A Critical Discourse Analysis of Iran and US Presidential Speeches at the UN: The Sociopragmatic Functions

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 764
Author(s):  
Sahar Najarzadegan ◽  
Azizollah Dabaghi ◽  
Abbass Eslami-Rasekh

Speeches articulated by politicians are often vehicles towards achieving their ultimate goals. That’s why there is always tendency to find out the potential ideologies indicated by the discursive strategies and rhetorical devices which these politicians employ to express their political viewpoints. This study adopted a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to cognitively analyze the typical discursive characteristics underlying Iranian and American presidents’ speeches at the UNGA (2013). The findings revealed that the most frequent of the strategies employed by Obama were polarization, self-glorification, positive self-presentation, negative-other presentation and victimization while the most prominent ones used by Rouhani were metaphor, vagueness, negative-other presentation and national self-glorification. The intricate, undeniable relationships existing between language, power and ideology is also what had been clear through the analysis of the lectures transcription.

2020 ◽  
Vol V (III) ◽  
pp. 146-155
Author(s):  
Arif Khan ◽  
Ghani Rahman ◽  
Sajid Iqbal

The present study, based on Van Dijk (2005) ideological square model, aims to show how the two countries, i.e., Pakistan and India, represent each other through their newspaper's discourse. Using Van Dijk's (2005) framework (positive self-presentation, negative other-presentation) for discourse analysis, this study examines linguistic features in fifty editorials of three Pakistani and three Indian English newspapers. The aforementioned model adopted from Politics, Ideology and Discourse is used to detect discursive structures within editorials and to discover the hidden ideologies. Besides, the researchers have used different discursive strategies such as actor description, euphemism, evidentiality etc., for microanalysis. Moreover, the macro analysis has been done by using the macro strategies, i.e., positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. The study revealed that Pakistani editorials used micro strategies more than that Indians. The study also revealed that Pakistani editorials relied mostly on positive self-presentation, while Indian editorials focused on negative other-presentation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Aram Terzyan

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
Waheed M. A. Altohami ◽  
Amir H. Y. Salama

This paper is a corpus critical discourse analysis of the journalistic representations of Saudi women as they appear in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (Davies, 2008). It follows a sociocognitive approach (van Dijk, 2008) to explore the thematic foci discussing issues related to Saudi women and to discuss the discursive strategies implemented to propagate such issues. The study has reached four findings. First, the thematic foci related to Saudi women are textually and referentially coherent as they were meant to provide a grand narrative underlying a specific context model. Second, Saudi women are negatively represented as no social roles are ascribed to them throughout the corpus. Third, different social actors are also represented alongside Saudi women to put them in a wider socio-cultural context to aggravate their problems. Finally, the most effective discursive strategies which mediated the running context model included victimization, categorization, stereotyping, normalization, and exaggeration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M Bertotti ◽  
Skye A Miner

Using critical discourse analysis, we examine how seven popular gynecology textbooks use sociolinguistic devices to describe the health effects of pharma-contraception (intrauterine and hormonal methods). Though previous studies have noted that textbooks generally use neutral language, we find that gynecology textbooks differentially deployed linguistic devices, framing pharma-contraceptive benefits as certain and risks as doubtful. These discursive strategies transform pharma-contraceptive safety into fact. We expand on Latour and Woolgar’s concept of noncontentious facts by showing how some facts that are taken for granted by the medical community still require discursive fortification to counter potential negative accusations from outside the profession. We call these contentious facts. Our findings suggest that a pro-pharma orientation exists in gynecology textbooks, which may influence physicians’ understanding of pharmaceutical safety. As such, these texts may affect medical practice by normalizing pharma-contraceptives without full considerations of their risks.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Nartey

Abstract This paper presents a discourse-mythological analysis of the rhetoric of a pioneering Pan-African and Ghana’s independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, drawing on Ruth Wodak’s discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis. The thesis of the paper is that Nkrumah’s discourse, in its focus on the emancipation and unification of Africa, can be characterized as mythic, a discursive exhortation of Africa to demonstrate to the world that it can better govern itself than the colonizers. In this vein, the paper analyzes four discursive strategies employed by Nkrumah in the creation and projection of his mythology: the introduction or creation of new discourse events, presupposition and implication, involvement (the use of indexicals) and lexical structuring and reiteration. This study is, therefore, presented as a case study of mythic discourse within the domain of politics.


