Actancial Mechanisms of Shifting Out and Shifting In Employed in Spoken English

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the constitution of the category of person in political discourse. We intendto analyze the meaning effects produced by actantial mechanisms of shifting out and shifting in employed inconversation. The theoretical framework of this work is mainly based on Semiotic concepts, from a textualinteractive perspective of spoken language in relation to the principles of Conversation Analysis. The corpus iscomposed of transcriptions of the debate between the candidates Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin,who were at the time running for the presidential position. This debate was aired on October 8, 2006, by thetelevision broadcasting channel, Rede Bandeirantes. We decided to work with some parts of the first block, whichpresented the most important elements for the analysis. Assuming that every politician is concerned with obtainingthe adhesion of the interlocutor and, consequently, getting their votes, it is natural that their goal is to preservea positive image by addressing their speech to the viewers/listeners. In the initial part of the debate, however,the candidates have to ask their questions to one another, in a face-to-face interaction situation, even though theaudience and journalists are present. In spite of the fact that the direct addressee seems to be the opponent, infact, the real addressee is the audience.