scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of the Discursive Construction of Corporate Identities by Chinese and American Banks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Xia Cheng ◽  
Xingsong Shi
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructivism ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Business English ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Corporate Ability ◽  
Chinese Banks ◽  
Communication Capability ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach ◽  
Practical Implications

Abstract By taking the perspective of Social Constructivism and the Discourse-Historical Approach, and using the corpus linguistic tool Wmatrix, this study compares the discursive strategies adopted by Chinese and American banks in their construction of corporate identities. The research underlines the shared and unique features presented in prominent themes, communication strategies and lexical patterns. It is found that Chinese banks prefer to emphasise their historical development, industrial ranking and organisational structure to positively construct their identity as industry leaders, adopting a corporate ability strategy through the frequent usage of numbers and superlative adjectives. However, American banks tend to stress care for their employees, communities and environment. They prefer to use a corporate responsibility strategy to build their identity as social contributors through the frequent usage of performative verbs to exhibit specific corporate activities. This study may have practical implications for Chinese companies wishing to improve their international communication capability and may offer educational implications for Business English teaching.

“Uma revolução democrática é sempre uma revolução inacabada” — or — “A democratic revolution must always remain unfinished”

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filipa Perdigão Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Democratic Revolution ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach ◽  
Ideological Tensions

This article analyses the discursive construction of collective memories and the function of commemorative events for national identity. It focuses on how the 30th anniversary of the Portuguese 1974 revolution was portrayed in the government’s Programme of Action issued for the 2004 commemorations and in forty-three newspaper opinion articles also published in 2004. The 1974 revolution ended a 48-year right-wing dictatorship and has shaped subsequent historical events since the 1970s. When the Programme of Action changed the 1974 slogan ‘April is revolution’ into ‘April is evolution’, the written press responded by conducting a debate on this reframing. Using the Discourse-Historical Approach in CDA as the analytical framework, this paper highlights the discursive strategies on which the government’s manifesto was built and explores the opinion articles’ ongoing political and ideological tensions over the revolution, its commemorations, and how it paved the way into Europe, by describing the main macro-discursive strategies and raising issues regarding the (mis)representation of social actors and social action.

scholarly journals The Autobiographic Discursive Construction of Immigrant Identity: A Discourse Historical Analysis of 'My Life's Journey'

2019 ◽  
Vol IV (IV) ◽  
pp. 324-330
Author(s):  
Fouzia Rehman Khan ◽  
Sumaira Shafiq ◽  
Ayaz Qadeer
Keyword(s):  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Immigrant Identity ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach ◽  
Political Figure

The present critical discourse study explores the discursive construction of immigrant identity of Mohajir/Urdu Speaking people in Pakistan through the analysis of an autobiographic discourse in the form of My Lifes Journey by Altaf Hussain. Discourse Historical Approach of CDA serves as the theoretical and analytical framework for this study. This framework is based on themes and discursive strategies. The analysis of the selected discourse reveals that the interview based autobiography of the political figure is based on the recurring theme of political transformation and reconstruction of immigrant identity. The discourse is also constituted of several discursive strategies; the most prevalent ones are those of victimization, topos of history, topos of definition and positive self and negative other presentation. The autobiographical discourse highlights the transformational phases the immigrant identity of Mohajirs has gone through. The readers of this discourse under analysis often encounter terms like parochial difference, biased attitudes, and discrimination.

scholarly journals Boon or Bane? Discursive Construction of the Shale Gas Controversy

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-148
Author(s):  
Zeynep Cihan Koca-Helvacı
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
The Other ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Gas Extraction ◽  
Argumentation Schemes ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
American Society ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

This study explores strategies in pro and anti-shale organizations’ discourse by combining the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak, 2001) with corpus linguistics. With the help of keyword lists, collocations, concordances, and key semantic domains, the representations of shale gas extraction, relevant actors and argumentation schemes in opposing discourses of the pro-shale Marcellus Shale Coalition and anti-shale Americans Against Fracking were analyzed. The findings of the study show that the advocates presented shale gas as a bonus for the crisis-struck American society while backgrounding its environmental impacts. The opponents, on the other hand, represented shale gas as a threat to the American ecosystem and public health through an alarming and scientific discourse. The empirical findings of this study add to a growing body of literature on discursive strategies employed by opposing camps of environmental controversies.

scholarly journals Politics of Identity: The Face of Islam in the International E-Media

2019 ◽  
Vol IV (II) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Sarwet Rasul ◽  
Azka Khan ◽  
Shumaila Mazhar
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The Face ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Negative Identity ◽  
Insight Into

The portrayal of Islam in a hostile relationship with rationality, liberty, and tolerance, leads to a politics of identity were a marginalized community embattles to re-affirm and resist the tarnished face. The bigoted perception of Islam as a political, economic, and social threat reinforces the unfounded Islamophobia and needs production of counter-narrative by scholars and researchers believing in humanity and equality. This paper aims to explore the discursive construction of Islam through the use of E-media caricatures. Discourse historical approach (DHA) is used to analyze the discourse of 16 Emedia caricatures disseminated on the World Wide Web in the years 2017 and 2018. The analysis demonstrates the discursive strategies namely referential strategy, predication, argumentation and intensification used in the (mis)representation and (de)legitimization of the face of Islam in the E-Media. This study gives a deeper insight into the issue of the negative identity construction of Islam using caricatures

scholarly journals ‘Victims vs Terrorists?’ The Discursive Construction of Palestinians in Two Online Israeli Newspapers during the 2014 Gaza War

