Author Type

Undergraduate Student

Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Capstone

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

June 2026

Department

Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature

Degree Name

Honors in Major

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Romain Rivaux

Additional Committee Member 1

Geraldine Blattner

Abstract

An exacting command of language in his employ, journalist Camille Desmoulins was arguably one of the most dangerous and cunning players in the political arena of revolutionary France. His work is a clear synthesis of linguistic and political theory but what, precisely, made it so effective? When his work is regarded collectively, a theme emerges wherein Desmoulins uses language designed to categorically perpetuate suspicion. Using the principles of lexical semantics, rhetoric, and connotation, this project seeks to examine the semantic undercurrents of Desmoulins’s works as they relate specifically to the public perception of suspicion, and to define the linguistic parameters within which he operated. An analysis of selected examples will demonstrate how the evocative language speaks to the author’s acute cognizance of his audience and his talent for inflaming the collective unrest through the use of tropes; specifically dehumanization, personification, and the neologism brissoter. Additionally, a feature analysis of nouns and verbs drawn from a sample of Desmoulins’s work further identifies tropes and atypical semantic forms and argues that, through his linguistic manipulation, he was able to sow suspicion among the mercurial Third Estate; both against the monarchy and the ultra-radical Republic

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