ABSTRACT
Apart from textual and interpersonal elements, political actors also make use of certain representational elements to achieve interpersonal function – showing their ‘stance’ – in order to reach their specific purposes in a political event. The third chapter to approach PDA at the lexicogrammatical level, this chapter investigates two important interpersonal functions – ‘evidentiality’ and ‘subjectivity’ – which are metaphorically realized by representational elements. Both notions are important in the study of political discourse because they show the ‘stance’ of the political actors in an event. This chapter first introduces in general these two notions. Then it discusses how ‘evidentiality’ is linguistically realized through the mental process of perception and circumstantial (prepositional) coverbs in political discourse as well as the political functions they perform. Finally, it discusses how ‘subjectivity’ is linguistically realized by the mental process of cognition in political discourse as well as the political functions it performs.