First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Recuero ◽  
Felipe Soares ◽  
Otávio Vinhas

This paper aims to analyze and compare the discursive strategies used to spread and legitimate disinformation on Twitter and WhatsApp during the 2018 Brazilian presidential election. Our case study is the disinformation campaign used to discredit the electronic ballot that was used for the election. In this paper, we use a mixed methods approach that combined critical discourse analysis and a quantitative aggregate approach to discuss a dataset of 53 original tweets and 54 original WhatsApp messages. We focused on identifying the most used strategies in each platform. Our results show that: (1) messages on both platforms used structural strategies to portray urgency and create a negative emotional framing; (2) tweets often framed disinformation as a “rational” explanation; and, (3) while WhatsApp messages frequently relied on authorities and shared conspiracy theories, spreading less truthful stories than tweets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-104
Author(s):  
Munaza Hasan Nasir

The aim of this research paper is to critically analyse the documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness and explore the phenomenon of honor killing as presented through discourse in the documentary. In order to carry out critical discourse analysis Fairclough’s 3D model (description, explanation and interpretation) provided the framework of the research. The discursive strategies employed by the participants involved in honor killing both as agents and victims were explored. It was observed that the antagonists considered themselves to be the victims who were compelled to act in the name of honor by the protagonist (Saba). They also rationalized their actions through their language and discourse.  


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 462-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Bell

This paper documents the discourse used by contemporary circuses to justify their exploitation of nonhuman animals. The circus is undergoing redefinition due to cultural changes, animal welfare concerns, and political legislation. Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to a sample of articles (N= 128) on animals in circuses published inusnewspapers and magazines from 2007 to 2012. Analyses revealed that circus discourse attempts to (a) promote the circus as an ecologically important endeavor, (b) minimize the differences between human and nonhuman animals, (c) naturalize culturally induced behavior, (d) assert that captivity is preferable to the wild, and (e) collapse domesticity and wildness. These discursive strategies serve to legitimize, naturalize, and produce consent for the use of nonhuman animals in circuses. Furthermore, circus discourse conceptualizes nature and culture in ways that are ideologically significant and detrimental to the promotion of a conservation mindset.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
José-Santiago Fernández-Vázquez

PurposeThis paper examines how organic candies are marketed as healthy and ethical choices on commercial websites through the use of visual, rhetorical and promotional strategies.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses social semiotics and multimodal critical discourse analysis to identify the narratives and discursive traits that organic candy manufacturers reproduce on their websites as part of their ethical branding policy. The dataset is formed by 10 websites that commercialize organic confectionery.FindingsThe findings indicate that sellers try to associate organic candy to healthiness, simple and traditional lifestyles and social awareness to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Often the ethical claims that organic candy websites reproduce are not justified.Research limitations/implicationsA major limitation of this study is that the investigation does not evaluate the effectiveness of rhetorical and discursive strategies on real consumer decisions. Further research of an ethnographic or empirical nature would be required for this purpose.Practical implicationsThis study recognizes the strategies that organic candy sellers reproduce can help consumers make more informed choices. From the point of view of marketers, understanding the multimodal, rhetorical and discursive strategies that organic candy brands employ can be useful to devise their own marketing approaches.Originality/valueThe investigation contributes to a growing body of research about multimodal critical discourse analysis within food marketing studies. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that analyses organic candy branding from a multimodal perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-376
Author(s):  
Inna Petrovna Romashova

This article proposes a typology of strategies and tactics of legitimation. The linguistic interpretation of the concepts of “legitimacy” and “legitimation”, developed in the article, is based on the following theoretical sources: on the notions of legitimacy and discursive mechanisms for its maintenance, established in the humanities; to the work of linguists studying the discursive mechanisms of legitimation in line with critical discourse analysis (CDA); to the works of domestic discourses, which analyze the means of ensuring credibility and trust in the discourse (V.B. Kashkin, N.S. Ryadovaya, A.A. Malyshev). Following the CDA experts, the author understands legitimation as discursive practices (genres, strategies and tactics) of ensuring a positive attitude of society to a social actor and its discourse. The material used was 120 corporate texts posted on the websites of companies, in corporate publications, in image booklets, and image and information materials of companies posted in the media were also used. A pragmalinguistic analysis of the texts of commercial and state structures allowed the author of the article to identify the key strategies of legitimation, describe tactics, language means of implementing one of the basic strategies of legitimation – the strategy of positive self-presentation. In general, the analysis of the texts showed that the CD uses two main strategies to ensure legitimation: the strategy of creating images of loyal target audiences (external and internal) and the strategy of building a positive image of the corporation itself. The article focuses on the second strategy, on the tactics and language means of its implementation. A wide range of identified tactics testifies to the importance of the legitimation process for corporations. It was also found that most of the texts providing legitimation relate to PR texts, which allows us to conclude that discursive PR practices are standard ways to ensure legitimation.


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