While the linguistic concept of politeness has been thoroughly analyzed, the same does not apply to its interpreting. The present theoretical-empirical work describes the means for expressing politeness grouped by G. Leechʼs maxims of politeness. The empirical part analyzes recordings of simultaneous interpretation from media and European Parliament settings. This is a quantitative study and the outcome is the number of means for expressing politeness which the interpreters conveyed into Czech. On average and in all of the material 65,7 % of means for expressing politeness were conveyed into Czech in compliance with the maxims. The means analyzed are prosody, non-verbal communication, modality, personal reference, etc. An equivalent interpretation of means of politeness was deemed desirable. The thesis verifies the hypothesis whether the level of politeness significantly increased in comparison with the original speeches. Key words: politeness, pragmatics, illocutionary act, maxims of politeness, face, modality, prosody, non- verbal communication, Czech, English, interpreting, equivalence, US presidential debate, Obama, Romney, Common Agricultural Policy, European Parliament, Catherine Ashton, forms of address

Alors qu’une riche littérature se concentre sur l’euroscepticisme au sein des arènes politiques nationales, les oppositions à l’Europe au niveau supranational restent largement négligées. Afin de contribuer à combler cette lacune, cette recherche s’interroge sur la façon dont les députés eurosceptiques conçoivent et exercent leur mandat représentatif au sein du PE. Fondée sur l’approche motivationnelle des rôles, il s’agit, d’une part, d’appréhender les rôles joués par les eurosceptiques au sein de l’assemblée et, d’autre part, d’expliquer l’hétérogénéité des rôles endossés par ces élus. Mobilisant une pluralité de données, cette recherche repose sur une méthodologie mixte, combinant méthodes qualitative et quantitative ainsi qu’approches inductive et déductive. L’analyse s’articule autour de deux séquences. La première propose une typologie d’idéaux-types de rôles permettant de rendre compte des pratiques et conceptions du mandat développées par les parlementaires eurosceptiques. La seconde explique la variation des rôles au sein de cette typologie et teste l’hypothèse selon laquelle le rôle dépend d’une combinaison de facteurs institutionnels et individuels. L’étude démontre que les eurosceptiques peuvent endosser quatre rôles, correspondant à une stratégie de défection ou de prise de parole, et que le rôle qu’ils jouent dépend à la fois des règles régissant le fonctionnement du PE et de leurs préférences relatives à l’intégration et à l’architecture institutionnelle de l’UE. Ce faisant, la recherche constitue une réflexion sur deux enjeux très distincts. Premièrement, alors que l’on assiste, dans de nombreux pays européens, à l’émergence de revendications d’acteurs contestant les structures institutionnelles en place, cette thèse permet de contribuer à l’étude, encore restreinte, de l’opposition antisystème au sein d’institutions parlementaires, le PE servant ici de laboratoire privilégié pour l’étude des stratégies de ces acteurs antisystème. Deuxièmement, à l’instar des travaux de sociologie de l’intégration européenne, cette recherche repose sur le postulat qu’analyser de façon microscopique un groupe restreint d’acteurs permet de s’interroger, de façon différente, sur le déficit démocratique et de légitimité du régime européen, en déplaçant la focale du niveau institutionnel au niveau individuel. Il s’agit alors d’appréhender les défis de légitimation de l’UE en se concentrant sur les acteurs hostiles à la construction européenne. Une analyse de leurs pratiques concrètes au sein de l’assemblée représentative permet de dégager des pistes de réflexion quant à leur capacité de légitimation du régime politique. <p><p>While an abundant literature focuses on Euroscepticism in the national political arenas, oppositions to Europe at the supranational level remain largely under-studied. In order to contribute to fill this gap, this research examines how Eurosceptic Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) conceive and carry out their representative mandate in the European Parliament (EP). Inspired by the motivational approach of role theory, the study aims first at understanding the roles played by Eurosceptics within the assembly and second at explaining the heterogeneity of the roles played by these actors. Using a plurality of data, this research is based on mix-methods, combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies as well as inductive and deductive approaches. The analysis proceeds in two steps. The first proposes a typology of ideal-types of roles that allows understanding the ways Eurosceptics conceive and carry out their parliamentary mandate. The second explains the variation between the roles and tests the hypothesis that