Article published in:
Argumentative Style
Edited by Frans H. van Eemeren
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 10:1] 2021
► pp. 121–143

The presentational dimension of Geert Wilders’s populist argumentative style

| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
This study responds to van Eemeren’s (2019, 2021) call for research on the prototypical argumentative styles used in particular domains or communicative activity types by particular individuals or groups. It explores the argumentative style of Dutch politician Geert Wilders in presenting populist arguments, i.e., arguments claiming that if many people hold a certain standpoint, this standpoint should be accepted. A corpus study of 27 texts taken from the website of Wilders’s political party reveals four characteristics of this presentation that deviate significantly from the general descriptions of this type of argument given in the textbooks: (1) absence of indicators, (2) implicit standpoint, (3) wide range of verbs to indicate what “the people” think or believe, (4) use of a construction indicating that the speaker is acting as a mouthpiece (“on behalf of the people, I say”).
Keywords: ad populum , appeal to the majority, context of deliberation, political discourse, populism, populist argument, stylistic device
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The populist argument
  • 3.Corpus and method
  • 4.Non-argumentative populist references and regular symptomatic argumentation
  • 5.Presentational characteristics of Wilders’s use of populist arguments
    • 5.1Leaving out argumentative indicators
    • 5.2Leaving standpoints implicit
    • 5.3Using atypical verbs to introduce standpoints
    • 5.4Using constructions without a verb in indicating the people’s opinion
  • 6.A combination of presentational characteristics
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 04 February 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.20020.jan
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