as well as representatives of “Europhobes,”
such as leaders of right wing political parties and civil organizations. The main goal
of the analysis is to determine what kinds of arguments are frequently used, which
fallacies are most frequent, and what are the differences and similarities in rhetoric-
al means and argumentative strategies between two opposed sides? Analysis showed
very weak argumentation and frequent use of appeals to emotions, especially appeal
to fear, for both supporters and opponents to EU.
Key words: argumentation, fallacies, political discourse, Europhobes, Europhiles
C1. Introduction
roatia, which was formerly part of the Republic of Yugoslavia,
gained independence in 1991. In 2003 it applied for membership
in the European Union and in early 2004 the European Com-
mission recommended Croatia be granted candidate country status.
By mid-2004 the European Council granted Croatia’s application for
candidate status. Membership negotiations officially started in Octo-
ber 2005. They were concluded on June 30th 2011 and followig the sign-
