The Stylistic Aftermath of the Financial Crisis in the Icelandic Parliament: Reinventing Identity at the Level of Political Parties

We examine sociolinguistic lifespan change in political speech, focusing on Icelandic parliament speeches. We investigate the evolution of linguistic usage for the Independence Party and its leader, Bjarni Benediktsson, over the course of several years. This study is situated at the intersection of three areas of research: (i) sociolinguistic analysis of political speech, (ii) lifespan change and the effects of life events on linguistic behavior, (iii) sociolinguistic style and identity. We find that entire political parties can reinvent their identity as they go through historical events but we also find that individuals within a party can carve out their own path through history.