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Вестник Московского университета. Серия 9. Филология. 2019. № 3
Denis Mukhortov, Yana Malyavina
COMMUNICATION STYLES OF FEMALE POLITICIANS:
THERESA MAY AND NICOLA STURGEON
Lomonosov Moscow State University
1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991
This article seeks to study political discourses of Theresa May, the current Prime Minister of the UK and leader of the Conservative Party, and Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party. Different in age, ethnicity, political views, educational and social backgrounds, the two female British politicians reveal that in order to succeed in the political arena, women are bound to hide their female personality and use more classical, or male, rhetoric. This tendency particularly occurs in Theresa May. The paper revisits the topic of gender-marked discourse, which has long been a matter of argument with international researchers. It abstains from discussing typical, conventional, female discourse markers in May and Sturgeon, like hesitation, use of standard speech, cognitive, social words, and hedges, and highlights male figures of speech in the rhetoric of the female politicians in question, like rhetorical questions, logical order of arguments, conceptual metaphors ofwar, sports, and hunting. The example of Theresa May shows that female politicians can switch between male-marked and female-marked discourses in order to achieve certain goals and preserve their current status. It is argued that male political discourse is still a speech norm which politicians, irrespective of their sex, tend to stick to.
Key words: political discourse; communicative behavior; gender-marked discourse; male rhetoric; Theresa May; Nicola Sturgeon.
Introduction
It is a widely shared opinion that woman is playing an increasingly important role in politics. Quite a few women have made it to the top positions over the past two decades. Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000), Hillary Clinton (junior U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the
Denis Mukhortov — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of English Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (e-mail: [email protected]).
Yana Malyavina — BA in Philology, Department of English Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (e-mail: [email protected]).
2016 election), Marine Le Pen (President ofthe National Front in France), Yulia Tymoshenko (the first woman appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine), Valentina Matviyenko (Governor ofSaint Petersburg from 2003 to 2011 and Chairwoman of the Federation Council since 2011).
Potapov [1997], Arustamyan [2016], Polyakova [2011], Danilova [2009], Vagenlyaytner [2011], Kendall and Tannen [2001], Wodak [1997], Brouner [1982], Fracchiolla [2011], McConnell-Ginet [2012], Ferrary [2010] claim that female strategies and tactics are in a way different from male. Domestic and international researchers have largely focused on the main differences between male and female linguistic behavior [Goroshko, 1999; Goroshko, 1994], phonetic differences of gender [Potapov, 1997], lexical differences [Kolesnikova, 2000], markers of female linguistic behavior [Polyakova, 2007; Talina, 2003], [Kunitsina, 2011; Wodak, 1997], interplay between gender and politeness [Johnson, 1983; Brouner, 1982], gender psycholin-guistics [Fomin, 2004; Edwards, 2009], language in the history of feminism [Christie, 2000; Cuellar, 2006], connection between language and power [Yvonne Galligan, Kathleen Knight, 2011; Ross, 2017].
Recent events in the British political arena unexpectedly have brought about two women politicians — Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon. Their presence is not confined only to mere debating and politicking, they define national strategies and geopolitical turns. Theresa May has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party since 2016. She served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. May began her way in politics in 1997. She identifies herself as a conservative. Nicola Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who is the current First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold this position.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that discourses of Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon have rarely, if ever, been studied either in contrast or individually. For instance, the well-known scientific information sources dissetcat.com and sciencedirect.com provided no results, with access date April 05, 2019. This paper makes a contribution to female discourse studies, focusing on Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon as high-profile politicians whose role in today's geopolitical arena can hardly be debated.
The method is qualitative analysis of lexical, syntactical and stylistic patterns in selected speeches by Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon.
The speeches under analysis are:
Nicola Sturgeon's speech to the SNP conference, October 10th, 2017;
Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017;
Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July 25th, 2016;
Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, October 6th, 2015;
Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016;
Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016;
Theresa May's Brexit speech, January 17th, 2017.
