Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 6:2 (2007) ► pp.177–200

Detecting stories

Revealing hidden ‘voices’ in public political discourse

| The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The article argues that notwithstanding politicians’ desire to conceal from the public parts of the content of their indoor discussions, we nevertheless find ‘traces’ of their closed door debates in their public addresses.
The article suggests that we need to regard at least some of these traces as an inevitable part of the process of constructing political discourse. It provides a comparative analysis of in-camera and public political discourse in Israel, suggesting techniques for identifying unintentional disclosure of information. These techniques are applied to cases drawn from Israeli politics in which politicians have sought to conceal information in public and semi-public forums. Such scrutiny can not only help to sharpen our discernment of the hidden voices in political discourse, but also to understand a crucial mechanism for the construction of borders between confidential and public political discourse.
Keywords: political language, hidden discourse, public discourse, Israel, Cabinet, Knesset, Parliament, media
Published online: 13 December 2007
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.6.2.04she
References (39)
References
Books and Articles
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1981. Discourse in the novel. In: M. Holquist (Ed.). The dialogic imagination. Translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
. 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Translated by C. Emerson. Minneapolis: Univesity of Minnesota Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beilin, Yossi. 1997. Touching Peace. Tel-Aviv: Am Oved (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Blank, Andreas. 1999. Co-presence and Succession: A Cognitive Typology of Metonymy. In: Klaus-Uwe Panther and Gunter Radden (eds). Metonymy in Language and Thought, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 169–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Easton, David. 1965. A Framework for Political Analysis. N.J.: Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Flexer, Yehiel F. 1977. The Knesset and its Committees. Jerusalem: Ahievery (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1975. Logic and Conversation. In: Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan (eds). Syntax and Semantics, vol. 31. New York: Academic Press, 41–58.Google Scholar
Giinthner, Susanne. 1999. Polyphony and the ‘layering of voices’ in reported dialogues: An analysis of the use of prosodic devices in everyday reported speech. Journal of Pragmatics 311: 685–708. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirschfeld, Yair. P. 2000. Oslo: A Formula for Peace, From Negotiation to Implementation. Translated by A. Carmel. Tel Aviv: Am Oved (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Horowitz, Dan and Lissak, Moshe. 1989. Trouble in Utopia: The OverburdenedPpolity of Israel, SUNY Series in Israel studies. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 2003. Uncovering the Event Structure of Narrative. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, Washington (2001), 63–83.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 2003. The Prince and Other Writings. Translated by W. A. Rebhorn. New York: Barnes & Noble.Google Scholar
Nessyahu, Mordechai, Stiglitz, Meir and Tamir, Ziv (eds). 1994. Peace Time: Thoughts and Facts on “The Oslo Channel”. Tel Aviv: the Writers (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Nølke, Henning. 1992. Semantic Constraints on Argumentation: From Polyphonic Micro-Structure to Argumentative Macro-Structure.” In: Frans. H. van Eemeren, Rob Grootendorst, J. Anthony Blair and Charles A. Willard (eds): Argumentation Illuminated, Amsterdam: SicSat. 189–200)Google Scholar
Radden, Gunter and Zoltan, Kovecses. 1999. Towards a Theory of Metonymy. In: Klaus-Uwe Panther and Gunter Radden (eds). Metonymy in Language and Thought, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 17–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shenhav, Shaul. R. 2005. Concise Narratives: A Structural Analysis of Political Discourse. Discourse Studies, Vol 7 (3), forthcoming. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zidon, Asher. 1970. Parliamentary Issues. Tel Aviv: Achiasaf (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Primary sources
Adenauer, Konrad. 1951. K. Adenauer to N. Goldmann (London), December 6, 1951. In:Y. Rosenthal (Ed.). Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel. Jerusalem: Ha-Madpis-hamemshalti, 1981.Google Scholar
Ben-Gurion, David. 1948a. Provisional Government Stenographic Records, December 26, 1948 vol. 16. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1948b. Defense Committee of the Provisional State Council Stenographic Records, December 31, 1948. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, 20 (the Hebrew letter “kaf”) 435/18 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1952. 3rd Government Stenographic Records, January 13, 1952, vol. 5. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Eilon, Yaakov. 1993. A Talk with Yitzhak Rabin on the Occasion of One Year Since Transition of Israeli Government. Good morning Israel Army Radio, June 23, 1993, 8:25 AM, Tel-Aviv: The Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies Archive, File 0020 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Flash, George. 1952. The Knesset Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee Stenographic Records, January 15, 1952, protocol 14. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Government of Israel. 1949—1954. Reserved Cabinet Decisions. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, 77 A 10/7484 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Knesset Rules of Procedure — www.knesset.gov.il (retrieved December 28, 2005).
Knesset. 2007. Lexicon of Terms. “Oslo”. http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/heb/oslo.htm (He-brew). (Accessed February 4, 2007)
Peres, Shimon. 1993. Address by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to The Knesset, May 11, 1993, Translated from Hebrew by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs — www.mfa.gov.il (retrieved March 8, 2005). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Rabin, Yitzhak. 1993a. Address by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to the Knesset, April 8, 1993, Translated from the Knesset Stenographic Records, Jerusalem: the Knesset Archive . (He-brew) This version is almost identical to the one in the Knesset internet website (www.knesset.gov.in).
. 1993b. An Interview with Mr. Yitzhak Rabin. Morning Broadcast, Reshet Beth, “Kol Israel” (The Voice of Israel), April 22, 1993, 7:10AM, Tel-Aviv: The Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies Archive, File 0030 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1993c. The Peace Process. News Magazine, Israeli TV, Channel 1. June 18, 1993, 8:30 PM, Tel-Aviv: The Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies Archive, File 009 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1993d. A Talk with Yitzhak Rabin on the Occasion of One Year Since the Transition of Israeli Government. Good morning Israel, Army Radio, June 23, 1993, 8:25 AM, Tel-Aviv: The Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies Archive, File 0020 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Sharett, Moshe. 1949a. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, April 25, 1949. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7561/1 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1949b. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, June 1, 1949. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7561/3 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1951a. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 22, 1951. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7562/8 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1951b. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, March 13, 1951. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7562/8 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1952a. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 7, 1952, protocol 13. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
. 1952b. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 15, 1952, protocol 14. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Zisman, Shalom. 1952. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 7, 1952, protocol 13. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Rheindorf, Markus
2019. Combining Analyses at Different Levels of Discourse. In Revisiting the Toolbox of Discourse Studies, ► pp. 129 ff. DOI logo
Schröter, Melani & Charlotte Taylor
2018. Introduction. In Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
van Hulst, Merlijn & Dvora Yanow
2016. From Policy “Frames” to “Framing”. The American Review of Public Administration 46:1 ► pp. 92 ff. DOI logo
Cienki, Alan & Dvora Yanow
2013. Why metaphor and other tropes? Linguistic approaches to analysing policies and the political. Journal of International Relations and Development 16:2 ► pp. 167 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 october 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.