Counterfactual mental spaces in Emmanuel Macron’s political discourse

Abstract

In political discourse, politicians often seek to convey their opinions or ideologies through the faculty of language. This faculty manifests itself through the use of linguistic units which are actualized in a speech.

According to cognitive linguistics, they introduce mental spaces, referring to the cognition of the speaking subject. Among the cognitive theories that have dealt with the cognitive aspects of discourse, we cite Gilles Fauconnier's theory of mental spaces (1984). This linguist placed emphasis on the construction of mental spaces in speech and through linguistic units which are space introducers. These spaces can be counterfactual as well as in political discourse. This is a speech of promise, par excellence, in which there are several hypothetical and counterfactual mental representations.

And to be close to current events, we chose to study the counterfactual mental spaces introduced in Emmanuel Macron's speech by adopting a cognitive approach.