The speeches for analysis were selected on similar topics. The first three speeches — two by May and one by Sturgeon — were given during party meetings. Nicola Sturgeon made her speech at the SNP (Scottish National Party) meeting, 2017. She spoke about the SNP's achievements in the previous year. Theresa May gave her first speech at the Conservative Party conference, 2015 serving as Home Secretary and her second speech was when she was announced Prime Minister. She admitted all mistakes that were made by her predecessors and mapped out aims and objectives for the future. The second pair of speeches is dedicated to Brexit. Theresa May delivered her speech at London's Lancaster House in January 2017 where she mapped out a plan for the UK after leaving the EU. Nicola Sturgeon gave her speech at Bute House in March, 2017 and gave her post-Brexit speech, 2016 to the Institute for Public Policy Research on Scotland's future within the borders of the UK which is no longer part of the EU. The third set of speeches covers political ambitions of the politicians. There are examples of discourse markers from yet another speech by Theresa May in the article, which were needed as an additional proof of the conclusions.
Gender Studies in Political Communication
Gender is a popular but underinvestigated topic in political communication. Researchers are still uncertain as to whether male discourse differs from female discourse. Robin Lakoff [1975] started this dispute when she published her Language and Woman's Place underlining differences in gender-marked language. And later in The Handbook of Language Socialization [Lakoff & Ochs, 2011] it grew into genderlect theory. Griffin, an adherent of the theory, claimed that "masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct cultural dialects" [Griffin, 2011]. Lakoff argues that men use the language of power and rudeness, while women's speech tends to be quieter, more passive, and more polite. Cutting across phonology, prosody, lexicon, and syntax, Lakoff notes that women's speech in English is characterized by hesitations. Women tend to make use of standard speech. This style is derived from a sense of inferiority. Trudgill [1972] came to this conclusion even earlier when he examined sex differentiation in speakers of urban British English. He claimed that "women informants use forms associated with the prestige standard more frequently than men" because it is "more necessary for women to secure their social status linguistically", while men are rated socially according to their actions [Trudgill, 1972: 182-183].
According to Oliveira [2010], mixed-sex dialogues are inherently steered by two paradigms: "that of dominance and that of difference", "dominance can be attributed to the fact that [...] men are more likely to interrupt than women" [Oliveira, 2010: 3]. Difference theory means that men and women use language in a series of contrasts, for example "independence vs intimacy", "conflict vs compromise", etc.
James Pennebaker in The Secret Life of Pronouns confirmed that gender affects the way we use words. He claims that "women use first-person singular, cognitive, and social words more; men use articles more; and there are no meaningful differences between men and women for first-person plural or positive emotion words" [Pennebaker, 2011: 40].
According to Pennebaker [2011], males categorize their world by counting, naming, and organizing the objects they confront. Women, in addition to personalizing their topics, talk in a more dynamic way focusing on how their topics change. This is to suggest that discussions of change imply use of more verbs.
Researchers increasingly pay attention to gender differences between politicians [Nurseitova, Zharkynbekova, Bokayev & Bokayeva, 2012; Greb-elsky & Lichtman, 2017]. The important component of communicative behavior is a theatrical nature of political communication.
A politician's communicative patterns can be observed with the help of gender-marked metaphors. Some linguists argue that metaphors might not really be gender-marked and differences or similarities in the choices depend on a party's policy, its objectives, and the target audience of communication [Koller & Semino, 2009]. In today's political communication women mostly use the conceptual spheres of 'nature', alongside with 'production' and 'physiology', third come the metaphors of 'journey' and 'military'. Gender specific are metaphors of 'household', 'family' and 'fairy tales characters' (men do not use them at all). The fact that conceptual spheres in men and women coincide shows redistribution of social power in society between sexes and integration of women into politics [Nurseitova, 2013].
Totibadze [2017] in her Most Frequently Used Gendered Metaphors in British Political Discourse quoting Friedman [1987] and Philip [2009] argues that "so-called feminine metaphors connote the ideas that are primarily connected to the function of a woman in a domestic space/family or a society, such as a child bearer, mother, or a homemaker. Consequently, feminine metaphors include NURTURING (cooking, feeding, etc.) and other notions that as a cliché are associated with femininity". On the other hand, masculine metaphors are comprised of notions denoting historic roles of men, among which are HUNTING and WAR and, now SPORT, OPERATING MACHINERY, and USING TOOLS [Flannery, 2001].
These particular metaphors show a high tendency to discriminate and exclude women [Mio, 1997].
It can be assumed that politics is a male-driven sphere and when part of it, women subconsciously or consciously use metaphors that are associated with power and winning, rather than maternity and nurturing. Stalsburg and Kleinberg [2015] believe that female politicians "de-emphasize their children compared to their male colleagues, who are more likely to showcase their families". This is how female politicians avoid placing an emphasis on an empathetic side of feminine character and stress a strong, even manlike side in order to gain political power.
