11 articles in this issue
Ruth Wodak
In recent years, we can observe a shift towards the right, in politics and the related political discourse. This paper analyses this development for debates on migration in Austria, while drawing on the concept of "normalisation". The basic assumption is ... see more
David Salomon
"Democracy" is a political term and controversial as such. It is in the nature of political con-cepts that they are not only descriptive but that they are also connected to options of agency. The concept of democracy is associated with a number of widely ... see more
Maria Stopfner
Sharing the notion of identity as a dynamic construct within social interaction (cf. Kresic 2006; Mead 1968; Tajfel 1978), the paper traces the strategic manoeuvers by which far and extreme right users try to obtain opinion leadership in online debates. B... see more
Dorothee Meer
This paper analyses the use of figures of speech as well as of material images from a discourse semiotic point of view. The empirical basis comprises the news coverage of the FAZ and of the SZ concerning the hunger strike of refugees on the Munich Rinderm... see more
Bettina Bock
"Leichte Sprache" as the equivalent concept to Easy-to-read and a form of accessible communi-cation has been established in the German-speaking countries since the early 2000s. It is ad-dressed to people with learning disabilities and other groups with di... see more
Thomas Niehr
In this article it is argued that a link between the analysis of political language use and language criticism exists. Nevertheless, there is disagreement as to how far the linguistic analysis of political language use should be critical or descriptive. T... see more
Pamela Steen
"I am charismatic!". If politician described themselves like this, we would probably define them as a peacock and condemn such a vain display. "Barack Obama is charismatic" or "Charisma perks up tired democracies", however, are propositions we can read in... see more
Wolf-Andreas Liebert
An increasing lack of commitment and brutalization was observed due to the erosion of traditional communities in late modernism (cf. Duerr 1993; Sennet 1998). In Social Media, this is shown as an aggressive style (flaming) or as "hate speech" (cf. Butl... see more
Anna-Lena Dießelmann
This study focuses on the protests against the G8 summit in Heilgendamm, Germany, 2007. In the weeks preceding the event, Germany was preparing for a state of emergency. This discourse was created by legal authorities, politicians, security experts, the i... see more
Martin Haase
"Fogspeech" is a variant of Orwellian Newspeak typical of parliamentary Democracy: As it is important in a Democracy to find vast support for political projects, linguistic strategies from advertising are used, esp. positively connotated words, positive f... see more