An Analysis of Ideological Speeches in Business Contexts: The Delegitimation and Defense of Renewable Energies

Abstract

In this article I offer an analysis of professional speeches in a business context in which ideological proposals of an economic nature are defended, in particular, several speeches in which the Spanish Association of Renewable Energy Producers (APPA) responds to criticism from multinational companies in the energy sector. Their criticism is largely based on the fact that the companies involved in renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic producers, are receiving subsidies from the government.

The results of the pragmatic-discursive and argumentative analysis reveal that the main discursive resource APPA uses to defend this kind of energy is the recontextualization of the criticism they have received by the aforementioned multinational companies, by transforming this criticism using a macro-strategy, i.e., delegitimizing renewable energies. By combining all of the analyzed speeches with the various argumentative strategies present in the speeches, one can observe that APPA uses this delegitimation, both argumentatively and persuasively, to show the absurdity of this criticism.

From a theoretical and methodological perspective, in this article I illustrate the importance of elocutive resources in these speeches; that is, those that are able to activate particular cognitive frames that evoke emotion since both convey simultaneously intention and action.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1203209