the role played by an actor depend on the combination of institutional and individual factors. The study demonstrates that Eurosceptics may assume four roles, corresponding to an exit or voice strategy, and that the role they play depends both on the EP’s rules and MEP’s preferences concerning European integration and the EU’s institutional design. The research contributes to on-going debates on two very different issues. First, while we witness in many European countries, the emergence of anti-system actors, this thesis can contribute to the study of the anti-systemic opposition within parliamentary institutions, the EP being here a special laboratory for the study of the strategies of anti-system actors. Second, like recent studies focusing on the sociology of European integration, this research is based on the premise that analysing a small group of actors allows to question in a different way, the democratic and legitimacy deficit of the EU, moving the focal from the institutional to the individual level. The aim is then to understand the challenges of legitimacy of the EU by focusing on actors hostile to the European project. An analysis of their actual practices in the EP allows us to reflect on their ability to legitimize the political system.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The present thesis addresses the issue of the impact of two independent variables - speech rate and interpreters' experience - on the length of time lag in simultaneous interpreting from English to Czech. Time lag, or ear-voice-span (EVS), in simultaneous interpreting is the time difference between the input in source language and the output in target language. The study comprises of two parts. The first, theoretical part summarises the current state of research on the subject. The second, empirical part compares the average EVS in excerpts of sixty simultaneous interpreting renditions uttered by forty-nine subjects divided into two speech rate categories and three experiential categories. The aim is to find out, firstly, whether there are any differences in EVS length based on speech rate, and, secondly, how the interpreters' level of experience influences their EVS length. The first main finding is that a higher speech rate leads, on average, to a shorter EVS than an optimal speech rate; this does not, however, apply in the case of professional interpreters - their EVS length is not affected by speech rate. The second main finding is that the interpreters' level of experience influences EVS length significantly: the more experienced the subjects, the shorter their EVS on average. While evaluating...

The European Parliament (EP) is the scene where certain issues concerning over 500 million ‘Europeans’ are publicly debated and where politically relevant groupings are discursively coconstructed. While the Members of the Parliament (MEPs) pursue their political agendas, intergroup boundaries are drawn, reinforced, and/or transgressed. Speakers constantly take stances on behalf of groupings in relation to some presupposed other groupings and argue what differentiates ‘Self’ from ‘Others’. This study examines patterns of language use by the MEPs as they engage in the contextually and historically situated dialogical processes of intergroup positioning and stance-taking. It further focuses on the strategic and competitive activities of grouping, grounding, and alignment in order to reveal the dynamic construction of intergroup boundaries. The study is based on a collection of Blue-card question-answer sequences from the plenary debates held at the EP in 2011, when the Sovereign Debt Crisis had been stabilized to some degree but still evoked plenty of controversy. Theoretically the study builds on Stance Theory (Du Bois, 2007), Positioning Theory (Davies &amp; Harré, 1990), and several broadly social constructivist approaches to discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995). The analysis shows that intergroup positioning in the EP emerges as what I call a ‘collaborative competition’ between contradictory ideologies and political agendas. The MEPs strategically manipulate their opponents' prior or projected utterances in order to set up positions for self, a grouping he or she stands for, and thereby its adversaries. All participants engage in the maintenance and negotiation of intergroup boundaries, even though the boundaries hardly ever coincide between the different speakers. They discursively fence off some imaginary territories, leaving their adversaries with vague positions. When asking Blue-card questions, the MEPs use a particular turn organization, which involves routine forms of interactional units, namely addressing, question framing and question forms, each of which is shown to contribute to stance-taking. A dynamic model of stance-taking is suggested, allowing for a fluid transformation of the stance object as well as the discursively constructed