As was stated above, men and women have different discourses as for centuries they have been brought up differently and segregated socially. According to Lakoff and Sutton [2017], female statements are often ignored because women were taught to speak like 'ladies'. Ladyspeak presupposes
hedges: phrases like "sort of", "kind of", "it seems like"; empty adjectives: "divine", "adorable", "gorgeous"; super-polite forms: "Would you mind...", "... if it's not too much to ask", "Is it O.K. if.?";
apologizing more: "I'm sorry, but I think that."; speaking less frequently; avoiding curse language or expletives; tag questions: "You don't mind eating this, do you?"; hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: use of prestige grammar and clear articulation;
indirect requests: "Wow, I'm so thirsty" — in fact, it is asking for a drink;
speaking in italics: use tone to emphasize certain words, e.g., "so", "very", "quite".
All these 'markers ofpoliteness' express uncertainty more than political push. Here a dilemma arises, avoiding these markers a woman might be blamed for being unladylike, but using them she is certain to fail to succeed in politics.
Lakoffs observations nonetheless were repeatedly argued. For instance, Liberman [2004] expressed doubt as to the connection between using tag questions and female uncertainty: "<...> Lakoff was wrong: men are actually more insecure about their opinions (whence men's greater usage of modal tags), and less interested in controlling the conversational actions of others (whence powerful men's lower usage of affective tags)."
Now we are going to subject several speeches by Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon to analysis with the intent to find key rhetorical devices of both of the politicians, find out how divergent political views influence idiosyncratic features of their discourses, apply Lakoff's theory to female
politicians' discourse, and finally, contrast the two British politicians in terms of communication patterns.
Rhetoric of Theresa May
Theresa May (61) is the British conservative party politician who is the current Prime Minister of the UK since 2016. May is the second female Prime Minister of United Kingdom after Margaret Thatcher.
Theresa May entered upon the office on 13 July, 2016. Her first speech as Prime Minister indubitably deserves special attention. Despite lasting only a few minutes, May's speech managed to cover a lot of ground.
To reiterate, male discourse is usually more logical and male statements tend to break down to clauses and sub-clauses. This is a typical syntactic figure which is widely used by May and Sturgeon. In her election statement, Theresa May did it three times. This communication pattern makes her sound more confident, systematized, and disciplined.
"First, following last week's referendum, our country needs..."
"Second, we need leadership that can unite our party and our country."
"And third, we need a bold, new, positive vision for the future of our country." [Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016]
1) "First, Brexit means Brexit."
"Second, there should be no general election until 2020."
"Third, we should make clear that, for the foreseeable future, there is absolutely no change in Britain's trading relationships..." [Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016]
2) "First, nobody should fool themselves that this process will be brief or straightforward."
"The second point is while the ability to trade with EU member states is vital to our prosperity..." [Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016]
Theresa May delivered her first statement as Prime Minister in Downing Street and mapped out her future goals as Prime Minister — to care about interests of many rather than the privileged minority. The contexts below show that Theresa May pursues the strategy of a fighter with social injustice:
"If you're black, you're treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you are white. If you're a white, working-class boy, you're less likely than anyone else in Britain to go to university..." [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016]
"If you're from an ordinary working-class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realize." [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016]
Theresa May skillfully maneuvers with deixis. She seeks contact with socially vulnerable groups ofpeople: "Ifyou're one ofthosefamilies. Ifyou're just managing, I want to address you directly" [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016]. "You" is an ordinary British person or an underprivileged group, "I" — Theresa May, the new Prime Minister. Later she changes her personal self to "we" — "the government I lead": " We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. When we take the big calls, we'll think not of the powerful but you. When we pass new laws, we'll listen not to the mighty, but you. When it comes to taxes we'll prioritize not the wealthy, but you" [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016].
Credit must go to Theresa May for making sure to abstain from addressing "them", be it the former government, ex-prime minister or potential opponents. This is usually the case with political rivals and fresh national leaders. With Theresa May, it looks as though around her are just British citizens and her irreproachable government. They are together. She intensifies this thought with the help of an important reminder: "... not everybody knows this, but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party. And that word Unionist is very important to me. It means we believe in the Union. That precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland" [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016].
