Forms of address in open letters to the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister

Main Article Content

Veronica Manole https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6878-7925

Keywords

Address forms, political discourse, open letters, european portuguese

Abstract

            The aim of this paper is to analyse open letters as mechanisms of communication between citizens and important actor of political power (President of the Republic, Prime Minister). Firstly, we describe how political discourse works according to Charaudeau (2005). Secondly, we tackle open letters as (pseudo)epistolary textual genre. After a brif presentation of allocutive address forms in European Portuguese, we analyse twenty open letters, written between 2011 and 2020. The results show that there is a clear preference for reverential forms, which is in line to the high index of power distance (Hofstede, 2010) in the Portuguese culture. 

Abstract 356 | pdf (Portuguese) Downloads 282

References

Angenot, M. (1982). La Parole pamphlétaire. Typologie des discours modernes. Paris: Payot.
Bourdieu, P. & Wacquant, L. (1992) Réponses. Pour une anthropologie réflexive. Paris: Le Seuil.
Carreira, M. H., A. (1997). Modalisation linguistique en situation d’interlocution : proxémique verbale et modalités en portugais. Leuvain-Paris: Éditions Peeters.
Charaudeau, P. (2005). Le discours politique. Les masques du pouvoir. Paris: Vuibert
Cintra, L. (1986). Sobre “formas de tratamento” na língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte.
Hofstede, G. et al (2010). Cultures and Organizations. Software of the Mind. Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival. New York: McGraw Hill.
Joly, B. (2014). Histoire politique de l’affaire Dreyfus. Paris: Fayard.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, K. (1998). “L’interaction épistolaire”. In Jürgen Seiss (dir.) La lettre entre réel et fiction”. Paris: Sedes.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, K. (2010). S’adresser à autrui. Les formes nominales d’adresse en français. Charenton-le-Pont: Éditions de l’Université de Savoie.
Maingueneau (1998). “Scénographie épistolaire”. In J. Seiss (dir.) La lettre entre réel et fiction”. Paris: Sedes.
Manole, V. (2020). O debate parlamentar em português (Portugal, Brasil) e romeno: análise pragmático-discursiva. Cluj-Napoca: Cartea Cărții de Știință.
Nascimento, M. F., B. de (2020). “Formas de tratamento”. In E. Buzaglo Paiva Raposo et al (org.) Gramática do Português. vol. 3 (pp. 2701-2732). Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Saki, M. (2013). “Rôles et formes de l’adresse dans la lettre ouverte”. Le tour critique.1, 125-145.

Sitografia
Constituição da República Portuguesa: https://dre.pt/web/guest/legislacao-consolidada/-/lc/337/201903261608/127993/diploma/indice
Hofstede Insights – Country Comparison: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/portugal/

Corpus
C1: https://observador.pt/opiniao/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica-sobre-o-racismo/
C2: https://observador.pt/opiniao/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica/
C3: https://www.publico.pt/2020/06/09/opiniao/opiniao/carta-aberta-presidente-republica-1919915
C4: https://expresso.pt/opiniao/2020-03-22-Carta-Aberta-ao-Presidente-da-Republica--Pedir-ajuda-ao-Oriente
C5: https://www.correiodamadeira.com/2020/08/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica.html
C6: https://www.sosquintadosingleses.com/post/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-rep%C3%BAblica-marcelo-rebelo-de-sousa
C7: https://www.oinstalador.com/Artigos/315866-Covid-19-APIRAC-envia-carta-aberta-ao-Presidente-da-Republica-sobre-os-lares-ventilacao.html
C8: http://recursos.ordemdospsicologos.pt/repositorio/estudo/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica-2019
C9: https://www.publico.pt/2020/06/18/opiniao/opiniao/carta-aberta-antonio-costa-1920732
C10: https://www.spn.pt/Artigo/carta-aberta-ao-primeiro-ministro-de-portugal
C11: https://www.publico.pt/2011/06/25/jornal/pela-suspensao-imediata-do-acordo-ortografico-22352669
C12: https://www.publico.pt/2019/11/09/sociedade/opiniao/carta-aberta-presidente-marcelo-portugueses-1893099
C13: https://www.publico.pt/2020/03/29/sociedade/opiniao/carta-aberta-primeiroministro-autoridades-saude-1910016
C14: https://www.publico.pt/2020/01/13/ciencia/opiniao/ciencia-portugues-nada-vale-1899937
C15: https://www.publico.pt/2017/06/24/sociedade/opiniao/carta-aberta-ao-primeiroministro-de-portugal-1776726
C16: https://observador.pt/opiniao/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica-2/
C17: https://observador.pt/opiniao/carta-aberta-ao-presidente-da-republica-sobre-a-crise-sanitaria/
C18: https://comiteolimpicoportugal.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/17.11.2020-Carta-Aberta-Primeiro-Ministro.pdf
C19: https://comiteolimpicoportugal.pt/carta-aberta-ao-primeiro-ministro-antonio-costa/
C20: http://www.vidadebombeiro.com.pt/2020/10/aprosoc-lanca-carta-aberta-ao.html