Ignorance-unmasking questions in the Royal–Sarkozy presidential debate: A resource to claim epistemic authority

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the ways in which knowledge is displayed, contested and renegotiated in the 2007 French presidential debate between Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy. Knowledge displays can be achieved through a series of ‘neutral’ resources, such as informing, explanation or comment, or through face-damaging resources, such as questioning an unknowledgeable interlocutor to prove his inferior epistemic status (K−) and boost one’s own. The article focuses on this latter type of knowledge display where a knowledgeable participant (K+) engages in question–answer sequences with an unknowledgeable respondent (K−) in front of a third party (the audience). The article also undertakes an analysis of the multimodal strategies employed by the (K+) participant to discredit the (K−) opponent (ironic smiles and laughter). The article intends to contribute to the existent literature on epistemic stance by offering a prototypical example of incongruence between the epistemic status (K+) of the questioner and the epistemic stance he adopts (unknowing K).