“Such eloquence, such falsehood”: Repetition and recategorization in speeches delivered by Fernando Collor

Abstract

This article focuses on a specific type of repetition that turns out to be particularly frequent in the political speeches delivered by Fernando Collor de Mello during the 1989 presidential campaign in Brazil: syntactic parallelisms. By adopting a qualitative and interpretive perspective on the phenomenon, we use the framework of Conceptual Blending Theory (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002) in order to investigate the functions of this strategy in a corpus constituted by the first three electoral programs aired by the candidate. Our analysis suggests that syntactic parallelisms play two important argumentative roles: on the one hand, it triggers a process of recategorization of conceptual/discursive entities; on the other hand, it allows the speaker to present the result of this process as backgrounded information, thus reducing the likelihood of rebuttal and making underlying ideology invisible. By using such cognitive lens to look into the meaning-making processes, we show how the former president’s performances manifests certain premises of mass communication, bringing closer together the fields of politics and entertainment.