Sprachliche Konstruktion positiver und negativer Bilder im politischen Diskurs
Linguistic Construction of Positive and Negative Images in Political Discourse

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this work relates to the way in which politicians construct mental images with the help of language (better yet: manipulate the audience) by using certain terms in a targeted manner to express the liking for their own side or the public’s dislike for the political opponent to secure. This manipulative use of language can be seen most clearly in the political election campaign, where one can find a number of implicit and explicit persuasive and manipulative utterances. For the purposes of this work, Croatian and Austrian election campaigns were compared, or specific excerpts from the election campaigns, that best present the problem under investigation. In doing so, an attempt is made to point out how language shapes human thinking and how carefully chosen terms and their frequent repetition contribute to the formation of opinions and emphasize the already immanent polarity between the political opponents. In this analysis, the emphasis is placed on discovering which linguistic means the politicians have used in their public appearances in order to activate certain (already existing) mental images in the electorate. An attempt is also made to determine in which election campaign were used more negative statements, i.e. whether it was Croatian or Austrian politicians who set their campaign focus on defamation of the political opponent.

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