The discursive construction of trust in European political communication

The chapter starts from the assumption that political language has widely expanded into several forms of communication, producing the hybridization of genres and new communicative styles. In this domain, identity is established and persuasion is realized by either the emphasis on apolitical qualities and personal demeanour or by the adoption of vague language to minimize cognitive dissonance in citizens. The linguistic and rhetorical features analysed in the paper come from a corpus based on Angela Merkel’s official website, including texts dealing with the problem of migration. These texts represent a mixed genre, as they include narration of events and quotations from the Chancellor’s speeches. The language perfectly reflects the meaningful interaction in an asymmetrical situation such as the relationship between politicians (those who are trusted) and citizens (those who trust).