Article published In:
Journal of Language and PoliticsVol. 6:2 (2007) ► pp.177–200
Detecting stories
Revealing hidden ‘voices’ in public political discourse
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
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.
1984 Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Translated by C. Emerson. Minneapolis: Univesity of Minnesota Press. 
Beilin, Yossi
1997 Touching Peace. Tel-Aviv: Am Oved (Hebrew).
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.
Chilton, Paul
2004 Analysing Political Discourse. London and New York: Routledge.
Easton, David
1965 A Framework for Political Analysis. N.J.: Englewood Cliffs.
Flexer, Yehiel F
1977 The Knesset and its Committees. Jerusalem: Ahievery (Hebrew).
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.
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.
Hirschfeld, Yair. P
2000 Oslo: A Formula for Peace, From Negotiation to Implementation. Translated by A. Carmel. Tel Aviv: Am Oved (Hebrew).
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.
Labov, William
2003 Uncovering the Event Structure of Narrative. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, Washington (2001), 63–83.
Machiavelli, Niccolò
2003 The Prince and Other Writings. Translated by W. A. Rebhorn. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Nessyahu, Mordechai, Stiglitz, Meir and Tamir, Ziv
(eds) 1994 Peace Time: Thoughts and Facts on “The Oslo Channel”. Tel Aviv: the Writers (Hebrew).
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)
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.
Shenhav, Shaul. R
2005 Concise Narratives: A Structural Analysis of Political Discourse. Discourse Studies, Vol 7 (3), forthcoming.
Zidon, Asher
1970 Parliamentary Issues. Tel Aviv: Achiasaf (Hebrew).
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.
Ben-Gurion, David
1948a Provisional Government Stenographic Records, December 26, 1948 vol. 16. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives (Hebrew).
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).
1952 3rd Government Stenographic Records, January 13, 1952, vol. 5. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives (Hebrew).
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).
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).
Government of Israel
1949—1954 Reserved Cabinet Decisions. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, 77 A 10/7484 (Hebrew).
Knesset Rules of Procedure
(retrieved December 28, 2005).
Knesset
2007 Lexicon of Terms. “Oslo”. (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 — (retrieved March 8, 2005). Jerusalem.
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 ().
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).
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).
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).
Sharett, Moshe
1949a The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, April 25, 1949. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7561/1 (Hebrew).
1949b The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, June 1, 1949. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7561/3 (Hebrew).
1951a The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 22, 1951. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7562/8 (Hebrew).
1951b The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, March 13, 1951. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7562/8 (Hebrew).
1952a The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 7, 1952, protocol 13. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).
1952b The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Stenographic Records, January 15, 1952, protocol 14. Jerusalem: Israeli State Archives, A 7563/1 (Hebrew).
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).
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
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. 
Rheindorf, Markus
2019. Combining Analyses at Different Levels of Discourse. In Revisiting the Toolbox of Discourse Studies, ► pp. 129 ff.
Schröter, Melani & Charlotte Taylor
2018. Introduction. In Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse, ► pp. 1 ff.
van Hulst, Merlijn & Dvora Yanow
2016. From Policy “Frames” to “Framing”. The American Review of Public Administration 46:1 ► pp. 92 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 may 2023. 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.