Coherence markers in political debates: Do speakers differ in connective use when arguing against or in favour of a topic?

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorHoek, J.
dc.contributor.advisorBaranova, J.
dc.contributor.authorBerg, K. van den
dc.date.issued2020-06-08
dc.description.abstractConnectives make the relations within discourse explicit. Not only can connective use vary across different purposes and topics, the perceived effect of connectives also depends on type of connective and the audience attitude towards the topic. This study set out to evaluate the connective use of politicians in (vice-) presidential debates when politicians argue in favour of their own view or against the opposing view. A corpus of six debates was composed and connective categories were annotated according to The Penn Discourse Tree Bank (Prasad et al., 2007). Arguments in favour used more connectives per number of words than arguments opposing a topic. Additionally, politicians arguing in favour of a topic were found to use more EXPANSION connectives compared to when they were arguing against an opposing view. In contrast, politicians arguing against a topic were found to use more TEMPORAL and COMPARISON connectives than when they argued in favour. Speakers and listeners are aware of the persuasive qualities of certain connectives and this may build resistance in an audience (Kamalski, Lentz, & Sanders, 2008). While arguments in favour appear to be more inward focussed with a number additive connectives, which focusses more on argument content rather than structure, arguments against a viewpoint use stronger connectives to show contrast. Audience involvement can determine the effect of subjective connectives in an argument. Key words: Coherence relations, argumentation, for and against, political discourse.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/9264
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.thesis.facultyFaculteit der Letterenen_US
dc.thesis.specialisationInternational Business Communicationen_US
dc.thesis.studyprogrammeBachelor Communicatie- en Informatiewetenschappenen_US
dc.thesis.typeBacheloren_US
dc.titleCoherence markers in political debates: Do speakers differ in connective use when arguing against or in favour of a topic?en_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Berg, Klaske van den 1005178 Bachelor Thesis.pdf
Size:
429.78 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Collections
Faculteit der Letteren