Abstract
Trying to acquire and maintain power, politicians make use of certain rhetorical and linguistic devices to persuade voters in favor of their particular views constructed in the political discourse. The current study was an attempt to investigate Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s use of persuasive rhetorical-discursive devices during his campaign for presidency in 2013. Specific attention was paid to the levels of language that constituted his political discourse through: 1) scrutinizing the level of sound, 2) investigating his selection of lexical elements, and 3) looking into syntactic structures employed to convey political nuances. Additionally, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, drawing upon Fairclough’s three-dimensional analytical framework (2010), was adopted to probe the discourse-power relationship in his discourse, on the one hand, and the socio-cultural, religious, and political values underlying the rhetorical devices, on the other. The results revealed that Rouhani’s political discourse was embroidered with different rhetorical-discursive devices such as tripartite constructions, repetition in parallel lines, alliteration, and metaphor to influence the public opinion. Moreover, perhaps, using a concise and succinct message, visual symbols, and dynamic metaphors helped him reach out to the audience with an air of emotion and mobilize significant numbers of the electorate for himself.
Highlights
Persuasion is inherent to human interaction, it is highly pervasive in the political process (Mutz et al, 1999)
Adopting an interdisciplinary framework theoretically grounded in critical discourse analysis (CDA) as its analytical lens, this study sought to bridge this apparent gap to some extent and account for the rhetorical devices President Hassan Rouhani of Iran employed to appeal to a wider electoral base during his presidential campaign in 2013
We examined Iran’s 11th presidential campaign discourse and looked into Rouhani’s use of rhetorical and persuasive linguistic devices which enabled him to present his political ideology and, potentially, had a positive role in his subsequent election victory
Summary
Persuasion is inherent to human interaction, it is highly pervasive in the political process (Mutz et al, 1999). Politics is seen as a struggle for power (Chilton, 2004) and in this struggle politicians try to communicate their plans and policies by providing evidence, persuading the electorate to act in their favor, and convincing them to vote for their plans and thoughts. In this process, language as a social practice (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997), and the lifeblood of politics (Charteris-Black, 2011) plays a significant role, because it is Мирзаи А. Using a CDA lens, we explain the socio-cultural, religious, and political values underlying the rhetoric evidenced in the dataset
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
