Alternative truths and delegitimization pragmatic strategies around the 2018 Italian elections
In this paper we aim at analysing, from a pragmatic viewpoint, the rhetoric of delegitimization of the opponent in new media insofar as it triggers individual, uncontrolled and deep-rooted forms of communications. The communicative context is that of the political controversies and the propaganda around the Italian elections of March 2018. Accusations of fake news, hate speech and other delegitimizing rhetorical tools occur within the messages distributed on social media by politicians. We are specifically interested in illustrating and examining the disposition/standpoint of public social actors, of politicians in particular, toward the (delegitimizing) effects of the spreading of foul language, hate speech and fake news as instruments for re-shaping reality and introducing an alternative reading of facts.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The language of opposing ideologies: Extremist language in the literature
- 2.1Pragmalinguistic research on delegitimization in political discourse
- 3.Methods. Theoretical framework and data: The deep substratum of alternative truths
- 4.The alternative semantics of populist and sovereignist parties: Discussion of rhetorical devices
- 5.Fake news and delegitimization: The public debate around the 2018 Italian elections
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References (69)
References
Austin, John L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford-London: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baldi, Benedetta, and Ludovico Franco. 2015. “(De)legitimization strategies in the austere prose of Palmiro Togliatti.” QULSO 11: 139–158. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baldi, Benedetta, and Leonardo M. Savoia. 2009. “Metafora e ideologia nel linguaggio politico.” Lingua italiana d’oggi 61: 119–165.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Block, David. 2019. Post-truth and Political Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2001. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Caiani, Manuela. 2011. “L’estrema destra in Italia fra passato e presente: il discorso sulla globalizzazione in Societa.” Mutamento e Politica 21:133–151. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Caiani, Manuela, and Donatella della Porta. 2011. “The Elitist Populism of the Extreme Right: A Frame Analysis of extreme Right Wing Discourses in Italy and Germany”. Acta Politica, 46/21: 180–202. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cap, Piotr. 2008. “Towards the Proximization Model of the Analysis of Legitimization in Political Discourse”. Journal of Pragmatics 401:17–41. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Capone, Alessandro. 2010. “Barack Obama’s South Carolina Speech”. Journal of Pragmatics 421:2964–2977. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chadwick, Andrew. 2013. The Hybrid Media System. Politics and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chilton, Paul A. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chilton, Paul A. 2005. “Manipulation, Memes and Metaphors”. In Manipulation and Ideologies in the Twentieth Century, edited by Louis de Saussure and Peter Schulz, 15–43. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chilton, Paul A., and Mikhail Ilyin. 1993. “Metaphor in Political Discourse”. Discourse & Society 41: 7–31. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chomsky, Noam. 1988. Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures. Cambridge: Mass., MIT Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2011. Impoliteness. Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enzi, Aldo. 2012. Il lessico della violenza nella Germania nazista. Milano: Pgreco.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analyzing Discourse. London: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fernbach, Philip M., Todd Rogers, Craig R. Fox, and Steven Sloman. 2013. “Political Extremism is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding.” Psychological Science 241:939–946. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gainous, Jason, and Kevin M. Wagner. 2013. Tweeting to Power. The Social Media Revolution in American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Habermas, Jurgen. 1984 [1981]. Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston, MA.: Beacon Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hardin, Russell. 2002. “The Crippled Epistemology of Extremism.” In Political Extremism and Rationality, edited by Albert Breton, Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon, and Ronald Wintrobe, 3–22. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Inglehart, Ronald. 1977. The Silent Revolution. Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Inglehart, Ronald. 2018. Cultural Evolution. People’s Motivations Are Changing and Reshaping the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Joseph, John E. 2006. Language and Politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Krifka, Manfred. 2007. “Basic Notions of Information Structure.” In Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure, vol. 61, ISIS, Working Papers of the SFB 6321, edited by Caroline Féry and Manfred Krifka, University of Potsdam.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kruglanski, Arie W., Antonio Pierro, Lucia Mannetti, and Eraldo De Grada. 2006. “Groups as Epistemic Providers: Need for Closure and the Unfolding of Group-centrism.” Psychological Review 1131: 84–100. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George. 1996. Moral Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George. 2006. Simple Framing. An Introduction to Framing and its Use in Politics. Berkeley, CA: Rockridge Institute.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we Live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, Robin Tolmach. 