Mid- Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association Political Slogans and Popular Culture Milford A. Jeremiah English Department Morgan State University It is well acknowledged that language is a central feature of culture. Language, whether in written, in oral or in sign form, gives an audience an indication of the manner in which people think of people, events in society through the use of language. In the present political cycle for the office of president of the United States, candidates who are seeking the office use various political slogans to express their views on specific topics and to appeal to a specific audience. Some examples of political slogans noted are Make America Great Again, Fighting for Us, A Future We Can Believe In. These slogans reflect the manner in which the candidates and their audiences conceptualize events, ideas, and people in the nation and around the world. For example, in the slogan that says Fighting for Us, the metaphor conceptualizes the political campaign as war in which those on the opposing side are enemies to be defeated. The slogans represent elements of cognition, linguistics, and discourse structure. With a select number of political slogans observed in the present political cycle as data, this presentation looks at the linguistic structure and audience composition to connect these elements of political slogans to a forum pertaining to popular culture. If accepted, the presentation will be in power point format.
About the presenterMilford Astor Jeremiah
Milford.Jeremiah is a professor in the English Department at Morgan State University. He earned the B.A. degree at Hampton University in language studies and the M.A. and PhD in linguistics at Brown University. He teaches many language-based courses and has published several articles in journls as “Studies in Poular Culture”, “Popular Culture Review” , and “College Language Asociation Journal.” His research interests are language and cognition and language in social situations.