A Rhetorical Aspect of Political Discourse: the Genre of Presentation

Abstract

The article deals with one of the genres of political discourse, a presentation, with its characteristic composition, selection of language means, the orator’s capability to convey the party’s attitudes and win over the listener, a potential elector. It would be possible to distinguish as many genres of political discourse as of journalism, except the journalistic genres have been recently changing, borrowing each other’s features, with intertextuality becoming more and more prominent in them, while in political discourse, on the contrary, with the years certain traditions have been formed, unwritten rules have been shaped, how a politician should speak in a certain particular situation. The contents of an oral text is conveyed not only by the structural and organizational function of the text, not only by the rhetorical devices chosen by the orator, but also by the sound of the language, modulation of one’s voice, intonation, tone, implications, pauses or silences, as well as by the orator’s body language, poise, the feel of the surroundings. The presentations of eighteen party representatives who participated in the TV show, is evidence enough that in Lithuania a political elite is already being shaped, who is capable of fluent and persuasive talking, who has a feel for place, time and context, who is well-versed in rhetorical subtleties, who can play with words; and that the composition, functions and aim of the presentation as a genre, the expediency of rhetorical devices is perfectly obvious.