LE DISCOURS DU PRESIDENT FRANÇAIS SOUS LA LOUPE D’UN HISTORIEN BELGE
THE FRENCH PRESIDENT SPEECH UNDER THE MICROSCOPE OF A BELGIAN HISTORIAN

Summary/Abstract: The status and role, which are the concepts forming the identity of a speaker, are related to discourse analysis. While the institutional or social status is more or less permanent, the role revealing itself through speech is changeable. The speaker develops discourse stakes (legitimacy, credibility, captation) through the status and role adopted within the speech. The political speeches chosen in this article will be analyzed according to the concepts of status, role and these three stakes: the speech of the French President Hollande on 13 November 2015 after terrorist attacks in Paris and an open letter criticizing this speech, written by a Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck. It has been observed that in both speeches there is an unusual incoherence between the status and role. This article analyzes how this incoherence is put into language. The discussion is about how a weak president trying to present himself as strong is reduced to the role of a student lectured by a historian adopting the role of a teacher. Van Reybrouck accuses the President of copying an American president after terrorist attacks 14 years ago. This is why the speech of the American president is also analyzed. To conclude, despite the legitimacy in the French President speech, the President could not be credible and captive, while the Belgian historian has been successful regarding these three stakes.

• Details
• Contents