However we does not appear to be May's favourite word. It is I and my that May tends to put forward in most contexts.
"As Prime Minister, I take that responsibility seriously" [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017].
"Ihave also been determined from the start that the devolved administrations should be fully engaged in this process" [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017].
"And those ends are clear: I want to remove as many barriers to trade as possible" [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017].
"I have just been to Buckingham Palace where Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new government, and I accepted." [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016].
"David Cameron has led a one nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead." [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016].
"... not everybody knows this, but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party. And that word Unionist is very important to me." [Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016].
On the one hand, it looks as if May is a strong experienced politician who assumes responsibility for her government but on the other hand, it is
striking that no sooner had she started to act as Prime Minister than she is already determined to act alone. She sounds self-assured and even arrogant, showing that no member of her government is too dear to her, provided they are up to her mark, she may easily accept their resignation and then have no regrets about it. Conservative though she may be, corporate spirit is alien to her, she does have some ideals but teamwork is not the biggest of them. And even we sounds as if it were the royal we.
Despite being non-metaphorical like Sturgeon, May's language includes flashy statements which sound like mottos. This compact phrasing helps her hammer in the listener her crucial thoughts. Examples in question are
"I am equally clear that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain" [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017];
"For the people who need our help and protection the most, let Britain be a beacon of hope" [Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, October 6th, 2015];
"An approach that combines hard-headed common sense with warmhearted compassion" [Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, October 6th, 2015].
By the end of her talk Theresa May uses a conceptual metaphor of construction: "That will be the mission of the government I lead, and together, we will build a better Britain" [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017]. This kind of metaphors is typical of May's discourse. Take, for instance, "We will build a stronger economy...", " [Britain is] a country that gets out into the world to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike", "We chose to build a truly Global Britain..." [Theresa May's Brexit speech, January, 17th, 2017].
The calls to build a 'stronger economy', a 'global Britain', a 'better Britain' are hackneyed phrases but they are the kind of wording people are used to and expect in political communications. Theresa May's imagery is not very much different from her male counterparts in the USA, Canada, or Australia [see Mukhortov, 2015]. Besides the CONSTRUCTION metaphor May incorporates JOURNEY and BATTLE.
We can come to the conclusion that in her talks she tends to use male discourse: with male logical sub-divisions and conceptual metaphors. The most often occurring metaphors are: "construction", "journey", "money" and sometimes "war". May applies the first two kinds of conceptual metaphors in order to unite four British nations after Brexit. She tries to avoid female metaphors, for example "health": "After the United States, Britain is the biggest donor country in the region" [Theresa May, October 26th, 2016]. Also, she strives to create an image of strong independent man-like politician with the help of overusing the pronoun "I". To conclude, in Theresa May's speeches we can hardly see any hints of traditional female political discourse.
Rhetoric of Nicola Sturgeon
The first speech under analysis is the speech called "Scotland in EU" of 23 July, 2016. Nicola Sturgeon made it right after the EU Referendum which — naturally — affected Scotland. While across Britain 51% of the citizens voted to leave the EU, in Scotland 62% of the voters wanted to remain within the borders of the EU. The First Minister of Scotland outlined the main reasons why the English wanted to leave the EU and pinpointed possible repercussions of this choice for Scotland.
This speech is remarkable for the number of rhetorical figures. Popular idioms, phrasal verbs make the speech lively and relatable. Unlike May, Sturgeon uses short words, which makes her speech colloquial and understandable:
"There is also, today, something of a sense of calm before the storm. The initial shock might have worn off but we don't have to look far for warning signs of what is to come" [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
Sturgeon asks rhetorical questions:
"So why, in spite of all the warnings about the economic andfinancial consequences that would follow, did they choose to vote to leave the European Union?" [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
It must be noted that all rhetorical questions are consistently addressed to the UK, English people, and the new Prime Minister. Rhetorical questions help Sturgeon raise a wave of protest against the supporters of Brexit, this figure of speech is a weapon enabling Sturgeon create the opposition "us" (The Scottish) and "them" (The pro-Brexit English):
" [...] what are our interests and values, why do they matter and how will we seek to protect them — in a way that, as far as possible, unites us." [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
In terms of"us" and "them" rhetorical category, "me" and "us" are inseparable in Sturgeon's speech, she strives to sound as if she is one of many others who are against the Brexit, she is together with her supporters:
"Then I will consider where we are now and what lies ahead. I will root this firmly in Scotland's interests." [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
"I felt angry that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against our will — with all of the damaging consequences that would entail." [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
Sturgeon uses "I" solely when she wants to refer to her own experience. It makes her closer to voters: "I will re flect on the result — on how it felt and what some of the lessons might be. I'll try to give you an insight into my own feelings and how my thinking developed in the early hours of 24 June" [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
As becomes clear from these contexts, Sturgeon's key word is feel, or feeling. It indicates that the speaker is a woman [Potapov & Potapova, 2017:
166] who takes things to heart, hoping that the listener would share her thoughts and do likewise.
