TY - JOUR T1 - HUMOUR AND IRONY IN MODERN POLITICAL DISCOURSE AU - Gornostaeva, Anna AU - Semenovskaya, Maria PY - 2019 DA - January JF - IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences JO - IJASOS PB - OCERINT International Organization Center of Academic Research WT - DergiPark SN - 2411-183X SP - 717 EP - 721 VL - 4 IS - 12 LA - en AB - Politicaldiscourse has recently been the center of attention of many academics as wellas laymen, which is explained by the strenuous international situation in theworld. According to Critical Discourse Analysis, politicians use politicallanguage as a means of gaining power (Van Dijk, 2009) through differentstrategies, the main of which are persuasion and manipulation. To achieve thisaim different expressive means are used. This article examines humour and irony as away to influence the audience and contribute to the effect of the politician’sspeech. The topic of irony and humour inpolitics has attracted the attention of scholars and rhetors for a long time.Yet, it still remains a debatable question whether it is appropriate for aspeaker to use humour and irony in political speech and what effect it has onthe audience. Modern authors characterize humour and irony as “interpersonalweapons” (Arroyo, 2010) and as devices which helpto cope with different difficult scenarios, like pre-election campaign or interviews (O’Connell,Kowal, 2005). In this study the notions of humour and irony are explored; theauthentic material based on the speeches of British and American politicians isanalyzed to draw the conclusion that humour and irony are important andpowerful tools in the speeches of skillful politicians. The paper aims tocontribute to a better understanding of irony and humour in modern politicaldiscourse. 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