Family Relations Words as a Specific Category of Loaded Terms in American Presidential Campaigns

REICH, Pavel. Family Relations Words as a Specific Category of Loaded Terms in American Presidential Campaigns. In From Theory to Practice: Sixth International Conference on Anglophone Studies, Zlín. 2014.

Basic information

• Original name: Family Relations Words as a Specific Category of Loaded Terms in American Presidential Campaigns
• Authors: REICH, Pavel (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: From Theory to Practice: Sixth International Conference on Anglophone Studies, Zlín. 2014.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60200 6.2 Languages and Literature
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14640/14:00077623
• Organization unit: Language Centre
• Keywords in English: family relations words; loaded words; purr words; connotative meaning; presidential debates
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

Family relations words can be seen as a specific kind of loaded words, i.e. words whose favourable or unfavourable connotations matter more than the conceptual meaning of the particular word. Words denoting basic relations within families such as mother, father and son are used by politicians instead of woman, man and soldier in order to manipulate people’s perception of facts and hence influence their political opinions. This study explores the use of family relations words by presidential candidates in the American presidential debates in the first decade of the 21st century. Its aim is to find out how this form of loaded language is used in order to promote the presidential candidates’ viewpoints on particular issues. The findings show that the use of words denoting close relationships within a family instead of more general and neutral words can be categorized into four broad groups: United States’ future, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, candidates’ background and private life, and poor people. However, the use of family relations words within these categories varies in accordance with the context of each election, the topics discussed, as well as the different priorities of the two political parties.