Idioms and the Directness of Language in Politics

This is a functional study of the use of idioms in publications on politics, simultaneously deliberating on the question of how the directness of language forms its result and how it functions in the social context of native speakers. Idioms are shown to have been widely used in publications on politics and their expressive meaning has been exploited with a purpose in political contexts. Semantic and functional analysis of idioms has shown that, despite their direct and pointed meaning, idioms are favoured by journalists much to the satisfaction of their audience. An analysis of diplomatic language in one article indicated a contrast with the journalistic language without criticizing it. Both styles of language have been found to have their audience and appreciation. But the direct language of journalists appears to oblige the author to comply with a license of usage, which only a native speaker can satisfy.