Intonation in Political Speech: Ségolène Royal vs. Nicolas Sarkozy

Abstract

This study is not about the text or the rhetorical properties of the political discourse, but rather about the way the segments of text are assembled prosodically and delivered. The analysis of two short but typical examples pertaining to two former candidates to the French presidential elections held in 2007, i.e. Ségolène Royal (SR) and Nicolas Sarkozy (NS), reveals that these leading political leaders differ in similar environment 1) in the complexity of the delivered prosodic structures; 2) in the congruence or non-congruence of prosody with syntax and 3) in the realization of continuation melodic contours. Although one would expect a style more formal for NS and more relaxed for SR considering their respective political opinions (NS close to the right, SR to the left), the prosodic style used by NS appears to be closer to the spontaneous speech used in non-formal conditions, whereas SR consistently uses a very formal and conservative organization of her public speeches.