The Grammar of Persuasion: An Analysis of The Rumiyah of ISIS

Abstract

ISIS is known for its influential propaganda activities, which includes their online publication (e.g. the Rumiyah magazine). Their language of propaganda has proven to be very effective in recruiting foreign fighters from many countries. It therefore makes it worth analyzing it. This research examines the grammar of ISIS’s language of persuasion, more specifically, the mood types of the clauses, their speech-function realization, and the SFL patterns of persuasion. A discourse analysis on the clauses of an article (text) in the Rumiyah, entitled, ‘Just Terror Tactics’, was applied. The Hallidayan SFL theory was used as the basis of analysis. The result shows that the writer mainly applied declarative moods functioning as indirect directives and presented them as suggestions to soften their instructions to do knife terror. In terms of clause patterns, the writer applied four typical patterns to make suggestions, four typical patterns to make trivialization, and four typical patterns to make amplification.