The key issue of this speech is the interests of the Scots. They want to be protected. It is noteworthy that in such a relatively short narrative as this Sturgeon uses the word "protect" and its derivatives 19 times, for instance:
"I'll look at what Scotland's interests are and at how the Scottish Government will seek to protect them in the period ahead" [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016];
"Protecting Scotland's interests is my starting point and I will explore all options to do so" [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
England and Scotland have century-long been at loggerheads and Scotland has constantly sought independence from England. Now Sturgeon takes this chance and turns the word "protect" and "protection of Scotland's interests" into a communication tactic. She continues to pursue it in the speech on Scotland's referendum which she gave a year after the previous. It is dedicated to a second independence referendum in Scotland, which is yet to be held if approved by the Scottish Parliament and the UK government.
At a press conference in Edinburgh Sturgeon said that May's refusal to compromise in Brexit matters had left her with little choice but call another referendum. In this 15-minute long talk Sturgeon uses the word 'compromise' eight times, for instance,
"Scottish Government's attempts to find compromise with the UK government and set out our plan to protect Scotland's interests" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"Our ability to protect and advance our vital day to day priorities" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"Then it is clear that our voice and our interests can be ignored at any time and on any issue" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"In short, it is not just our relationship with Europe that is at stake.
What is at stake is the kind of country we will become" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
There are two more reiterations made by Sturgeon, 'implications' and 'at stake'. Alongside with 'protect' these two are designed to put the people on the alert and arouse most patriotic feelings in them. See examples.
"All of this has massive implications for Scotland.
It has implications for our economy [...]
It has implications for our society — how open, welcoming, diverse and fair we will be in future?
And it has implications for our democracy — to what extent will we be able to determine our own direction of travel, rather than having it decided for us?" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"In short, it is not just our relationship with Europe that is at stake.
What is at stake is the kind of country we will become" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
As follows from these contexts, Sturgeon actively uses the pronoun 'we' and its forms to emphasize unity of the people and the government. With Sturgeon, 'we' does not sound like May's royal we. She encourages the Scots to think like her so that the second referendum on independence can succeed.
With regard to the first person singular pronoun it may appear that Sturgeon abuses it, but close reading shows that she uses it to say candidly to the people how she has viewed the situation and what she intends to do to help it. Saying 'I', Sturgeon sets an example, encouraging people to follow it.
"That is what I have always done. It is what I have tried to do since the day after the EUreferendum last year. And it is what I am determined to continue to do" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"I was encouraged in this approach by the Prime Minister's commitment" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"By taking the steps I have set out today, I am ensuring that Scotland's future will be decided not just by me, the Scottish Government or the SNP.
[... ] And I trust the people to make that choice" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
In Sturgeon's rhetoric there are also some uses of the conceptual metaphor CONSTRUCTION. However the verb 'build' collocates with 'Scotland', which shows that the meaning of the metaphor is different from the meaning implied by Theresa May. Sturgeon is talking about Scotland's independence which is going to be built without England:
" [...] build a stronger and more sustainable economy and create a fairer society" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
"That cannot be a secure basis on which to build a better Scotland" [Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017].
" [...] to build understanding of and support for Scotland's position." [Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July, 25th, 2016].
The last but not the least commentary to be made is that Nicola Sturgeon's rhetoric is devoid of logical order elements (first, second, third.), Sturgeon is at ease with using conceptual metaphors denoting health, beauty or family, for example "The SNP is polling at a higher level today than we were at this point in the honeymoon days after our 2007 win or our landslide in 2011." Researchers view it as a part of female discourse. She sounds more like a leader-preacher who calls on crowds to seize the day and to never hesitate, rather than a leader claiming that she is irreplaceable or unattainable and without her nothing can be achieved.
