The (cyclical) path towards impoliteness in electoral debates

Abstract

This work proposes, first, an approach to the agonal character of electoral debates, and then analyses the nature of the acts of (im)politeness that appear in them. From there, it presents a triangular theoretical-methodological framework, based on the analysis of functional impoliteness strategies, linguistic-discursive mechanisms for their implementation and social repercussions of impolite acts. Within the first of these three axes, a dynamic quantitative analysis is carried out. This analysis demonstrates the growing appearance of impoliteness in electoral debates, as well as the cyclical nature of this growth ‒ which is increasingly accelerated ‒ in successive sections of these speech events. This quantitative analysis is based on the face-to-face debate between Mariano Rajoy and Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba days before the Spanish general elections in November 2011.