Review on the Language of Politics.doc

Review on the Language of PoliticsAs a graduate of English major, it is quite necessary to read something about politics to broaden the field of our vision. Recently, a book, named the Language of Politics by a famous English scholar Adrian Beard, is impressed on me after reading it, in that I have learned a lot about the essential function of language in political activities, especially in election speech and manifesto, in which numerous rhetorical methods can be clearly found and learned, such as metaphor, analogy, contrastive pair, art of spin and so on. So it is of interest, even great help, to learn many speech kills from the leaders of the political parties. In this review, four subjects on this book will be presented in detail in the following.1. The Language on PoliticsWhat Id like to clarify is that this book is exactly aimed to illustrate how language is used in politics, rather than to give highly detailed analysis of specific political issues. What is important is that it helps the readers understand how language is used by people who wish to gain power, people who wish to exercise power, and people who wish to keep power. Only using the language appropriately and effectively, and only what has been said coincides with what have been expected by the citizens of the whole nation, can the candidate or the political party be able to win the victory of election contest. Rhetorical skills, in the sense of persuasive public speaking, have been given more importance in the American education system, and so it is with the British education system. Debating societies are quite common to be seen in many schools, universities and colleges, and debating competitions are popular with students. Therefore, as a significant skill of speaking, debating is helpful to cultivate our ability of reasoning and ways of thinking, so I suggest that it is also necessary and beneficial to introduce studying method of debating or discussing in our Chinese classes.2. The Structure of the BookThe carefully organized structure of the book will be interpreted below. There are six units in the total, and each unit is divided into several small sections in which the subjects are carefully illustrated. Usually, in each section, it not only expounds the main subject and content, but also adds the practical activity which includes a series of relative questions for readers, the related text for read and the final commentary. What the writer has done is of great help to further understand the contents and concepts, especially the elaborate analysis on the text. The pattern of theory plus practices is exactly an excellent approach of study which can be a good example for reference to both readers and writers. I think it is also the greatest advantage of the book. 3. Review on the Content of the BookThe third part of my review is concerned with the content of the book. The first unit “Where do they stand” explores some commonly held perceptions of politics and politicians. It then examines how politicians describe their own political stance, and how others describe it for them. In the end of the unit, it presents how satirical writers have attacked political systems and figures. The second unit “What do they stand for” focuses in particular on how language tells us lots of the ideology of those who use it. Next, it reveals the rhetorical methods which are often used in political discourse, such as metaphor, metonymy, analogy, and the idea of spin. Take metaphor for example, politics which is often compared to sports and war is an instance of metaphor. The third unit “Making speech” aims to interpret making speeches, which is a vital part of the politicians role in announcing policy and persuading people. The most common features of political speeches is explained as the soundbite, list of three and contrastive pairs. The method of list of three is impressed on me by the example of Abraham Lincolns address in 1863 in the essay: Government of the people, by the people, for the people. The phrase uses a slight modification of the simple repetition by using a different preposition in front of the words people. Unit four “Winning elections: slogans and posters” mainly analyses political slogans and posters, by which the candidate or the leader of the political party can be possible to gain the support of the voters. In the essay, we can see that the Parties apply different posters to show their intention. For example, a Party may use its opponent Party leaders distorted picture to represent his Party negatively, or use a positive picture of its own Party leader to give a vision of better future. But for an inferior Party, they may draw a picture to ridicule the contest between two major leaders as its poster. In unit five “Winning elections: national and local manifesto”, the written campaign texts, which are long and more sustained in the attempts to persuade the audience, is analyzed by the examples of one American platform and two British manifesto. The last unit “Answering questions” explores the ways of answering questions by politicians, both in parliament and when interviewed in the media. For most of the time, the politicians never answer questions directly, and they have various strategies for avoiding giving a straight answer to a straight question. 4. The Merits of This BookIn this part, Id like to present some merits of the book. The foremost is that the whole structure is designed reasonably and orderly, which can make readers have a clear frame in the brains. Lets take the unit one as an example. At first, the real meaning of politician is discussed, and different versions of it are given by the famous scholars in the world. For example, the concept of politician in Brewers Dictionary of Politics is defined as a practitioner of the art of politics, essential to the working of human society but frequently despised by those outside the political arena; indeed the word is sometimes a term of abuse. When French President Georges Pompidos summarized the different connotations of the words politician and statesman he said that a statesman is a politician who places himself at the head of the nation, but a politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service. Although it seems to be difference in the surface, the views on politician are similar with each other in essence. Then the broad meaning of politics is described in the subsequent essay. The second section put the importance on the different concepts of left, right and centre of the political party. After reading this part, we can find that the different connotations are carried by such simple words mentioned above. After that, two activities are given for readers to practice, which can reinforce our understanding about the text. The last part is a short essay about the rhetorical method of satire which can often be seen in the works of the writers. The following is an activity in which there are a text extracted from Gullivers Travels and several questions which, in fact, are given answers in the succeeding commentary, from which we know what Jonathan Swift wrote in his novel is an exact satire on the two political parties and religious strife at that moment. In order to make the readers understand further, another text “St Albion Parish News” is presented to satirize an individual politician. So the whole structure of the unit is in favorable order, which can keep the readers in confidence to read the book continually. It is also convenient for readers to seek for the information they need. Second, except for the main subjects, it offers readers a large number of textual samples to make the contents and abstract concepts easily understood. Taking the political party of the slogan as a sample, in this part, many slogans of different parties are presented: New Labor, New Hope; New Life for Britain; Because Britain Deserves Better (slogans of Labor Party); Britain is Booming Dont Throw It Away; Think Before Vote; You Can Only Be Sure with the Conservatives (slogans of Conservative Party); Choose Liberal Democrats; Make the Difference (slogans of Liberal Democrats). Not only enormous examples are given, bu