Quotations as Demonstrations in Spanish Political Interviews and Debate: Comparing Pedro Sánchez and Núñez Feijóo

In this chapter we aim to (1) provide a detailed account of the typology, descriptions, and functions of quotations in political discourse; and (2) contrast the results in two different genres (i.e., interviewsInterview versus debatesDebate) to see whether the type of genre has any effect on the quantity and quality of the quotations used. Specifically, we examine all the direct quotationsQuotationsdirect used by the current President of SpainSpain (Pedro SánchezSánchez, Pedro) and the leader of the main party in the opposition (Alberto Núñez Feijóo) in two different contexts: on the one hand, in two interviewsInterview (14th September 2023 and 16th September 2018), and on the other hand, in a debate (10th July 2023). Regarding the typology, we distinguish four main types of quotations: (1) direct; (2) indirect; (3) verbatim; and (4) canned. As quotes are speech acts, we use Austin’s (How to do things with words, 1962) act classification: locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary. In this study, we focus on aspects related to the illocutionary forceIllocutionary force and perlocutionary effectsPerlocutionary effects of all quotations.