Concepts and Methods
This page features essays of between 700 and 2000 words on the concepts and methods that inform the analysis of political catchwords. Postings here may address definitions of terms, observations on existing research, proposals for investigative methods, notes on relevant datasets, reflections on theoretical issues and cultural/linguistic contexts, etc. No endorsements or publicity material will feature here.
Authors, and not the project coordinators, are responsible for the views expressed in these essays and for checking sources and evidence cited.
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Wang Yusu explains what 'catchwords' and 'keywords' mean in relation to Chinese Internet subcultures, and gives an overview of sources and disciplinary approaches.
3rd April 2024
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This essay uses Theodor Adorno's concept of Stichworte to clarify how catchwords/phrases work, with illustrations of catchwords/phrases generated by former Brazilian President Bolsonaro's organisation and supporters.
28th February 2024
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This article discusses how political catchphrases – and political slogans in particular – relate to the generation of mis- and disinformation, and at how the elements that constitute both political slogans and ‘fake news’ are closely related to a set of core properties found in propaganda.
18th December 2023
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The study of political catchwords involve some delicate negotiations with definitions. This essay considers what definitions are and what they do.
23rd November 2023
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This essay draws upon Sylvain Lazarus's Anthropology of the Name (1996 [in English 2015]) to propose an explanation as to why certain political catchwords/phrases become such.
26th October 2023
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In this article I address the question of what constitutes a political catchphrase, and in formulating an answer, look at the range of partially synonymous and related terms which fall broadly within the semantic field of the ‘catchphrase’.
19th October 2023
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A discussion of how archives of perceptual estimations may be used to explain why catchwords catch.
16th October 2023
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This essay considers ways of determining why terms become catchwords by using NLP methods.
7th September 2023
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Catchwords/phrases catch on, so their uptake is the starting point for thinking about them. This blog outlines some of the definitive features of catchwords/phrases, and discusses the frequencies of usage that characterise their catchiness
21st August 2023
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This blog considers an open set of words and phrases which are descriptively qualified by a metaphoric prefix: ‘catch-’. Like ‘catchwords’, other sets of words and phrases are also named with metaphoric prefixes: ‘keywords’, ‘buzzwords’, ‘winged words’.
2nd August 2023