stance-takers. While Blue-card questions are meant to serve as a structured procedure for eliciting information from a speaker, the analysis demonstrates that the MEPs accomplish various divergent actions that serve intergroup positioning. The dissertation thus contributes to the understanding of the discursive games played in the EP as the MEPs strive to construct social realities that fit their political ends. / Europaparlamentet (EP) är scenen där vissa frågor rörande mer än 500 miljoner ‘européer’ officiellt debatteras och där politiskt relevanta grupperingar diskursivt konstrueras [co-constructed]. Medan parlamentsmedlemmarna (MEPs) driver sina egna politiska agendor dras gränser mellan grupperna, och dessa gränser förstärks och/eller överträds. Talare intar oavbrutet vad man skulle kunna kalla för olika ‘hållningar’ (stances) för olika grupperingar i relation till vissa förutsatta andra grupperingar, och argumenterar för vad som skiljer ‘jaget/det egna’ (Self) från ‘de andra’ (Others). Denna studie undersöker språkmönster som används av parlamentsledamöterna när de hänger sig åt kontextuellt och historiskt situerade dialogiska processer rörande positionering mellan grupper (intergroup positioning) och stance-taking. Den fokuserar vidare på de strategiska och konkurrensutsatta aktiviteterna grouping (gruppformering), grounding (ung. legitimering av en talares stance) och alignment (när man placerar sig i linje med eller tar avstånd från en annan talares åsikter) för att urskilja den dynamiska konstruktionen av gränser mellan grupper. Studien baseras på en korpus av så kallade ‘Blue-card question-answer sequences’ från plenardebatter som hölls i EP under 2011, när statsskuldkrisen hade stabiliserats något men fortfarande utgjorde grunden för många kontroverser. Teoretiskt sett bygger studien på Stance-teori (Du Bois, 2007), Positionerings-teori (Davies &amp; Harré, 1990) och ett flertal breda socialkonstruktivistiska infallsvinklar till diskursanalys (Fairclough, 1995). Analysen visar att positioneringen mellan de olika grupperingarna i EP framstår som något jag kallar ‘kollaborativ konkurrens’ mellan motstridiga ideologier och politiska agendor. Parlamentsledamöterna manipulerar strategiskt sina motståndares tidigare eller förutsedda yttranden för att positionera sig själva, en gruppering de står för, och därigenom dess meningsmotståndare. Alla deltagare agerar för att upprätthålla och förhandla gränsdragningen mellan grupperna, trots att gränserna nästan aldrig överensstämmer mellan de olika talarna. Diskursivt styckar de av några imaginära territorier, vilket lämnar deras motståndare i vaga positioner. När de ställer Blue-card questions använder sig parlamentsledamöterna av en särskild turtagningsorganisation, vilken inbegriper rutinformer av interaktionsenheter (interactional units), tilltal (addressing), hur frågor initieras (question framing), och frågeformer (question forms), av vilka var och en visar sig bidra till stance-taking. En dynamisk modell för stance-taking föreslås, vilket möjliggör en transformation av det kontinuerligt omdefinierade stance-objektet såväl som av de diskursivt konstruerade stance-takers. Medan Blue-card questions är avsedda att fungera som en strukturerad procedur för att få fram information från en talare demonstrerar analysen att parlamentsledamöterna lyckas med olika avledande manövrer som tjänar positioneringen mellan grupper. Avhandlingen bidrar på så vis till förståelsen av det diskursiva spelet i Europaparlamentet där parlamentsledamöterna strävar efter att konstruera sociala realiteter som tjänar deras politiska mål.

Mgr. Soňa Fryščáková The aims and objectives of the European Union information policy (with a focus on librarianship in the institutional structure of the European Union) (dissertation thesis) (Směřování a cíle informační politiky Evropské unie (se zaměřením na knihovnictví v rámci institucionální struktury Evropské unie) Abstract This thesis is focused on the analysis of the selected libraries (and the other information services) of the European Union Institution, in particular the analysis of their current situation with an aim to address a proposal for their further development. The proposal points out problematic areas within the libraries' operation and prepares suggestions to the program goals of the information policy of the libraries of EU Institutions. The first part is devoted to the EU information policy in general and presents the development of the information society in the context of the European Union. The next section describes the information services of the EU Institutions. Specifically, those are libraries of selected EU institutions and also the Historical Archives of the European Union and the professional association of European libraries Eurolib. The last part deals with analysis of the information strategy of the EU institutions and with the solution that represent program aims of...

