Ester Brenes Peña
4. The enumerative series in the Andalusian Parliament
Our results indicate that the enumerative series are very frequently used in parlia-mentary discourse. A total of 109 series were identified, amounting to an average of nearly three per oral question. From our point of view, this average confirms the importance of the enumerative series in the analysis of political discourse. Thanks to its formal features, this resource becomes the perfect medium to secure the support of the future voter. This is because ‘the elements of a series conclude with
the same idea that end up being sub-arguments and that will have an effect on the same thought simulating a wake-up call’ (Cortés Rodríguez 2007:78).
However, the results of the study conclude that, in the oral questions posed in the Andalusian Parliament, the enumerative series are characterised by the fol-lowing: they a) appear mostly in the second intervention, b) are normally simple, c) are composed of segments that have an addition relationship from a syntactic point of view, d) perform an improper periphrastic reformulation, e) update an intensifying function by the repetition of an idea presented gradually, f) are used by male MPs and g) respond essentially and to the interactive nature of the oral question from an impolite point of view.
Let us examine these tendencies in more detail. As mentioned above, in the oral questions analysed, there is a clear preference for the use of the enumerative series in the second round of interventions both on the part of the deputy and on the part of the minister. More precisely, over 70% of the enumerative series are concentrated in the second round of oral questions. Indeed, this datum meets the characteristics of the interactive oral question. As pointed out earlier, the ques-tion that the MP asks has been previously submitted in writing; therefore, both interlocutors are familiar with it. Consequently, the MP intervening in this type of text skips the question in the first round of interventions and does not bother to explain it. Therefore, the enumerative series, used in the first round of interven-tions, focuses on the discourse of the government representatives and, essentially, when they address an issue to an MP of the same party. Obviously, the interven-tions in which the deputies of PSOE (the ruling party) address their concerns to the representative of the government occupy the second place. In other words, the enumerative series used in the first round of interventions can be seen mainly in the interaction between the minister and the PSOE deputy.
0 First intervention
Minister to PSOE deputy Minister to PP deputy
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
45 PSOE member
IU member PP member
Figure 1. Enumerative series used in the first round of oral questions
When a minister addresses an MP belonging to the same party, the question is intended to applaud and publicise their achievements rather than actually obtain
information from the government. Therefore, in the first round of interventions, the MP does not simply assume that the question has been explained but rather goes a step further and explains the motives that led him to post the question.
Meanwhile, the minister’s intervention does not respond to the information being requested but rather can be seen as a propagandistic speech in which the enumera-tive series occupies a prominent position due to its intensifying nature.
Secondly, the predominance of the simple series is also obvious. Compared with the data obtained by Cortés Rodríguez (2007) on the parliamentary de-bate between Zapatero and Rajoy, in the oral questions posted in the Andalusian Parliament, over 90% of the enumerative series used were simple and 74% of them consisted of three segments.
80
60
40
20
0
3 4 5 6 7 8
Figure 2. Amount of sections in the enumerative series
This result can be associated with the previous tendency. As stated previously, in general, the enumerative series are used in the second turn of questions, which is characterised by having a lower degree of planning as its formulation is based on the response given by the interlocutor in the previous turn. This high level of spontaneity may favour the use of the enumerative series that are characteristic of orality: the simple three-party series (Cortés Rodríguez, 2007).
Concerning formal features, our analysis has highlighted the way in which the integrating sections of the series, in this specific genre, usually keep a syntactic relation of addition. The results obtained prove that 58.71% of the series adhered to this syntactic relation, 36.69% chose juxtaposition and 11.92% preferred dis-junction. Other formal features such as the use of closing devices, verbs of enu-meration or hyperonyms in the matrix series do not have a direct impact on the examples that were analysed. We observed only 12 cases of hyperonyms in the matrix, another example of enumerative series containing an enumerating verb and eight closing devices.
Moreover, regarding the discursive functions, it was noted that 77.06% of the enumerative series showed an improper periphrastic reformulation. As mentioned above, this type of structure has a role in the current thematic development. Together
with this, 50% of the analysed series intensified the idea expressed by gradual ments, 35.3% favoured sections in proximity and 14.76% used synonymous ele-ments. This discursive genre is therefore characterised by the use of the series whose sections have a tendency towards increased discursive tension and argumentative force. Thus, it is a resource used consciously to emphasise pieces of information or arguments that the interlocutor considers to be crucial for his reasoning (Cortés Rodríguez, 2007). Interestingly, the so-called delaying or artistic – persuasive func-tion proposed by Cortés Rodríguez (2008c) is only present in 22% of the cases, despite its efficiency for speech formulation and argumentative emphasis.
Additionally, it is interesting to note how the social effect caused by the enu-merative series is the degradation of the political opponent’s self-image. Logically, this is very much related to the high degree of confrontation involved in oral ques-tions as well as to a tendency to criticise and belittle which is typical of political discourse in general. In fact, as Fuentes-Rodríguez (2012a) notes, the aim pursued when posing the oral question is not to obtain information from the government but rather to damage their self-image before perspective voters, ‘to criticise or blame the government for something or demand the implementation of commit-ments’ (Fuentes-Rodríguez, 2012a:133).
100
50
0
Face work Impolite act
Figure 3. Social effect caused by the enumerative series
The distribution of the social and interactive functions of the enumerative series is again associated with the structure of the oral question. As shown in Figure 4, the activities related to the self-image or, in other words, the highlighting of the management and/or the praising of the political party itself takes place in the first round of interventions. The confrontation with the party in the opposition takes place in the second round of interventions:
100 80 60 40 20 0
First turn
Face work
Second turn
Impolite act
Figure 4. Social effect of the enumerative series according to the structure of the oral question
Similarly, if we include the variant ‘role played’ to the data, we can observe how the self-image is mainly used by the government representatives whether they are ministers or MPs. In other words, they are used by the interlocutors whose goal is to elevate the activity being carried out. The ill-mannered confrontation, on the other hand, is obviously performed by the opposition. Each interlocutor plays the role that they have been assigned based on their position: either defend the man-agement of their governing team or disparage the actions and tarnish the image of the government in the eyes of the public.
100
Figure 5. Social function of the enumerative series according to the role performed by the interlocutor
Finally, the quantitative analysis of the gender variable and the role performed shows that there is a slight preference on the part of male MPs for the use of the enumerative series. Nevertheless, as the gender difference is slight, we believe that these data need to be corroborated by the analysis of other genres of parliamentar-ian discourse before reaching firm conclusions.
40
Figure 6. Enumerative series used according to gender and the role performed
5. Conclusions
The aim of this chapter was to address the enumerative series in the discourse of the Andalusian Parliament as a linguistic mechanism for the intensification strat-egy and from the point of view of gender. Therefore, we determined whether there is a difference between men and women in their use of intensifying and argumen-tative devices as well as identifying the formal aspects and procedures present in this type of discourse. To do so, we analysed 40 oral questions pertaining to the Andalusian Parliament.
In general, the results obtained indicate that in the corpus analysed, the enu-merative series are mainly used by male interlocutors, especially by those who perform the role of MPs. These data are consistent with Lakoff’s theory (1973, 1975) which associates women’s speech with a greater attenuation. However, as we are not dealing with a marked difference, we think it would be appropriate to complement these data with the study of other discursive genres.
On the other hand, we observed that the formal features of the enumerative series, together with its discursive functions, (im)politeness value and distribution between the first and the second round of interventions, respond to the typical structure and features associated with oral questions.
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