Table
May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference (2015) May's Brexit speech (2017) May's Tory leadership launch statement (2016) Sturgeon about Scotland in the EU (2016) Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum (2017) Sturgeon's speech to the SNP conference (2017)
Hedges N/A N/A N/A I think it was wrong... In these circumstances, it may well be that... What is perhaps more urgent — and certainly more important Before the end of this month — and very possibly as early as tomorrow... Let me be clear what I mean by that. And as for the Tories — well, they're now back... Well, I can announce... Well, today, we put our money where our mouth is.
Questions instead of imperatives N/A N/A N/A 4 question marks 2 question marks 1 question mark
Politeness signs (may, could, excuse me, I'm sorry) N/A That Agreement may take in elements of current Single Market... There may be some specific European programmes [...] the new arrangements may difier. But even if we could manage all the consequences... Some may prove impractical or undesirable... [...] imperfect though it may be. Scottish Parliament could help protect Scotland's interests in a post Brexit landscape... We could face a lengthy period outside... That could make the task of negotiating... It may take us a bit of time to fix Labour's mess... The UK Government may want to retreat from Europe.
Discussion
The six talks by May and Sturgeon can be regarded in terms of three female discourse markers — hedges, questions instead of imperatives and politeness signs (may, could, excuse me, I'm sorry). This table is based on Lakoff's research but most of the points are about female discourse, and these three points can be applied particularly to female politicians. When put together, this may, first, vividly show a distribution of female discourse markers between the politicians, and secondly, point at the politician having the fewest female discourse markers, which would consequently be an indication of the male mode of rhetoric. Above is a table that enables to contrast May's and Sturgeon's communications.
These are illustrations of how a woman may act in politics today. Theresa May is inclined to create an image of a gender neutral or a male politician. It may be attributable to the fact that she is the leader of the country where politics is still normally a men's job. Nicola Sturgeon behaves differently. She openly shows her gender in the discourse alongside with regional and ethnic identity (mainly with the help of the Scottish dialect). And this does not make her weaker or less admirable. While Theresa May follows the path of her male predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon widens the notion of female politician.
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18. Kirillina, A. Gender: lingvisticheskie aspect [Gender: linguistic aspect]. Institut sociologii, RAN 1999, p. 189.
19. Kolesnikova, M. Leksikographicheskie aspect sovremennih gendernih issle-dovanii [Lexicographical aspect of current gender studies]. MGLU Ru-domino, 2000, ss. 28-35.
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24. Mukhortov, D.S. The Metaphor in Foreign Policy Discourse as a Manifestation of the Commonality of the Ideological Attitudes of Anglo-Saxon Politicians (Based on the Speeches ofB. Obama, D. Cameron, T. Abbott and S. Harper in 2014-2015). Political Linguistics: Problematics, Methodology, Aspects of Research and Prospects of Development ofScientific Direction [International Science Conference (Ekaterinburg)], 2015, pp. 175-182.
25. Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYB_ysgN_Y, Access date: June 15, 2018).
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28. Nurseitova, Kh., Zharkynbekova, Sh., Bokayev, B., Bokayeva, A. Language and Gender in Political Discourse (Mass Media Interviews). Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 70, 25 January 2013, pp. 417-422.
29. Oliveira, F. Language and Gender: A Case Study. USA, 2010.
30. Pennebaker, J. The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say about Us. Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
31. Polyakova, L.S. Proyavlenie gendernih strategii v yazikepolitika [Demonstration of gender strategies in the language of politician]. 2007, p. 216.
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37. Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, October 6th, 2015 (Access mode: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=hoiuCPxHk1E, Access date: June 15, 2018).
38. Theresa May's Brexit speech, January 17th, 2017 (Access mode: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=o0rRnTFJszU, Access date: June 15, 2018).
39. Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRHjflkTRzE, Access date: June 15, 2018).
