A Pragmatic Analysis of Misrepresentation in American Political Interviews
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.9.3.P2.11Abstract
Misrepresentation, whether intentional (fraudulent) or unintentional (innocent), involves false or misleading statements that influence decision-making. Although misrepresentation plays a crucial role in influencing public discourse, it has been largely overlooked in scholarly research from a pragmatic standpoint, especially within the framework of political interviews." This study highlights misrepresentation in political interviews featuring Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris from a pragmatic perspective.
The study aims to achieve several objectives: (1) identify types of misrepresentation, (2) uncover pragmatic strategies used to distort facts, (3) explore reasons for misrepresentation, (4) compare strategies among the American politicians, (5) determine the most prevalent strategy, and (6) contribute to understanding political communication by revealing how language manipulates perception and public opinion. To achieve the above aims, the study hypothesizes that: (1) politicians engage in fraudulent misrepresentation, (2) representative speech acts are more common, (3) the maxim of quantity is violated more frequently.
To address these objectives and test the hypotheses, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach. It begins with a comprehensive literature review on misrepresentation from a pragmatic standpoint. A sample of political interviews conducted by the aforementioned politicians across various American media outlets is collected and analyzed using an adapted pragmatic model for qualitative analysis, complemented by appropriate statistical methods for quantitative analysis
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Web Sources
http://library.college.police.uk/docs/theses/Picornell-cues-to-deception-2013.pdf
https://thelawdictionary.org/article/3-types-misrepresentation-matter/