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rami Qawariq
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

 This article is a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the representation of Palestinians in two online Israeli newspapers published in English during the 2014 Gaza War. The study attempts to conduct a language-based analysis of the political and ideological workings that underpin the representation of social actors. It employs tools from the Discourse Historical Approach (Reisigl & Wodak 2001) to explain the discursive characterization of fighters/ Hamas and civilians. Since the huge number of Palestinian civilian fatalities was a major aspect of controversy in the last war, this article tries to reveal the linguistic choices and discursive strategies used in representing each group of social actors. More importantly, the article detects the linguistic and discursive differences between two newspapers and explains how they may reflect different political orientations. 

scholarly journals Exploring the Discursive Construction of Obedience: An Analysis of Application Letters for the Position of Executioner in Hitler’s Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Leisser ◽  
Katie Bray ◽  
Anaruth Hernández ◽  
Doha Nasr
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
National Socialist State ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
Research Questions

AbstractThis article presents an empirical investigation into the construction of obedience in letters of applications mailed to National Socialist authorities for the position of executioner between the years 1933 and 1945. To this end, a corpus of 178 letters of application was compiled, annotated, and analyzed using the corpus analysis toolkits Antconc and Lancsbox. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the corpus was conducted. The findings were related to and interpreted from the perspectives of applied legal linguistics, stylistics, and legal history. The project aims to explore the construction of a shared discourse of obedience and how this discourse is operative in the letters of application. Drawing on an explorative interdisciplinary framework, this project seeks to answer the following research questions: Is obedience a construct in applicants’ letters of motivation? Which linguistic devices and discursive strategies are used by the executioners to express submission to officials of the National Socialist state? Are there variants of the construction of submission by applicants?

Nation-building and presidential rhetoric in Belarus

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 727-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Klymenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Presidential Rhetoric ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Community ◽  
Societal Consensus ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Presidential Speeches ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

Abstract This paper studies the Belarusian nation as envisioned by the president in his political speeches delivered on the country’s Independence Day. The theoretical framework of the paper rests upon an understanding of the discursive construction of national identity. This analysis of the presidential speeches utilizes principles of the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). As a special genre of texts, political speeches aim to offer normative guidance and a sense of societal consensus to the public. The paper reveals that in the construction of a national community in Belarus, the presidential speeches ambiguously refer to historical memory, socio-economic development, the political system and the country’s foreign relations.

Analyzing the effects of incivility beyond workplaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1069-1093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hierarchical Coding ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Template Analysis ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to peruse a strike enacted by the police force (PF) from a southeast state of Brazil and its consequences to the population through the lens of workplace incivility (WI) theory. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on a qualitative research design and social constructivism paradigm. In addition, it uses the template analysis, a peculiar form of thematic analysis, which is grounded on the hierarchical coding. Accordingly, it allows the researcher to yield a broad structure (obviously through the task of analyzing textual data, i.e. published texts) as well as providing enough flexibility to comply with the needs of a study. Findings Overall, there was a slightly shift between the initial template and the second one. Rather, the initial thematic assumptions were largely confirmed, namely, antecedents, strike strategy, reactions and consequences; yet, findings also showed other theme, i.e. mitigating decisions. The template analysis used here turned to be a consistent path given that it allowed finding a range of categories related to the themes, which substantiated the results. On the other hand, this investigation shows that even society, as a whole, may be seriously affected by WI. Research limitations/implications This investigation has some limitations regarding that it is a qualitative endeavor. Therefore, the outcomes cannot be generalized, and it constitutes the chief limitation of this study. Practical implications In terms of practical implications, findings suggest that public managers, mayors and governors must pay strong attention to the task of motivating their workforce. Robust human resource policies and fair salary may avoid job dissatisfaction. Social implications Data also indicated that incivility may be related to complex dynamics whose negative impacts may go beyond the workplaces. Originality/value This study expands the theory of WI by paying attention to a generally neglected group (police officers). In addition, it focuses on an emergent economy, which is at odds with robust problems of finance and public management nature. In doing so, it provides evidence of other consequences of WI. Broadly speaking, citizens and businesses are consumers of public services, including safety. Finally, it suggests that WI may be associated with two instigators simultaneously. In this case, it was intertwined with governor’s weak human resources policies and the civil servants’ irresponsibility.

From religious performances to martial themes

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-633
Author(s):  
Soudeh Ghaffari
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach ◽  
Rhetorical Tools

Abstract This paper deconstructs how religious musical eulogies, as the most important discursive practices of Shi’a rituals (Ghaffari 2019), were used as “war songs” serving to construct the Iranian national identity during the 1980–1988 Iraq-Iran war. These musical practices (in)formed the wider ideological and persuasive rhetoric of Iranians. In this paper, I analyse the textual and musical features of the audio-recorded versions of ten well-known war songs. The Discourse-Historical Approach (Reisigl and Wodak 2016) is used to analyse the discursive strategies and persuasive rhetorical tools within the lyrics. I draw on Machin (2010), Machin and Richardson (2012) and van Leeuwen (1999) to analyse various features of voice and the modality of sounds. This paper concludes that, by reflecting the power of religious discourse in the non-religious and highly nationalistic occasion of war, Iranian war songs were inspired by the religious eulogies in encouraging the Iranian nation to attend the war fronts.

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