Presented thesis Programs of the European Union of supporting regional interparliamentary cooperation in the region of Western Balkans as an instrument of regionalisation is focusing on regional parliamentary cooperation in the region of Western Balkans and programs of the European Union which are programmed to support this particular cooperation. The study is framed in the theory of new regionalism and the approach of socialization in international relations, which both offer in the case of European integration explanation of why regionalization takes place. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question whether the European Union is successful in its support of regionalization via regional parliamentary cooperation. Meaning if the mechanism of socialization chosen by the Union is effective and if institutional capacities of the national parliament in the region to conclude this cooperation are being built either via direct engagement with the Union, or via indirect way by engaging with regional initiatives active in regional parliamentary cooperation such as Regional Cooperation Council, COSAP and Cetinje Parliamentary Forum. By analyzing the mechanism of socialization and the environment in which the socialization takes place the thesis identifies if, and how much is the European Union able to...

/ / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This diploma thesis deals with the political marketing of selected political entities on the czech political scene. Primary goal is to analyze and furthermore compare political marketing of ANO and TOP 09 in before of elections to the Chamber of deputies in year 2017 and ANO and the coalition of TOP 09 and STAN in before the elections to European parliament in year 2019. Partial goal of this thesis is to understand the difference between parliamentary elections and European elections, ie first and second order elections, but also to understand differences in financing campaings in before mentioned elections. From the point of view of metodologyis this diploma thesis is drafted as a comparative case study examining two different elections in the Czech Republic. Theoretical part will introduce the concept of political marketing, chosen model of political marketing, election campaings and the concept of first and second order elections. Analytical part will provide deeper analysis of election campaings of chosen subjects. Campaings will be compared at the end of this thesis.

Abstract (version française suit)<p>Although the EU is a privileged point of focus for political science studies, its discursive activity has not received all the attention it deserves. This corpus analysis adopts a descriptive approach, based on the Neo-Aristotelian trend in argumentation theory, by using both analytical categories of classical rhetoric and (emic or etic) categories that belong to the conceptualization of the debate entertained by its own participants. The corpus consists of public interventions by representatives of the three main EU Institutions (Commission, European Council and Parliament). The speeches were pronounced between June and December 2005. Since it is discussed every seven years, the topic of the Financial Perspectives offers the possibility of making diachronic comparisons; it also allows identifying values, projects and means of the European construction at a rhetorical level. The last six months of 2005 followed two significant events: the conflicting attitudes of European Governments regarding the Iraq war and the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by referendums.<p>In the absence of any other metaphysical or natural foundation, the technocratic enterprise provides the European project with a rational and secular justification that is not always assumed as such, though, by the presidents of the Commission. The conceptual metaphors stemming from the preambles to the treaties convey the idea that European integration will be achieved by triggering a gradual process that should lead to the realization of an ultimate aim.<p>From a rhetorical point of view, the Financial Perspectives are in need of legitimacy. In 2005, the rhetorical invocation of dates/milestones, abundantly used by former presidents of the Commission, does not seem to work anymore. Both the requirement of unanimity in the legislative procedure and the habitus of European deliberation make it necessary to find an agreement; this consequently promotes “consensus” as a meta-communicational argument. The notion of a “consensus” runs against such theoretical (epistemological) and pragmatic objections that it proves imperious to wonder about its origin and roots. One should take into account not only scholarly conceptions of “consensus” (Habermas, the Deliberative Democracy movement), but also naïve and popular visions of it.