Adversarialness Types of Question Realizations in Andrew Marr Show: Interview with
father, he tries not to align the topic since the question criticizes him as the part of government.
In another example, David Cameron employs roundabout trajectory to answer not only domestic affairs but also international one. The following datum
expresses how he responds to the question related to the Syria‟s conflict.
IR: From your perspective, are losing, and there‟s no sign of that changing? Well
you‟ve got an evil president. Who‟s doing dreadful things to his people? Who‟s getting stronger?
IE: I think he may be stronger than he was a few months ago, but I‟d still describe the
situation as a stalemate. And yes, you do have problems with part of the opposition that is extreme, that we should have nothing to do with. But that‟s not a reason for just
pulling up the drawbridge, putting our head in the sand to mix my metaphors and doing nothing. What we should be doing is working with international partners to help
the millions of Syrians who want to have a free democratic Syria, who want to see that country have some chance of success.
Datum No. 14
In that question, Andrew Marr explains about the issue in the Syria. In addition, he delivers three questions to David Cameron. Firstly, the declarative question
addresses that the government cannot handle the conflict in Syria. Next, the second question asks who must be responsible for the dreadful action. The last,
the question clarifies about who is getting stronger in Syria‟s conflict. All the
questions are related to the conflict in Syria. In his answer, David Cameron only responds to the last question. He only
mentions the word „he‟ as the person who is getting stronger. The first two addressed questions are not replied. In addition, David Cameron does not give
explanation to describe why „he‟ is getting stronger. On the other hand, he describes about the situation in Syria. He also argues that the government should
work together with the partners to deal with the conflict. As a result, his response is categorized as roundabout trajectory.
He selects roundabout trajectory to answer the question because he is accused that the government is failed to fix Syria‟s conflict. Andrew Marr mentions that
there is no sign of changing in Syria to deliver his accusation. David Cameron understands that the most important part in that question is
Andrew Marr‟s accusation. As a result, he mention
s about Syrian‟s condition and how to work with partnership to respond to the accusation rather than answering all questions.
The example below describes how David Cameron responds to the follow-up questions by employing roundabout trajectory.
IR: While we‟re talking about life on benefits what about wealthier pensioners being able to pick up benefits for free television licences, free travel, winter fuel and so
forth. Is that going to carry on forever? IE: I made a very clear promise. We‟ve kept that promise. Incidentally I think it‟s
important to keep these promises, you know I‟ve made promises. IR: Will you make this promise again?
IE: We will set our plans at the next election in our manifesto. But I think, it is you know, just to make the point, you know, I made promises like delivering on our aid
promises. We kept that promise. I do think we make these very clear public promises, you should keep them.
Datum No. 36
Although Andrew Marr tries to deliver follow-up questions to make David Cameron answer the topical domain of the question, he is failed. As the prefatory
statements, Andrew Marr explains about David Cameron‟s promises as the Prime
Minister. He also mention s the example of David‟s promises. In his question,
Andrew Marr wants to confirm whether David Cameron will make the same promise or not.
In his answer, David Cameron does not say „yes‟ or „no‟ to respond to the
question. In his answer, he does not mention whether he will use the same promises or not. In his second answer, David Cameron does the same action.
Although Andrew Marr replaces the word „forever‟ with „again‟ in his follow-up question, it does not make David Cameron to give the confirmation.
The question delivered by Andrew Marr implies what David Cameron will do if he is reelected as the Prime Minister in the next turn. Roundabout trajectory is
used by him because David Cameron still runs the government. That is why he does not respond to the topical domain of the question.