1990. Talking Power. The Politics of Language. New York: Basic Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lass, Roger. 1990. “How to Do Things with Junk: Exaptation in Language Evolution”. Journal of Linguistics 261:79–102. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lewandowsky, Stephan, Ullrich Ecker, and John Cook. 2017. “Beyond Misinformation: Understanding and Coping with the “Post-Truth” Era.” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 6(4):353–369. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lucisano, Pietro, and Maria Emanuela Piemontese. 1988. Gulpease: una formula per la predizione della difficoltà dei testi in lingua italiana. Scuola e Città XXXIX(3):110–124.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maillat, Didier. 2013. “Constraining Context Selection: On the Pragmatic Inevitability of Manipulation”. Journal of Pragmatics 591:190–199. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martín Rojo, Luisa, and Teun van Dijk. 1997. “There was a Problem, and it was Solved! Legitimating the Expulsion of ‘Illegal’ Migrants in Spanish Parliamentary Discourse.” Discourse & Society 81:523–566. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oddo, John. 2011. “War Legitimation Discourse: Representing ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ in Four US Presidential Addresses”. Discourse & Society 221:287–314. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ondelli, Stefan. 2018. “L’identificazione del nemico: un’analisi dei tweet di Matteo Salvini dal 2011 al 2018”. Ms, Trieste.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quattrociocchi, Walter, and Antonella Vicini. 2016. Misinformation. Guida alla società dell’informazione e della credulità, Milano: Franco Angeli.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reyes, Antonio. 2009. “Discursive Strategies in Chávez’s Political Discourse”. Critical Discourse Studies 51:133–152. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reyes, Antonio. 2011. “Strategies of Legitimization in Political Discourse: From Words to Actions.” Discourse & Society 221:781–807. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rolfe, Mark. 2016. The Reinvention of Populist Rhetoric in the Digital Age: Insiders & Outsiders in Democratic Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ross, Andrew, and Damian Rivers. 2017. “Digital Cultures of Political Participation: Internet Memes and the Discursive Delegitimization of the 2016 US Presidential Candidates.” Discourse, Context and Media 161:1–11. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ruzza, Carlo, and Laura Balbo. 2013. “Italian Populism and the Trajectories of Two Leaders: Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi.” In Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse, edited by Ruth Wodak, Majid Khosravinik, and Brigitte Mral, 163–176. UK: Bloomsbury.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rydgren, Jens. 2008. “Immigration Sceptics, Xenophobes or Racists? Radical Right-wing Voting in Six West European Countries”. European Journal of Political Research 471:737–765. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Talking Politics: The Substance of Style from Abe to “W.”. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Snow, David A., R. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review 511: 464–481. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1986. Relevance, Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Swami, Viren. 2012. “Social Psychological Origins of Conspiracy Theories: The Case of the Jewish Conspiracy Theory in Malaysia.” Frontiers in Psychology 31: 1–9. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tandoc, Edson C. Jr., Zheng Wei Lim, and Richard Ling. 2018. “Defining ‘Fake News’.” Digital Journalism 6(2):137–153. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vaara, Eero. 2014. “Struggles over Legitimacy in the Eurozone Crisis: Discursive Legitimation Strategies and their Ideological Underpinnings.” Discourse & Society 251:500–518. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Dijk, Teun. 1998. Ideology. A Multidisciplinary Study. London: Sage.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Leeuwen, Theo, and Ruth Wodak. 1999. “Legitimizing Immigration Control: A Discourse-Historical Analysis.” Discourse Studies 11:83–118. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2007. “Legitimation in Discourse and Communication.” Discourse and Communication 11:91–112. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Prooijen, Jan Willem, Andre Krouwel, and Thomas Pollett. 2015. “Political Extremism Predicts Belief in Conspiracy Theories.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 6(5):570–578. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wright, Thomas L., and Jack Arbuthnot. 1974. “Interpersonal Trust, Political Preference, and Perceptions of the Watergate Affair.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 11:168–170. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wodak, Ruth. 2011. The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wodak, Ruth. 2015. The Politics of Fear. What Right-wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: Sage. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Baldi, Benedetta
2023.
The Strategic Use of Debasing and Vulgar Language in Italy’s Contemporary Politics: Beppe Grillo and Matteo Salvini. In
Debasing Political Rhetoric,
► pp. 165 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Ivanović, Ljubomir & Milica Vuković-Stamatović
2023.
Use of Labels and Attributes for Degrading Opponents in Montenegro’s Political Discourse. In
Political Debasement,
► pp. 149 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Wang, Chris, Michael J. Platow & Eryn J. Newman
2023.
There is an ‘I’ in truth: How salient identities shape dynamic perceptions of truth.
European Journal of Social Psychology 53:2
► pp. 383 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. 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.