ABSTRACT
Political language is one form of institutional discourse. Most types of spoken institutional language, that is, interrogation in court, doctor–patient interviews, political interviews, take the form of questions and responses. British journalists, both print and broadcast, were generally very careful to be polite to the point of deference when interviewing important people, including politicians. More recently, partly due to the advent of commercial television companies, the relationship between the press and politicians in the UK has changed slowly but radically. Some questions are more difficult for a politician to answer than others. But some questions can actually be dangerous for a politician to answer, and the most difficult of all are those in which the dangers are somehow hidden. Another tactic which may be employed by the interviewer is repetition; by repeating the question the questioner can highlight evasion or make the respondent seem evasive.
