Euphemization, Name Conflict and Ethos in Political Mediatic Interviews

Abstract

This paper analyses euphemisms found in political interviews in the media as an issue of a nominative conflict. Nominative conflict is an interactive structured sequence where a speaker questions a term proposed by a conversation partner and where she proposes another term in turn, until s/he finds a consensual nomination. This structure intrinsically brings out many alternative terms, which depend on competing points of view: this allows us to notice the dialogism inherent in nominative conflict as well as in the production of euphemisms. This production aims to establish or re-establish the discourse compliance with a discursive norm reflecting the values of a community. That provides an ethotic benefit to the speaker, whose image is enhanced. Suprasegmental and coverbal phenomena represent auxiliary evidence of the dialogic work and auxiliary marks of saliency.