Limbaugh Style

[loretta oconnor]

Hello Robert,

If you are interested in a discourse analytic approach to Limbaugh, you
should check out Robin Shoaps' 1999 article, "The Many Voices of Rush
Limbaugh" in Text. In it she looks at how he crafts "common sense."

Loretta O'Connor

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Robert Lawless
<robert.lawless at wichita.edu>wrote:

> With Rush Limbaugh in the national news because of his recent speech to the
> CPAC, I’ve been listening to his radio broadcasts for the past few days, not
> for the content but for the style. One of the main characteristics of his
> speech is that he leaves many sentences unfinished rushing into a new
> sentence. The frequency of incompletions seems to increase as his hysteria
> increases. I’m wondering whether this is a practiced, conscious speech
> affectation or whether he can’t help himself. Is there an expected or maybe
> unintended impact on the listener? Does the behavior heighten the urgency of
> the message? Does it irritate the listener? Is there a particular linguistic
> or literary label for this speech pattern? Robert.
>