Prime Ministerial Performance and Backbench Agendas: Preliminary Results from a Corpus-Based Analysis of Prime Minister's Questions, 1979-2010
Alison Sealey1 & Stephen Bates2
1LAEL, Lancaster University 2POLSIS, University of Birmingham
Our research (a collaboration between a political scientist and a discourse analyst) investigates Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). We are using corpus linguistic tools to identify linguistic features of the discourse of this institution and to relate these to various characteristics of the participants and the political context. The corpus under analysis comprises all sessions of PMQs between the elections of 1979 and 2010 (n = 992.5 x (equivalent of) 30-minute sessions).
Our presentation will report preliminary findings from this work-in-progress, in relation to: changes in PMQs over time, the impact of electoral and parliamentary cycles on contributions to and behaviour within PMQs, contrasts between the rhetorical styles of four Prime Ministers (Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown), and comparisons of the respective contributions of different participants (e.g. Government and Opposition backbenchers, male and female MPs, etc.). Our broader research aims are both to illuminate the changing ideologies and policy agendas of political parties, and to demonstrate the potential of corpus-assisted discourse analysis for parliamentary studies and political science more broadly.
Week 14 2014/2015
Monday 2nd February 2015
3:00-4:00pm
Bowland North Seminar Room 23
This session is co-organised with the LIP (Language, Ideology and Power) research group