Exploring stance in the manifestos of 3 candidates for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election 2017: Combining CDA and corpus-like insights

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 629-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sin Yan Eureka Ho ◽  
Peter Crosthwaite
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Language Resources ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Political Discourses

While much work has been done on the textual analysis of political discourses in Western countries, relatively little has focused on electoral manifestos in the East. Manifestos are open extensive declarations of individual ideologies for campaigns, comprising small texts in terms of word count but with massive implications for voters’ perception of the candidates’ political leanings. Focusing on the manifestos produced by the three candidates for the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election 2017, this article compares the linguistic features of the written political evaluative stances of the candidates. Combining critical discourse analysis using the APPRAISAL model, with analyses traditionally associated with corpus linguistics including log-likelihood keyword analysis and statistically driven visualisations, we find clear differences between the candidates in terms of the allocation of evaluative resources in their manifestos, representative of the perceived evaluative stance of candidate. Our findings justify the use of corpus linguistic techniques as a complement to critical discourse analysis, even in data with small word counts (<5000), in situations where nuanced, micro-managed selection of language resources is crucial to the perception of stance in very high-stakes contexts.

scholarly journals The Enemy Next Door: The Image of Russia in Georgian and Ukrainian Political Discourses Amid Conflicts Escalation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Aram Terzyan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Image Representation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Core ◽  
Standing Up

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the evolution of Russia’s image representation in Georgian and Ukrainian political discourses amid Russian-Georgian and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts escalation. Even though Georgia’s and Ukraine’s troubled relations with neighboring Russia have been extensively studied, there has been little attention to the ideational dimensions of the confrontations, manifested in elite narratives, that would redraw the discursive boundaries between “Us” and “Them.” This study represents an attempt to fill the void, by examining the core narratives of the enemy, along with the discursive strategies of its othering in Georgian and Ukrainian presidential discourses through critical discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the image of the enemy has become a part of “New Georgia’s” and “New Ukraine’s” identity construction - inherently linked to the two countries’ “choice for Europe.” Russia has been largely framed as Europe’s other, with its “inherently imperial,” “irremediably aggressive” nature and adherence to illiberal, non-democratic values. The axiological and moral evaluations have been accompanied by the claims that the most effective way of standing up to the enemy’s aggression is the “consolidation of democratic nations,” coming down to the two countries’ quests for EU and NATO membership.

The Legitimating Power of Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-275
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Culturally Embedded

Abstract In this article, I examine a corpus of texts that address the 1973 war; these texts cover the period from 1981 to 2011, marking the beginning and end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I explore how Mubarak’s regime employed the war to legitimize its power and defend its policies by deploying longstanding culturally-embedded ‘macro themes’. These macro themes refer to the war as an overwhelming and undisputed ‘Egyptian victory’ and, more significantly, they portray Mubarak himself as ‘war personified/war personalized’. The analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic features in al-Ahram newspaper (the mouthpiece of the state), among other media texts on the war, show how the discursive construction was made consistent, coherent and resonant in a managed context that characterized the political and media landscapes. Depending on unique access to those who produced, edited and even censored the texts under analysis, this method unravels a complex set of cultural messages and conventions about the war, and fills a lacuna in the literature by offering insight into the deliberate and well-coordinated process of shaping and reshaping a specific discourse for a specific purpose.

scholarly journals THE CRITIQUES AND IDEOLOGIES SHARED IN THE INAUGURATION SPEECH OF DONALD TRUMP (A STUDY OF CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS)

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Imron Hizbullah ◽  
Muhammad Taufiq Al Makmun
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Political Condition

<em>This paper investigates the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in studying the inauguration speech of Donald Trump at the Capitol Hill, Washington DC on January 20, 2017. The objective of the study is to uncover the hidden messages regarding ideologies shared and critiques appointed to Obama’s presidency. The paper uses the theory of CDA by Norman Fairclough by focusing on the three aspects of research which are (1) micro or linguistic analysis, (2) Mezzo or discursive analysis, and (3) macro or contextual analysis. The three dimensional model of CDA is aimed to uncover the ideologies shared and critiques appointed to based on linguistic features, socio-political aspect, and discursive practice. The American Dream is represented in seven issues risen which are (1) US economic condition during Obama’s presidency, (2) US political condition during Obama’s presidency, (3) US social condition during Obama’s presidency, (4) The concept of making America great again, (5) Anti-radical Muslim immigrants, (6) America First, and (7) Nationalism. The result of the study reveals that the speech brought some ideologies or thoughts shared to the audiences and might change the people’s perception on Obama’s two periods of presidency who is considered as failure.</em>

scholarly journals A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Jordanian Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Amal Riyadh Kitishat ◽  
Murad Al Kayed ◽  
Mohammad Al-Ajalein
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Statistical Tools ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Syrian Refugee Crisis

The present study employs corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the attitudes of Jordanian news towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The corpus of the research, which consists of 10140 articles (Word types: 103170 and Word tokens: 1956589), were taken from the Petra news agency between 2016 and 2018. Antconc Tools Version 3.4.4w was used to analyze the data. The study used corpus statistical tools of collocates and concordance. Collocates tool used to create a list of 200 collocates associated with the words: /lad3iʔ/ &lsquo;refugee&rsquo;, /lad3iʔi:n/ &lsquo;refugees&rsquo;, /su:ri:/ &lsquo;Syrian&rsquo;, and /su:ryi:n/ &lsquo;Syrians&rsquo;. These collocates were organized into two thematic categories: &lsquo;services and resources&rsquo; and &lsquo;Jordanians and Syrians&rsquo;. The study used a concordance tool to unveil the attitudes of newspapers towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The findings of the study showed that Jordanians see Syrians as &ldquo;brothers&rdquo; and &ldquo;guests&rdquo;. However, Jordanian newspapers overstated the negative effect of Syrian refugees on the Jordanian economy, education, healthcare, etc. Jordanians were frustrated because Syrians compete with them on their resources and governmental services.

