Sailing to Ithaka The transmutation of Greek left-populism in discourses about the European Union

Dimitris Serafis; E. Dimitris Kitis; Stavros Assimakopoulos

doi:10.1075/jlp.21063.ser

Sailing to Ithaka The transmutation of Greek left-populism in discourses about the European Union

Dimitris Serafis^*, E. Dimitris Kitis, Stavros Assimakopoulos

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Applied Linguistics

University of Malta

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper examines the reasoning lines in PM Alexis Tsipras’ political discourse in critical moments of SYRIZA’s tenure as the ruling party in Greece. Adopting a CDS perspective, we zoom in on the patterns that underlie the (de)legitimization of the crisis-ridden EU in three seminal speeches by PM Tsipras during the Greek/EU financial crisis. To this end, we integrate systemic-functional and cognitive linguistic tools with a view to scrutinizing representational meaning, before turning to employ the notions of endoxon and topos/locus as a means of studying the particular argumentative inferences, triggered by the respective discursive representations. Through this lens, we show how the overall argumentation can be seen as supporting the (de-)legitimation of dominant EU austerity perspectives while transforming SYRIZA into a pro-austerity voice.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	344-369
Journal	Journal of Language and Politics
Volume	21
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21063.ser
Publication status	Published - 8 Mar 2022

Keywords

(de-)legitimation
Argumentation theory
Critical discourse studies (CDS)
European Union
Greek/EU financial crisis
Populism
SYRIZA/Tsipras

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10.1075/jlp.21063.ser

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Serafis, D., Kitis, E. D., & Assimakopoulos, S. (2022). Sailing to Ithaka The transmutation of Greek left-populism in discourses about the European Union. Journal of Language and Politics, 21(2), 344-369. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21063.ser

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title = "Sailing to Ithaka The transmutation of Greek left-populism in discourses about the European Union",

abstract = "This paper examines the reasoning lines in PM Alexis Tsipras{\textquoteright} political discourse in critical moments of SYRIZA{\textquoteright}s tenure as the ruling party in Greece. Adopting a CDS perspective, we zoom in on the patterns that underlie the (de)legitimization of the crisis-ridden EU in three seminal speeches by PM Tsipras during the Greek/EU financial crisis. To this end, we integrate systemic-functional and cognitive linguistic tools with a view to scrutinizing representational meaning, before turning to employ the notions of endoxon and topos/locus as a means of studying the particular argumentative inferences, triggered by the respective discursive representations. Through this lens, we show how the overall argumentation can be seen as supporting the (de-)legitimation of dominant EU austerity perspectives while transforming SYRIZA into a pro-austerity voice.",

keywords = "(de-)legitimation, Argumentation theory, Critical discourse studies (CDS), European Union, Greek/EU financial crisis, Populism, SYRIZA/Tsipras",

author = "Dimitris Serafis and Kitis, {E. Dimitris} and Stavros Assimakopoulos",

note = "Funding Information: Dimitris Serafis is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Adjunct lecturer, currently based at the University of Malta. His research interests lie at the intersection of Critical Discourse Studies, Social Semiotics and Multimodality, and Argumentation Studies, with his current focus being on topics such as migration and hate speech, populism, and communication in times of crises. He has been published (among others) in journals Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the support of COST Action CA17132 {\textquoteleft}European Network for Argumentation and Public Policy Analysis{\textquoteright} (http://www.publicpolicyargument.eu). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} John Benjamins Publishing Company.",

year = "2022",

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doi = "10.1075/jlp.21063.ser",

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N2 - This paper examines the reasoning lines in PM Alexis Tsipras’ political discourse in critical moments of SYRIZA’s tenure as the ruling party in Greece. Adopting a CDS perspective, we zoom in on the patterns that underlie the (de)legitimization of the crisis-ridden EU in three seminal speeches by PM Tsipras during the Greek/EU financial crisis. To this end, we integrate systemic-functional and cognitive linguistic tools with a view to scrutinizing representational meaning, before turning to employ the notions of endoxon and topos/locus as a means of studying the particular argumentative inferences, triggered by the respective discursive representations. Through this lens, we show how the overall argumentation can be seen as supporting the (de-)legitimation of dominant EU austerity perspectives while transforming SYRIZA into a pro-austerity voice.

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Sailing to Ithaka The transmutation of Greek left-populism in discourses about the European Union

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