Confrontational Strategic Manouvring in a Political Interview: A Pragma-Dialectical Analysis of a Response to an Accusation of Inconsistency

Abstract

The paper provides a pragma-dialectical analysis of an instance of confrontational strategic maneuvering in a political interview. First, the institutional conventions that characterize a political interview are described by providing an account of the contextually determined institutional constraints that affect confrontational strategic maneuvering. Second, an analysis of a specific instance of confrontational strategic maneuvering is provided in which a politician responds to an accusation of inconsistency put by forward by an interviewer.