Pragmatic markers and ideological positioning in EUROPARL: A corpus-based study

Abstract

Political persuasion in institutional contexts often relies on subtle linguistic cues rather than overt argumentation. While Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has extensively examined macro-level ideological strategies, the micro-pragmatic mechanisms through which everyday expressions shape political meaning remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by analysing how pragmatic markers contribute to the implicit manipulation and ideological positioning of speakers in European parliamentary discourse. The aim of the paper is to provide tools for the analysis of manipulation and to show how micro-level pragmatic markers can reveal implicit persuasive strategies such as presupposing agreement or invoking shared knowledge. Drawing on the EUROPARL corpus of European Parliament debates, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Furkó’s (2019, 2020) criticalpragmatic approach, it analyzes markers such as of course, well, but, and you know. The study shows that while traditionally linked to cohesion and interaction management, these markers also play pivotal roles in populist and strategic discursive practices. The interplay of evidential markers, modal adverbs, and general extenders reveals how they jointly background information, reinforce polarization, and recontextualize arguments. Their frequency, distribution, and co-occurrence patterns reflect broader socio-political trends and manipulative strategies of legitimation. Far from being ancillary, pragmatic markers are integral to authority enactment, ideological contestation, suppression of alternative viewpoints, and consensus-building. In addition to corpus methods, the study explores AI-assisted tools for identifying and categorizing pragmatic phenomena in large political corpora, highlighting both their potential and limitations. By integrating pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and CDA, it advances an interdisciplinary approach to language, power, and politics in parliamentary settings.