Manipulating the interpretation of political discourses

Abstract

Discourses usually convey their messages embedded in layers of meanings, which need decoding. Although everybody can understand the meaning, few see the power beyond the choice of words, sentence or discourse structure, and how easily interpretation can be manipulated according to the interests of the speaker. This paper aims to show how linguistic choices can lead to manipulation of emotions and attitudes according to social, cultural, and political contexts. By analysing two discourses from two different countries, Romania and UK, during the Covid pandemic, we concluded that in order to persuade people to obey the rules and maintain social distancing, the speakers made appropriate linguistic choices to manipulate feelings of trust, responsibility and national pride.