This paper serves as an exploratory study into the causes and effects of rudeness in and on parliamentary discourse. The literature shows that populist speakers use distinct linguistic tactics, and...Show moreThis paper serves as an exploratory study into the causes and effects of rudeness in and on parliamentary discourse. The literature shows that populist speakers use distinct linguistic tactics, and that affective language, such as rudeness, can have polarising effects on speakers and audiences. This research hypothesises that populist speakers are primarily responsible for the increase of rudeness in parliamentary discourse, and that this has a negative effect on the compromising force of debate. This research was conducted by analysing three debates and identifying individual instances of rudeness. These instances were then tagged with their corresponding characteristics in statistical software. The data shows that rudeness is increasingly used in the Dutch Parliament, that it has a polarising effect, and that populist speakers are the most frequent producers of rudeness. The implications of this are that rudeness is a linguistic phenomenon that runs counter to well-functioning democratic debate with a goal of compromise.Show less
