Article published In:
PragmaticsVol. 14:4 (2004) ► pp.499–525
Weapons of mass destruction
The unshared referents of Bush’s rhetoric
The polemics of political rhetoric encourage the implementation of presupposed referents as though they were assumed and shared.
This paper examines the presupposed referents employed by the White House, concerning the urgency of invading Iraq, and countered
by the political left. Details indicate that the White House was endeavoring to build an undeniable argument for invasion.
Consequently, they had to employ definite noun phrases as first mentions of previously unshared referents in order to achieve the
hidden didactic goal of pre-empting counter arguments. The Democrats, the liberals, and the media had to endeavor to overcome such
presuppositions and explain that addressees neither shared nor identified the assumed referents. Appeals to fear and
epistemological assessment are also examined. Insights from the analysis suggest that, given the conducive political temperament
of the country prior to the November 2002 mid-term elections, forestalling argumentation by implementing definite noun phrases as
if they were previously shared referents is highly efficacious.
Keywords: Superlatives, Unshared referents, Definiteness, Articles, Epistemology, Political language, Fear induction, Shared Social Reality, Presupposition
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
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2018. Sport–war cartoon art. Media, War & Conflict 11:2 ► pp. 223 ff.
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[no author supplied]
2014. References. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 275 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter V. Discourse participant profiling. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 229 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter IV. Indeterminate constructions. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 187 ff.
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter II. Person deixis. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 21 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. List of abbreviations. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. xiii ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. List of figures. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. ix ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter VI. Conclusions and prospects for further research. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 267 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter III. Discourse participant profiling beyond
person deixis. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 153 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Chapter I. General introduction. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 1 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Acknowledgements. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. xv ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. List of tables. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. xi ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Index. In Profiling Discourse Participants [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 246], ► pp. 303 ff.
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