Pronouns and Ideology in Newspaper Discourse

Abstract

It is a fact that the role of pronouns, especially personal pronouns, in representing socio-political ideologies is not new as it has been studied extensively in relation to political discourse. However, this role needs to be examined in the newspaper discourse. Consequently, the current paper intends to examine personal and possessive pronouns used in newspaper articles to represent socio-political ideologies. Such a study requires a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse excerpts from news articles in Iraqi English newspaper, known as the Kurdish Globe (henceforth, KG), on the event of American military forces’ (henceforth, AMFs’) withdrawal from Iraq. Using a qualitative content analysis, the excerpts are categorized thematically in relation to the ideological values found in them. It is revealed that the KG newspaper made use of direct quotation of American politicians’ statements which contain plural personal and possessive pronouns when referring to their actions. This has served two aspects; firstly, it showed its objectivity in conveying the news event using quotations of newsworthy value. Secondly, it enhanced its socio-political ideologies through the direct quotations of American politicians whose government has a powerful authority over Iraq. On the one hand, the KG newspaper used personal and possessive pronouns associated with the positive representation of the U.S. government and its forces to show its trust in them. On the other hand, personal and possessive pronouns related to the Iraqi politicians were associated with negative representation to enhance its distrust in the Iraqi government.