Evasion Strategies by Politicians in News Interviews

Hanafe, Nur Zahraa; Thani, Siti Rohana Mohd

doi:10.24200/mjll.vol5iss1pp10-30

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Politicians, for instance, may resist answering questions, performing a specific type of resistance, which is related to the degree of the interviewees' inadequate answers to the questions asked that includes providing partial and incomplete answers (Clayman, 2001). Clayman's (2001) 'dimensions of resistance' is also known as 'levels of evasion' by other scholars (e.g., Rasiah, 2007Rasiah, , 2010Hanafe & Thani, 2016). Clayman (2001) also identified four other degrees of resistance.…”

Section: Evasive Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

“…She further argued that a response may not be an answer as a response may be considered as a production that follows a question (Harris, 1991). Nevertheless, research on responses generally explores the notion of evasion in political discourse in various settings such as parliament with an emphasis on the topic of Iraq War (e.g., Rasiah, 2007), courtroom (e.g., Gnisci & Bonaiuto, 2003;Gnisci, 2021), political interviews (Bull, 2000;Hanafe & Thani, 2016) and Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) (e.g., Bull & Strawson, 2020;Ilie, 2021). Further, most of this research was conducted in the context of Western countries, with the exception of a few (e.g., Feldman et al, 2016;Hanafe & Thani, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Pragmatic Analysis of Responses in Malaysian Parliamentary Discourse

Abidin

Jan

2022

jopr

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This study employs the framework of responses proposed by Harris (1991), the notion of implicature as defined by Thomas (1995), and the dimensions of resistance introduced by Clayman (2001) to examine the types of responses in Malaysian Parliamentary Question Time. Analysis revealed the tendency of using direct, indirect, and evasive responses to specific questions for various reasons. Direct answers were observed in questions that could reflect positively on the government’s image. On the contrary, indirect answers were employed in questions that suggest clashing of goals between responders and questioners that could subsequently threaten the image of the government whereas negative presuppositions and the way questions are structured in parliament influence the production of evasion.Keywords: direct answer, evasive response, indirect answer, parliamentary discourse, political discourse

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Section: Evasive Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pragmatic Analysis of Responses in Malaysian Parliamentary Discourse

Abidin

Jan

2022

jopr

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“…In a similar vein, yet from a different angle, Weilin and Xiaoying (2007) dissected American and Chinese politicians and reported that the Americans evade overtly while the Chinese do this covertly. American politicians were further explored to find the possible relationship between the type of evasion and resistance techniques and also to elucidate the frequency of the evasion strategies employed by them (Hanafe & Mohd Thani, 2016; Mehdipour & Nabifar, 2011). They were found to be inclined to sidestep replying to questions via “incomplete answers” in a negative dimension of resistance and “topic shift” in positive cases (Mehdipour & Nabifar, 2011), which was in line with Clayman, (2001) study.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verbal evasion among Iranian presidential candidates

Yousofi,

Najafi

2024

Digest Mid East Studies

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Clarity is an integral part of communication and a highly substantial speech principle. However, it is widely recognized that when public figures are confronted with unfavorable questions, they may choose to break the principle of clarity in communication and avoid direct reponses. In this regard, the present study attempts to provide a synopsis of the aspects of answering and evading employed by politicians in the context of Iran. To accomplish this goal, Bull's framework of evasion in news interviews and its subgenre was adopted. Data were collected from the tenth presidential candidates' debates in 2009 (the freest and the most controversial presidential debate, among others) between six Iranian candidates, including MirHosseyn Musavi, Mehdi Karubi, Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, and Mohsen Rezaee. After analyzing the conversations, the questions in the debates were divided into two groups: those answered and those not. The unanswered questions, based on Bull's 12 techniques of evasion, were analyzed and incorporated into one of the 12 categories. The findings indicated that Iranian presidential candidates were largely evasive, and most of the time, they “ignored the question” when they were not eager to answer. Moreover, it was revealed that reformists, compared to fundamentalists, were more evasive.

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“…These works highlighted the evasiveness in political talk in English-speaking countries (British (Bull & Mayer, 1993;Bull, 2003), American (Clayman, 2001;Partington 2003)) and heavily influenced the subsequent research that compared evasion practices of politicians of different nationalities (e.g. British, American and Montenegrin (Vuković, 2013a); American and Malaysian (Hanafe & Thani, 2016)). However, the research has been largely confined to the context of political media interviews, whereas evasion in parliamentary discourse remains largely unexplored.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evasion in Serbian Parliamentary Questions

Radovanović

2020

TEME

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The current study seeks to investigate evasion in Parliamentary Questions in the National Assembly of Serbia. The objectives of the research are to determine whether and how frequently the members of the Government provided evasive responses and how they did it. The analysis comprising a qualitative and a quantitative method was conducted on the data that comprised the transcripts of three Parliamentary Questions. The responses were classified into answers, intermediate responses and evasive responses. Each identified evasive response was analysed in terms of its level of evasion, the practices involved and the agenda shifts that occurred. The results reveal that evasion did occur in the investigated data. As described and exemplified in the study, the medium level of evasion was the most prominent, and the Government members employed overt and covert practices, as well as three types of agenda shifts in evading answers. These results match those observed in previous studies on evasion in Question Time in other parliaments.

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Evasion Strategies by Politicians in News Interviews

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

A Pragmatic Analysis of Responses in Malaysian Parliamentary Discourse

A Pragmatic Analysis of Responses in Malaysian Parliamentary Discourse

Verbal evasion among Iranian presidential candidates

Evasion in Serbian Parliamentary Questions

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