Chapter published in:
Greece in Crisis: Combining critical discourse and corpus linguistics perspectives
Edited by Ourania Hatzidaki and Dionysis Goutsos
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 70] 2017
► pp. 83–110

Chapter 3
“Today I know, we know, that these sacrifices are heavy, but necessary”

Constructing governmental knowledge on Greece’s sovereign debt crisis

This study attempts an analysis of political discourse during the current Greek debt crisis at the beginning of 2010, when the size of the debt became apparent. It draws upon both the critical discourse analysis tradition and corpus linguistics in order to examine the relationship between discourse and group “knowledge” in speeches of the then Prime Minister, George Papandreou, and the Minister of Finance, George Papakonstantinou. It is argued that political knowledge on the crisis is a matter of “truth” between contesting political groups. The Greek government talked and wrote about the crisis so as to establish their “truth”, by transforming their beliefs and interpretations on how the crisis can be converted into knowledge.
Keywords: context, evidentiality, knowledge, political discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evidentiality in discourse
    • 2.1From grammar and pragmatics to discourse
    • 2.2Evidentiality in political discourse
  • 3.The political context of the study: The IMF in the EU
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.Data analysis
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.70.03pol
References

References

Anderson, Lloyd B.
1986 “Evidentials, Paths of Changes and Mental Maps: Typologically Regular Asymmetries.” In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace Chafe, and Johanna Nichols, 271–312. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Babiniotis, George
2002 Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής γλώσσας [Dictionary of Modern Greek]. Athens: Lexicography Centre.Google Scholar
Baker, Paul
(ed.) 2009 Contemporary Corpus Linguistics. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2010 “Representations of Islam in British Broadsheet and Tabloid Newspapers 1999–2005.” Journal of Language and Politics 9 (2): 310–338. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bednarek, Monika
2006 “Epistemological Positioning and Evidentiality in English News Discourses: A Text-Driven Approach.” Text and Talk 26 (6): 635–660. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, Lawrence, and Alejandra Prieto–Mendoza
2014 “Evidential Establishment in Political Debates during US Campaigns.” Intercultural Pragmatics 11 (3): 389–410. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boukala, Salomi
2014 “Waiting for Democracy: Political Crisis and the Discursive (Re)invention of the ‘National Enemy’ in Times of ‘Grecovery’.” Discourse and Society 25 (4): 483–499. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boye, Kasper, and Peter Harder
2009 “Evidentiality: Linguistic Categories and Grammaticalization.” Functions of Language 16 (1): 9–43. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boin, Arjen R., Paul’t Hart, Eric Stern, and Bengt Sundelius
2005 The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership under Pressure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Buira, Ariel
2003 Challenges to the World Bank and IMF: Developing Country Perspectives. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace
1986 “Evidentiality in English Conversation and Academic Writing.” In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallance Chafe, and Johanna Nichols, 261–272. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace, and Johanna Nichols
(eds) 1986 Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Constantinescu, Mihaela-Viorica
2014 “Evidential and Epistemic Strategy in Romanian Parliamentary Debates”. Language and Dialogue 4 (1): 132–148. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Conway, Patrick
1994 “IMF Lending Programs: Participation and Impact.” Journal of Development Economics 45: 365–391. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cornillie, Bert
2009 “Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality.” Functions of Language 16 (1), 44–62. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dafermos, Yiannis, and Maria Nikolaidi
2011 “Οι μακροοικονομικές παραδοχές του προγράμματος δημοσιονομικής λιτότητας στην Ελλάδα: Πόσο ρεαλιστικές είναι; [The macroeconomic assumptions of the fiscal austerity programme in Greece: How realistic are they?].” Policy Briefs 2: 1–8. Athens: Observatory of Economic and Social Developments INE – GSEE.Google Scholar
Dendale, Patrick, and Lilliane Tasmowski
2001 “Introduction: Evidentiality and Related Notions.” Journal of Pragmatics 33: 339–348. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1989 Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Fetzer, Anita
2008 “ ‘And I Think That This Is a Very Straightforward Way of Dealing with It’. The Communicative Function of Cognitive Verbs in Discourse.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 27 (4): 384–396. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 “I Think, I Mean and I Believe in Political Discourse: Collocates, Functions and Distribution.” Functions of Language 21 (1): 67–91. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fetzer, Anita, and Etsuko Oishi
2014 “Evidentiality in Discourse.” Intercultural Pragmatics 11 (3): 321–332. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gabrielatos, Costas, Tony McEnery, Peter Diggle, Paul Baker
and ESRC (funder) 2012 “The Peaks and Troughs of Corpus–Based Contextual Analysis.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 17 (2): 151–175. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hart, Christopher
