17

A textometric approach is used here to study relations between the content of three political parties’ websites (Front National, Parti socialiste, and Europe Ecologie Les Verts). Beyond a classical description of automatic lexical classifications (Reinert, 1983, implemented in the Iramuteq software), new approaches (analysis of lexical correspondences of classes stemming from independent analyses; hierarchical representation of inter-textual distances) highlight not only the internal lexical organization of political parties, but also the convergences and divergences of themes between parties. These dynamics of lexicalization are interpreted in terms of appropriation of the lexical register and thus, through social-language marking (Scherer & Giles, 1980), bring into play processes of acceptability and distinctiveness. Such processes structure the relations of alliance and opposition within and between groups, as well as their expression in political parties’ communication.