Inaugural presidential addresses as an object of interpretation by political science Cover Image

Inauguracyjne orędzia prezydenckie jako przedmiot interpretacji politologicznej
Inaugural presidential addresses as an object of interpretation by political science

Author(s): Małgorzata Kołodziejczak
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: language of politics; interpretation; presidential address; presupposition

Summary/Abstract: The language of politics (in its numerous variations and forms) continues to be one of the fundamental objects of political science research. The academic analysis of this object of research, however, continues to generate considerable difficulties for political science as a result of the incompatibility of language studies methodology with the function and tasks of modern political science. Therefore, there emerges a need to develop a method of text analysis for political science that will allow us to use language to discover and present the assumptions that shape the attitudes and ideologies of political entities, or in other words – the content of general political environment. This paper responds to this need by presenting a method that distinguishes three basic levels of analysis: a conventional layer of text, a descriptive one and a presuppositional one. Analyzing the inaugural addresses given by Polish presidents the specificity of their individual dimensions is presented: the situational determinant (level one), the creation of content to boost image (on a descriptive level), and – most importantly to the political scientist – a mechanism revealing the assumptions concealed at the presuppositional level.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 137-148
  • Page Count: 12