40. Trudgill, P. Sex, Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich. Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Д.С. Мухортов, Я.С. Малявина
ОБ ОСОБЕННОСТЯХ КОММУНИКАТИВНОГО СТИЛЯ ЖЕНЩИНЫ-ПОЛИТИКА: ПРЕМЬЕР-МИНИСТР ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНИИ ТЕРЕЗА МЭЙ И ПЕРВЫЙ МИНИСТР ШОТЛАНДИИ НИКОЛА СТЕРДЖЕН
Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «Московский государственный университет имени М.В. Ломоносова» 119991, Москва, Ленинские горы, 1
Данная статья посвящена исследованию политического дискурса Терезы Мэй — премьер-министра Великобритании и лидера Консервативной партии и Николы Стерджен — первого министра Шотландии и лидера Шотландской национальной партии. Эти две женщины отличаются друг
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от друга национальностью, возрастом и политическими взглядами, у них разное образование и социальное происхождение, что безусловно влияет на их идиолекты. В ходе исследования было выявлено, что женщина вынуждена использовать классический (так называемый мужской) тип риторики, чтобы преуспеть на политическом поприще. Это особенно заметно на примере дискурса Терезы Мэй. В статье рассматривается гендерно-маркированный дискурс, бывший долгое время спорным для исследователей во всем мире. В статье получают освещение типичные маркеры женской речи: заполненные паузы, стандартная речь, когнитивная и социальная лексика, эвфемизация; а также черты мужского политического дискурса, такие как риторические вопросы, логичная структура и последовательность речи, концептуальные метафоры, связанные с войной, спортом и охотой. На примере дискурса Терезы Мэй было доказано, что женщины-политики могут с легкостью менять женский дискурс на мужской, чтобы достигнуть определенных политических целей и сохранить свой статус. Мужской политический дискурс все еще считается речевой нормой, которой должны придерживаться политики, в том числе женщины.
Ключевые слова: политический дискурс; языковая личность политика; коммуникативное поведение; гендерлект; мужская риторика; Тереза Мэй; Никола Стерджен.
Сведения об авторах: Мухортов Денис Сергеевич — кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры английского языкознания филологического факультета МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова (e-mail: dennismoukhortov@ mail.ru); Малявина Яна Станиславовна — бакалавр кафедры английского языкознания филологического факультета МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова (e-mail: [email protected]).
Список литературы
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24. Liberman, M. Gender and Tags. Language Log, 2004.
25. McConnell-Ginet, S. Linguistics and Gender Studies Philosophy of Linguistics. 2012, pp. 503-530.
26. Mukhortov, D.S. The metaphor in foreign policy discourse as a manifestation of the commonality of the ideological attitudes of AngloSaxon politicians (based on the speeches of B. Obama, D. Cameron, T. Abbott and S. Harper in 2014-2015). Political Linguistics: Problematics, Methodology, Aspects of Research and Prospects of Development of Scientific Direction [International Science Conference (Ekaterinburg)], 2015, pp. 175-182.
27. Nicola Sturgeon's speech on Scotland's referendum, March 13th, 2017 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYB_ysgN_Y, Access date: June 15, 2018).
28. Nicola Sturgeon's speech to the SNP conference, October 10th, 2017 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxHGulVdFbE, Access date: June 15, 2018).
29. Nicola Sturgeon's post-Brexit speech to the IPPR, July 25th, 2016 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMbf0JQn4gA, Access date: June 15, 2018).
30. Nurseitova, Kh., Zharkynbekova, Sh., Bokayev, B., Bokayeva, A. Language and Gender in Political Discourse (Mass Media Interviews). Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 70, 25 January 2013, pp. 417-422.
31. Oliveira, F Language and gender: A case study. USA, 2010.
32. Pennebaker, J. The Secret life of pronouns: What our words say about us. Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
33. Polyakova, L.S. The occurrences of gendered strategies in political speeches: sociolinguistic experimental research. Политическая лингвистика / Гл. ред. А.П. Чудинов. Екатеринбург, 2011. Вып. 4 (38). С. 300.
34. Ross, K. Gender, Politics, News: A Game ofThree Sides. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
35. Stalsburg, B., Kleinberg, M. "A Mom First and a Candidate Second": Gender Differences in Candidates' Self-Presentation of Family. 2015.
36. Theresa May's first statement as Prime Minister, July 13th, 2016 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyZ8trge2E, Access date: June 15, 2018).
37. Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, October 6th, 2015 (Access mode: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=hoiuCPxHk1E, Access date: June 15, 2018).
38. Theresa May's Brexit speech, January 17th, 2017 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0rRnTFJszU, Access date: June 15, 2018).
39. Theresa May's Tory leadership launch statement, June 30th, 2016 (Access mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRHjflkTRzE, Access date: June 15, 2018).
40. Trudgill, P Sex, Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich. Cambridge, 1972.
