Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of Saudi Vision 2030

Abstract

Saudi Vision 2030 is a plan to steer the country towards prosperity through diversified economy, better government services and conducive environment for all to thrive. The study of wordlists, keyword lists, collocation analyses, identification of core issues on the basis of lexical fields and their reflection in 2018 English newspapers in Saudi Arabia qualifies the corpus-assisted present study for Critical Discourse Analysis. The corpora of 4.3 million words and 2.0 million words from the English Newspapers in Saudi Arabia published in 2013 and 2018 respectively have been compiled for the study. Saudi Vision 2030 has been treated as a specialized corpus to get frequency lists and collocations. The analyses identified the extraordinary use of second person plural pronoun ‘we’ ‘our’, modal auxiliary ‘will’ etc.; such explorations paved the way for entry into more qualitative investigations. On the basis keyword lists, key issues have been identified in all three corpora. Some key issues including the largest lexical field in newspaper corpora viz. ‘Security’ has been found missing in the said vision. The present study aims to bring forth a fresh insight into Saudi Vision 2030 and to advocate the corpus-assisted methodology for critical discourse analysis.