scholarly journals AN EXPLORATION OF GRAFFITI ON UNIVERSITY’S WALLS: A CORPUS-BASED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS STUDY

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisreen Naji Al-Khawaldeh ◽  
Imad Khawaldeh ◽  
Baker Bani-Khair ◽  
Amal Al-Khawaldeh
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
The University ◽  
Hashemite University

Graffiti have received a great attention from scholars as they have been considered a vital cultural phenomenon for many years (Trahan, 2011; Divsalar & Nemati, 2012; Zakareviciute, 2014; Farnia, 2014; El-Nashar & Nayef; 2016). Although there are extensive contemporary researches on graffiti in many disciplines, such as linguistics, cultural studies, politics, art, and communication (Pietrosanti, 2010;  Farnia, 2014; Oganda, 2015), there are few studies exploring graffiti on classrooms’ walls in higher education milieus (Farnia, 2014). To the best knowledge of the researchers, very few studies were done on the Jordanian context (e.g. Al-Haj Eid, 2008; Abu-Jaber, et al., 2012) and none was done on the Jordanian universities. Therefore, this study aims at analysing the content and communicative features of writings found on universities’ classrooms’ walls, corridors, and washrooms and their relation to the socio-cultural values of the society in order to explore how universities help students voice their attitudes and thoughts. The linguistic features that characterise these writings were also examined. Graffiti-writings, which were collected from the University of Jordan and the Hashemite University, were coded and analysed using the thematic content analysis technique (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995). The analysis of the data has shown that graffiti serve different communicative language functions related to personal, social, national, religious, political, and taboo matters. The most salient linguistic features of these graffiti are simplicity and variation. It can be concluded that graffiti are distinctive and silent ways of communication, particularly in students’ society. The study will be of great importance to linguists, sociologists, educators, administrators, teachers and parents. It is enrichment to the available literature on linguistic studies.

Using corpus linguistic techniques in (critical) discourse studies reduces but does not remove bias: Evidence from an Arabic corpus about refugees

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad S. Haider
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Statistical Measures ◽  
Discourse Studies

Abstract Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) investigates the relationship between language, power, and society. Corpus linguistics (CL) is the study of language based on examples of real life language use. Over the last two decades, various scholars have combined some approaches and notions of CDA with the analytical framework of CL to examine the representation of several phenomena in relatively large texts. This study follows a corpus-assisted (critical) discourse analysis approach to investigate a 2.5 million word corpus of Arabic news articles by Jordan’s News Agency (PETRA). It demonstrates how some researchers following this approach may make some decisions, at some stages of their analysis, which are likely to affect their findings. These potential decisions may include selecting what statistical measures to use, what threshold to consider, what terms from the frequency, cluster, and collocation results to further investigate, which concordance lines to include in their study, and some others. In this study, I argue that some of these decisions can be made to suit the researchers’ preconceived assumptions and pre-existing hypotheses. The study concludes that using corpus linguistic techniques to discursively analyze large data reduces but not completely removes researchers’ bias.

Counter-discourse corpora, ethical subjectivity and critique of argument: An alternative critical discourse analysis pedagogy

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-813 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Argument Evaluation ◽  
Ethical Subjectivity ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Text Cohesion

In the article I model an alternative critical discourse analysis (CDA) pedagogy which is based on an ethical subjectivity instead of a political subjectivity. Aimed at undergraduates, it facilitates critical purchase on arguments which attack the standpoint of relatively powerless groups/organizations (who seek political change). Via corpus linguistic analysis of appropriate web-based data, I show how the analyst can rigorously find out at scale the recurrent key concerns of a relatively powerless Other with whom they were previously unfamiliar. They use this counter-discourse information as a lens on an argument which criticises the relatively powerless group, ascertaining whether or not the argument has distorted the group’s key concerns. Should this be the case, I highlight how the analyst can go on to explore whether any mischaracterisation has implications for the argument’s credibility because it loses coherence relative to the outlook of the Other. The approach is grounded in Jacques Derrida’s ‘ethics of hospitality to the Other’. It is in being hospitable to the outlook of a relatively powerless Other, and adopting it for purposes of argument evaluation, that the analyst effectively creates an ethical subjectivity. That said, the ethical and political are, in principle, relatable with this method as I indicate. Keywords: absences; argumentation; change.org; corpus linguistics; counter-discourse; critical discourse analysis; ethical subjectivity; Jacques Derrida; online comments; text cohesion.

“They cowardly attack US, so we nobly eliminate them…”

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-315
Author(s):  
Cristina Mayor-Goicoechea ◽  
Jesús Romero-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The People ◽  
Linguistic Strategies

Abstract The threat of the Islamic State is realised both in its attacks and its discourse. To illustrate the role of linguistic threats, the present study investigates the ISIS online propaganda magazine Dabiq by combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics (Romero-Trillo 2008; Baker et al. 2008). Following the two groups described by van Dijk (2003), which are represented by the in-group (ISIS) and the out-group (against ISIS), we propose a third element: the translocal group (i.e., the people in between). The results show the substantial presence of linguistic strategies enhanced by Dangerous Speech (Benesch 2013) to create a high segregation between the groups. Also, the analysis shows the inextricable relationship between conflict and dangerous language and the need to investigate this link further, with special reference to the polarisation of the groups and to the subsequent escalation of violence in discourse.

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