Die Sprache der Politik zwischen Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit

The essay outlines some linguistic features of political language at the interface between orality and literacy. After a recognition of the main studies on politolinguistics and political discourse analysis, a methodological framework is presented in order to describe lexical, syntactic and pragmatic aspects of political communication. The analysis is about two statements of Bun-deskanzlerin Angela Merkel held on the German Unity Day in 2017 and 2018. Thematic unfolding by means of lexical units with positive/negative connotation as well as typical syntactic features of oral language such as repetitions and asyndetic constructions are taken into account. From the pragmatic analysis emerge the use of deictic elements and the call to action which characterizes the illocutive dimension of the speeches. The discussion of results offers some reflections on the usability of statements in teaching German as a foreign language.