What is it about?
Politicians avoid the obvious and communicate indirectly in order to protect and further their own careers and to gain political and interactional advantage over their political opponents. Indirection is also motivated by face-threat and politeness and may be expressed through evasion, circumlocution, innuendoes, metaphors, etc. The language used, conventions on culture, and the degree of personal danger in socio-political domains all affect the degree of indirectness.
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Why is it important?
This work set the scene for a discussion on verbal indirection in an African Institutional (Political) domain.
Perspectives
This work was inspirational in a number of ways, but particularly, in unearthing obliqueness in Western-based African political discourse. Drawing an example from American political discourse and comparing the degree and style of indirection with the African political discourse helped show parallels and distinctiveness between the two political ecologies.
Distinguished Professor Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Indiana University System
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This page is a summary of: Language and Politics: Indirectness in Political Discourse, Discourse & Society, January 1997, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0957926597008001004.
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