<p>The EU Institutions are aware of the difficulty they meet in awakening citizens’ interest, and they have developed their Communication Policy in order to give themselves the means to overcome this obstacle. A systematic reflection on their strategy should take into account the divergent opinions of Moravscik and Hix, as well as the possibility of grounding the EU project anew on a revival of ancient homonoïa.<p>DISCLAIMER. The content of this thesis represents solely the views of its author and cannot in any circumstances be regarded as the official position of the European Commission.<p><p><p><p><p><p><p>Résumé<p>Quoique l’Union Européenne (UE) soit un objet de prédilection pour les politologues, son activité discursive n’a pas reçu toute l’attention méritée.<p>La thèse offre une analyse de corpus effectuée sur base d’une grille de lecture incluant des catégories rhétoriques étiques et émiques. Elle adopte une approche descriptive puisée dans le versant néo-aristotélicien de l’étude de l’argumentation. Le corpus a été constitué d’interventions publiques tenues par les représentants des trois principales Institutions Européennes (Commission, Conseil Européen, Parlement Européen) entre juin et décembre 2005. Le sujet des Perspectives Financières, débattu à intervalles réguliers, permet des comparaisons diachroniques ;il permet aussi de contraster les valeurs, les projets et les moyens de la construction européenne. La conjoncture des six derniers mois de 2005 présente la particularité supplémentaire que le projet de Traité Constitutionnel venait d’être rejeté et que les gouvernements européens s’étaient auparavant divisés sur l’intervention en Irak.<p>En l’absence d’un fondement métaphysique ou naturel, l’entreprise technocratique fournit au projet politique européen une justification rationnelle et laïcisée, même si elle n’est pas assumée explicitement en tant que telle par tous les présidents de la Commission. Les métaphores conceptuelles mobilisées dans les préambules des traités traduisent le fait que l’unification européenne devrait s’accomplir à la fois par l’entremise de réalisations progressives et à travers la poursuite d’un objectif lointain.<p>Sur le plan rhétorique, les Perspectives Financières sont en manque d’une légitimité emblématique. La clause des rendez-vous, des étapes cruciales, abondamment utilisée dans le passé par les présidents de la Commission, cesse de fonctionner en 2005. La nécessité d’un accord, issue tant de la lettre de la procédure législative par unanimité que de la coutume des délibérations, est devenue matière à un argument méta-communicationnel qui en est arrivé à englober toute circonstance susceptible de faciliter le « consensus ». Cette dernière notion soulève des réticences théoriques (épistémologiques) et pragmatiques qui imposent de s’interroger sur son origine. La problématisation que nous avons opérée tient compte non seulement des conceptions savantes du « consensus » (Habermas, courant de la Démocratie Délibérative), mais aussi de ses variantes populaires ou vulgarisées.<p>Les Institutions Européennes sont conscientes de la difficulté qu’il y a à motiver l’intérêt citoyen, et elles ont voulu, à travers leur Politique de Communication, se donner les moyens de dépasser cet obstacle. La thèse mène, à ce propos, une réflexion plus générale qui tient compte des avis opposés de Moravcsik et Hix, et d’une éventuelle refondation dans l’homonoïa de la rhétorique classique.<p>DISCLAIMER. Le contenu de cette thèse représente le point de vue de son seul auteur et ne peut en aucune circonstance être considéré comme la position officielle de la Commission Européenne. <p> / Doctorat en Langues et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Partant du constat de la constitution de la promotion de la démocratie comme enjeu des relations internationales et de politique étrangère, la présente recherche s’interroge sur les politiques menées en la matière par l’Union européenne dans le cadre des relations avec ses voisins méditerranéens, particulièrement le Maroc et la Tunisie. L’analyse se concentre sur l’Instrument européen pour la démocratie et les droits de l’homme, sur la période 2007-2012.<p>L’objectif est de comprendre et d’expliquer les pratiques des différents groupes d’acteurs impliqués dans ces politiques, au sein de la Commission (DG Relex/SEAE, DG Devco, délégations) et du Parlement (sous-commission DROI).<p>La position défendue est la suivante :les pratiques européennes de promotion de la démocratie au Maroc et en Tunisie sont fonction de l’identité des groupes institutionnels qui les mettent en œuvre. Pour chaque groupe institutionnel, peuvent être mis en évidence des normes, intérêts et ressources qui contribuent à défendre et renforcer l’identité institutionnelle. Dès lors, des pratiques qui peuvent paraître incohérentes au premier abord (pourquoi agir au Maroc et pas en Tunisie ?pourquoi créer l’IEDDH et, parallèlement, évincer l’objectif de promotion de la démocratie de la coopération bilatérale avec la Tunisie ?) prennent tout leur sens lorsqu’on parvient à restituer la fonction sociale qu’elles assurent.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished