Page 244 - 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
P. 244
What Do We Know about the World?
ical) questions, attribution transfer strategy, defocalization, irony and
sarcasm.
Over time, insulting practices in the Croatian Parliament have
changed from pathos-oriented logos to ethos-oriented logos. Notions used
for mitigation strategies have also changed from more abstract (democ-
racy) to more specific (corruption, bribe, lies) ones. The usage of unparlia-
mentary language was prompted by the introduction of spoken and low-
er registers into a highly institutionalized place, which opened up new
possibilities for linguistic expression.
Croatian MPs show similar insulting and mitigation strategies as
both British and Swedish colleagues. Still, we must conclude that, when
compared in closer detail, they behave more like the British MPs, i.e.
they display a “confrontation-seeking tendency“ (Ilie, 2004: 54), polar-
ization which is more political than rhetorical, balance between terms
of respect and contempt, irony and direct insults. Diachronically, in the
2nd and 3rd Terms Croatian MPs behave more like the British MPs using
pathos-oriented insults and in later terms more like their Swedish coun-
terparts, using ethos-oriented insults (Ilie, 2004), by attacking the other
MPs’ personal values and acts and discrediting their credibility.
On many occasions, there have been instances of very harsh and
rude insults by the Croatian MPs that have been discussed even in the
news (e.g. that women are known to be good in bed, but not in places
where intelligence is necessary), but they were not part of our randomly
selected corpus. Still, it is inevitable to conclude that the insults are be-
coming more and more direct and used with less constraints than be-
fore. Whether the common usage of insults promotes democracy and
shows development of parliamentary discourse remains open. We be-
lieve that is important to be verbally polite “in order to maintain harmo-
nious, efficient interaction“ (Held, 2005: 303) which, we think, is a sign
of democracy, more than insults will ever be.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Croatian Parliament, especially
the Information and Documentation Department headed by Ms. Dan-
iela Sraga Ph.D. who patiently responded to all our requests.
References
Austin, J. L. (1975). How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
ical) questions, attribution transfer strategy, defocalization, irony and
sarcasm.
Over time, insulting practices in the Croatian Parliament have
changed from pathos-oriented logos to ethos-oriented logos. Notions used
for mitigation strategies have also changed from more abstract (democ-
racy) to more specific (corruption, bribe, lies) ones. The usage of unparlia-
mentary language was prompted by the introduction of spoken and low-
er registers into a highly institutionalized place, which opened up new
possibilities for linguistic expression.
Croatian MPs show similar insulting and mitigation strategies as
both British and Swedish colleagues. Still, we must conclude that, when
compared in closer detail, they behave more like the British MPs, i.e.
they display a “confrontation-seeking tendency“ (Ilie, 2004: 54), polar-
ization which is more political than rhetorical, balance between terms
of respect and contempt, irony and direct insults. Diachronically, in the
2nd and 3rd Terms Croatian MPs behave more like the British MPs using
pathos-oriented insults and in later terms more like their Swedish coun-
terparts, using ethos-oriented insults (Ilie, 2004), by attacking the other
MPs’ personal values and acts and discrediting their credibility.
On many occasions, there have been instances of very harsh and
rude insults by the Croatian MPs that have been discussed even in the
news (e.g. that women are known to be good in bed, but not in places
where intelligence is necessary), but they were not part of our randomly
selected corpus. Still, it is inevitable to conclude that the insults are be-
coming more and more direct and used with less constraints than be-
fore. Whether the common usage of insults promotes democracy and
shows development of parliamentary discourse remains open. We be-
lieve that is important to be verbally polite “in order to maintain harmo-
nious, efficient interaction“ (Held, 2005: 303) which, we think, is a sign
of democracy, more than insults will ever be.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Croatian Parliament, especially
the Information and Documentation Department headed by Ms. Dan-
iela Sraga Ph.D. who patiently responded to all our requests.
References
Austin, J. L. (1975). How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
