Rhetorical Effects of Grammar

Abstract

In the analysis of political discourse, relatively sparse attention is paid to grammatical phenomena. As far as grammatical phenomena are analyzed, the focus is generally on linguistic means that can be used to hide agency, like nominalization and passivization, or on transitivity analysis. In this article I argue that it can be fruitful in the analysis of political discourse to focus on other grammatical phenomena as well. I argue that also other grammatical phenomena can sort out subtle rhetorical effects that are worth analyzing – complementary to more ‘traditionally’ analyzed linguistic categories. I will highlight the grammatical phenomenon of ‘complementation’ and illustrate its rhetorical potential. A detailed stylistic analysis of a speech held by the Dutch controversial politician Geert Wilders serves as an example.

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