2011 “Legitimizing Assertion and the Logico–Rhetorical Module: Evidence and Epistemic Vigilance in Media Discourse on Immigration.” Discourse Studies 13(6): 751–769. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hay, Colin
1996 “Narrating Crisis: The Discursive Construction of the ‘Winter of Discontent.’” Sociology 30 (2): 253–277. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
INE-GSEE
2013 Η ελληνική οικονομία και η απασχόληση [The Greek economy and employment]. Annual Review 2013 Athens: INE-GSEE.Google Scholar
Institute of Modern Greek Studies
1998 Λεξικό της Κοινής Νέας Ελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek]. Online version. (Date of last access: 15/2/15).Google Scholar
Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, Liliana
2014 “Strategic Uses of Certainty and Uncertainty in Political Debate.” Language and Dialogue 4 (1): 149–162. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ifantidou, Elly
2001 Evidentials and Relevance. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto
2007 Emanicipation(s). London: Verso.Google Scholar
Marín-Arrese, Juana
2013 “Stancetaking and Inter/subjectivity in the Iraq Inquiry: Blair vs. Brown.” In English Modality: Core, Periphery and Evidentiality, ed. by Juana I. Marín–Arrese, Marta Carretero, Jorge Arús Hita, and Johan van der Auwera, 411–446. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015 “Epistemic Legitimisation and Inter/Subjectivity in the Discourse of Parliamentary and Public Inquiries: A Contrastive Case Study.” Critical Discourse Studies 12 (3): 261–278. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Michalopoulou, Stella
2012 “Αναπτυξιακές και κοινωνικές επιπτώσεις των πολιτικών σταθερότητας του ΔΝΤ [Developmental and social fallouts of the IMF’s stability policies].” Studies 21: 1–72. Athens: Observatory of Economic and Social Developments INE–GSEE.Google Scholar
Mink, Mark, and Jacob de Haan
2013 “Contagion during the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis.” Journal of International Money and Finance 34: 102–113. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mushin, Ilana
2001 Evidentiality and Epistemological Stance. Narrative Retelling. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mithun, Mariane
1986 “Evidential Diachrony in Northern Iroquonian.” In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace Chafe, and Johanna Nichols, 89–112. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Papadimitriou, Dimitris, Michalis Nikiforos, and Genaro Zezza
2013 “Οικονομική κρίση και πολιτικές λιτότητας στην Ελλάδα: Ποιες είναι οι προοπτικές; [Economic crisis and austerity policies in Greece: What are the prospects?]” Policy Briefs 6: 1–8 [Observatory of Economic and Social Developments INE – GSEE].Google Scholar
Petrakis, Panagiotis
2011 The Greek Economy and the Crisis. Challenges and Responses. Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
Reber, Elizabeth
2014 “Constructing Evidence at PM’s Question Time: An Analysis of the Grammar, Semantics and Pragmatics of the Verb See.” Intercultural Pragmatics 11 (3): 357–388. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack
2012 “Who Knows Best? Evidentiality and Epistemic Asymmetry in Conversation.” Pragmatics and Society 3 (2): 294–320. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Simon-Vandenbergen, Anne-Marie, Peter R. R. White, and Karin Aijmer
2007 “Presupposition and “Taking-for-Granted” in Mass Communicated Political Argument.” In Political Discourse in the Media: Cross-cultural Perspectives, ed. by Anita Fetzer, and Eva Lauerbach, 31–76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph E.
2002 Globalization and its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Sbisà, Marina
1999 “Ideology and the Persuasive Use of Presupposition.” In Language and Ideology: Selected Papers from the 6th International Pragmatics Conference, ed. by Jef Verschueren, 492–509. Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association.Google Scholar
Tsakona, Villy
2012 “The Greek State and the Plaster Cast. From the Greek Military Junta of 21 April 1967 to the IMF and EU’s Rescue Mechanism.” Metaphor and the Social World 2 (1): 61–85. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A.
2003 “Knowledge in Parliamentary Debates.” Journal of Language and Politics 2 (1): 93–129. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008a Discourse and Context. A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008b Discourse and Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 Society and Discourse. How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 “Discourse, Knowledge, Power and Politics: Towards Critical Epistemic Discourse Analysis.” In Critical Studies in Context and Cognition, ed. by Christopher Hart, 27–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 Discourse and Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo
2008 Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Vossole, Jonas
2016 “Framing PIGS: Patterns of Racism and Neocolonialism in the Euro Crisis.” Patterns of Prejudice 50 (1): 1–20. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Varoufakis, Yianis, Joseph Halevi, and Nicholas Theocharakis
2011 Modern Political Economics. Making Sense of the Post-2008 World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Jo Angouri
(eds) 2014 “From Grexit to Grecovery: Euro/Crisis Discourses.” Special issue of Discourse and Society 25 (4). CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Kitis, E. Dimitris & Dimitris Serafis
2020. Legitimizing austerity in crisis-hit Greece. Journal of Language and Politics 19:4 ► pp. 691 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.