scholarly journals Gesture and legitimation in the anti-immigration discourse of Nigel Farage

2021 ◽  
pp. 095792652110485
Author(s):  
Christopher Hart ◽  
Bodo Winter

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) increasingly recognises the role played by multiple semiotic modes in the discursive construction of social identities and inequalities. One embodied mode that has not been subject to any systematic analysis within CDA is gesture. An area where gesture has been extensively studied, and where it is shown to bear significant semiotic load in multimodal utterances, is cognitive linguistics. Here, we use insights from cognitive linguistics to provide a detailed qualitative analysis of gestures in a specific discursive context – the anti-immigration discourse of Nigel Farage. We describe the gestures that accompany a range of rhetorical tropes typical of anti-immigration discourses and critically analyse their role, alongside speech, in communicating prejudice and legitimating discriminatory action. Our analysis suggests that gesture is an important part of political discourse which is worthy of further investigation in future CDA research.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-294
Author(s):  
Piotr Cap

Abstract The present paper explores the current nexus between Cognitive Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), focusing on theories of conceptual positioning, distancing and perspective-taking in discourse space. It assesses the strengths, limitations, and prospects for further operationalization of positioning as a valid methodology in CDA, and political discourse studies in particular. In the first part, I review the cognitive models of positioning that have made the most significant contribution to CDA. Discussing Deictic Space Theory and Text World Theory, among others, I argue that these models reveal further theoretical potential which has not been exploited yet. While they offer a comprehensive and plausible account of how representations and ideologically charged worldviews are established, they fail to deliver a pragmatic explanation of how addressees are made to establish a worldview, in the service of speaker’s goals. The second part of the paper outlines Proximization Theory, a discursive model of crisis and conflict construction in political discourse. I argue that, unlike the other models, it fully captures the complex geopolitical and ideological positioning in political discourse space, providing a viable handle on the dynamics of conflict between the opposing ideologies of the space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 20-30
Author(s):  
Grasiella K. Harb ◽  
Youssef M. Serhan

With the rise in the spate of deaths in America and the failure of Trump in containing coronavirus pandemic, the president is losing his hopes of winning the coming presidential election. Amidst Trump’s confusion, Covid-19 becomes a pre-text in his political rhetoric in an attempt to blame China for the pandemic, raise tension between U.S. and Beijing, and regain credibility from the public. Accordingly, the research paper aims to explore how Trump’s outrageous language unveils his ideological hegemony and contributes to the spread of xenophobia towards China. A multidisciplinary qualitative analysis was adopted to analyze one of Trump’s blunt political discourse. The analysis was based on Fairclough and Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, along with Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Model. The findings of the study are significant in raising the public’s awareness of the manipulative social function of language in enhancing racism and inequality of power between nations.


Author(s):  
Betty Yu ◽  
RaMonda Horton ◽  
Benjamin Munson ◽  
Brandi L. Newkirk-Turner ◽  
Valerie E. Johnson ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this critical discourse analytic study is to identify how two key professional standards documents in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences field—the Standards for Certification document and the Essential Functions rubric—contribute to the discursive construction of the ideal speech-language pathologist and audiologist, and to examine whether the experiences and needs of people of color are taken into consideration in these documents. Method Critical discourse analysis was used as both a conceptual and methodological lens for the systematic analysis of the targeted text. Results The findings show that considerations of race and racism were almost entirely absent from both documents and thus reflected a discourse of race neutrality that is ideologically consistent with color-blind racism. The enactment of racially coded expectations within a construct of race-neutral discourse maintains racial inequities in the speech, language, and hearing sciences professions. Conclusions The findings highlight the need for the open acknowledgment of racism in our institutional policies and discourses and official and ongoing commitments to concrete and measurable antiracist actions to counteract systemic racism. Recommendations for and examples of antiracist measures are offered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 401-411
Author(s):  
QIAN WANG

The social turn of cognitive linguistics and cognitive turn of critical discourse analysis breed the opportunity for cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis to develop towards a more converging path that integrates both cognitive and social dimensions of language. As known, political discourse is intrinsically persuasive and always informs a power relation with attempts to achieve effectiveness of persuasion. This paper argues that both approaches (Cognitive Linguistics and CDA) are concerned with surfaced evidence of implicit ideologies hidden behind political discourse, so the integration of CL and CDA could extend the research scope for both paradigms on one hand, and provide more powerful explanatory tools to augment our understanding of the intertwined relations between language, cognition and society on the other.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan

The Critical Discourse Analysis is often applied to analyze political discourse including the political speech. This article analyzes Grace Natalie Louisa’s Speech, mainly in Festival 11 by Partai Solidaritas Indonesia (PSI), that is exclusively based on the perspective of Teun Adrianus van Dijk. It reveals that we can learn how to deliver our ideology to public. Moreover, we can have a better understanding of the political purpose of these speeches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-275
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaina Singh

On August 13th 2010, the MV Sun Sea ship carrying 492 Tamil asylum seekers arrived off of the coast of British Columbia. Immediately upon arrival the Tamil asylum seekers were detained for a prolonged period of time, subjected to intensified interrogation techniques, and unfairly questioned even when in possession of identifying documents. This paper examines how the government used political discourse to try and justify the unusually harsh detention of asylum seekers. Through a critical discourse analysis strategy, eight newspaper articles will be analyzed and the theories of securitization, discourse, and orientalism will be used to advance certain political ideologies. The political justifications of detention operate through the theme of the egocentric state, and the theme of categorizing and demonizing asylum seekers. The final theme discussed is the concept of victimization, which will offer an alternate perspective to this paper’s main focus on political discourse.


Author(s):  
Kamil Fleissner

ABSTRACTThis study aims to analyze the discoursive representation of andalusian collective identity and memory in the television series “La respuesta está en la historia”. I will reflect the theoretical approach of the social construction of identities and I will use the methodology of the critical discourse analysis to identify, classify and explore the basic discoursive strategies that are reproduced by the television series.RESUMENEl propósito general de este estudio es analizar la construcción discursiva de las representaciones de la identidad social y de la memoria colectiva de los andaluces en la serie “La respuesta está en la Historia”. Reflejando las explicaciones teóricas de la construcción de la identidad y los conceptos de la memoria colectiva, y usando la perspectiva teórico-metodológica del análisis crítico del discurso identifico, clasifico y exploro las principales estrategias discursivas usadas en el programa.


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