Discursive Strategies Research Articles

Translating harassment: cross cultural reconstruction of the feminist identity in translated fiction

The issue of the sexual harassment of women is often discussed in academic literature, but how this issue is dealt with translated works has rarely been investigated. Targeting this lacuna, this study analyses the construction of the identity of the sexually harassed woman in two selected translations of a single novel. It also investigates how the translators’ perspectival positions are reflected in the translated versions of the source text. Mastoor’s Urdu novel, Aangan, and its two English translations by Rockwell and Hussain were chosen and used a parallel corpus. NLTK is used for the extraction of frequencies and concordances from this corpus. The data are analysed through critical discourse analysis (CDA), while drawing upon the theoretical assumptions of feminist translation. Both translators used discursive and translation strategies according to their perspectival positions. Rockwell has treated the issue of sexual harassment with sensitivity, whereas Hussain has shown tolerance of it and romanticized this issue. The image of the harassed woman appears maintained or magnified in Rockwell’s text, in which feminist translation strategies of supplementing, hijacking, adding commentary, substituting, deleting, adding and intensifying discursive choices were found to be employed. However, Hussain presented the same gender ideology as the one found in the source text, at times, the image of harassment was found to be de-emphasized in the translated version. She has mainly used the translation strategies of literal translation, omission, and explicitness. Moreover, the discursive processes of foregrounding, mitigated linguistic choices, and nominalisation were also employed. The findings imply that both translated texts depict the translators’ subjectivity, where the Rockwell’s translation seems to highlight the image of sexual harassment of women in Pakistani society.

‘Best run club in the world': Manchester City fans and the legitimation of sportswashing?

The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact of this latter strategy on the existing fanbase of the purchased team and on their relationship with sportswashing and the discourses surrounding it. This paper addresses this lacuna through analysis of a popular Manchester City online fan forum, which illustrates the manner in which this community of dedicated City fans have legitimated the actions of the club's ownership regime, the Abu Dhabi United Group – a private equity group operated by Abu Dhabi royalty and UAE politicians. The discursive strategies of the City fans are discussed, in addition to the wider significance of these strategies on the issue of sportswashing and its coverage by the media.

Discursive representations of sexual minorities in China’s English-language news media: a corpus-based study

In contemporary China, sexual minorities (SMs) are still a marginalized community. Prior studies have accorded SMs a great deal of attention, but little research has been conducted on the representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people in Chinese English-language news media. This article uses corpus linguistic tools to examine popular views on SMs in a larger corpus of 354 news articles, filling the gap in research. Based on data collected from four English-language newspapers in mainland China and informed by discursive strategies, the article concludes that Chinese SMs are prominently represented as unhealthy individuals, but also victims and progressionists. The findings also indicate that conservative and liberal perspectives on SMs co-exist in the English-language newspapers. In addition, potential contributing factors to these representations are discussed.

A Study of a Specialised American Police Discourse Genre: Probable Cause Affidavits

This paper focuses on the analysis of a specialised American police discourse genre and is based on a corpus of 115 probable cause affidavits. A probable cause affidavit is a sworn statement written by American police officers to state that there is probable cause to believe the defendant has committed (or is committing) a criminal offence and that legal action is required. After briefly presenting the methodological framework for this study, the paper intends to show how the police use specific linguistic, discursive and rhetorical strategies to serve a specialised purpose, which is to present the existence of probable cause to the relevant legal authorities. The findings indicate that officers use various discursive devices to inform but also—and perhaps more importantly—to convince their audience by means of a chronological and structured narrative of events that follows a prototypical three-fold internal organisation (exposition, investigation, resolution) signalled by specific linguistic markers. Finally, the paper intends to go beyond the objective description of events in order to highlight the assertive nature of this discourse genre and the additional rhetorical strategies used by PCA writers. It studies the emphasis placed on the expertise of the author, as well as the police classification of the offence and the progressive elaboration of the burden of proof.

The construction and legitimation of Elisa Loncón as a Mapuche female political leader on Instagram

Abstract This study analyzed the multimodal discursive strategies Elisa Loncón, a Mapuche linguist and renowned academic, used on Instagram to position herself as a sociopolitical leader during her tenure as president of the Chilean Constitutional Convention. 811 Instagram posts from her account were downloaded from 15 January 2021 until 15 January 2022. From this, 81 of the most interacted posts were selected and used to examine her multimodal discursive strategies while drawing on the Discourse-Historical Approach (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 2016). The results revealed three main themes: (1) the construction of an alternative leadership, (2) visibilization of female leadership decision-making, and (3) a vindication of linguistic rights. Referential and intensification strategies were particularly salient, and they were used to legitimize her role and foreground her Mapuche ancestry. These findings highlight how female political leaders (and their intersecting identities) strategically deploy their communication practices to resist sexism and racism.

The Media and the Islands Crisis

Abstract Attracting large audiences during the late Mubarak era and the revolutionary period that followed, Egyptian political talk show hosts played an important role in supporting the authoritarian rollback initiated during the summer of 2013 before seemingly losing much of their hard-won influence. To understand their marginalization better, this article claims that the habits and practices these secular preachers acquired, through a relatively autonomous configuration of their field, did not match the post-2013 regime’s media vision. This observation is supported by discourse analysis of the hosts covering the 2016 Islands crisis, highlighting how their discursive strategies, namely the pluralistic ‘in-betweenness’ of most pundits, were rooted in their career trajectories and how they failed to contain the dislocation of the hegemonic discourse, thereby pushing securocrats to strip the media field of its remaining autonomy.

Специфика конструирования этнической идентичности в межкультурном дискурсе (к вопросу о лингвокультурной адаптации средневекового автора «Хожения за три моря Афанасия Никитина»)

The article is devoted to the consideration of a previously unexplored aspect: the monument of medieval culture “Walking across the Three Seas of Afanasy Nikitin” will be considered in the focus of text-creation strategies of autobiographical discourse, the events of which represent the ethnic identity of the author. This article describes the text-generating strategies of the ethnic identity of a medieval author who lived in the East for several years and partially mastered the language of a “foreign” culture for him from the standpoint of the anthropological approach in linguistics, methods of semiotics and discourse analysis. The study includes such research parameters, as well as characteristics of the phenomenon of ethnic identity, as the linguistic picture of the world, the author’s discursive strategies, his self-consciousness in the context of acculturation (secondary socialization) and inculturation (symbolization of “foreign” culture). The study confirmed the model of ethno-cultural hybridization of cultures, dating back to the concept of M. Bakhtin. Based on the analysis of the specifics of the linguistic portrait in the autobiographical narrative of merchant Afanasy Nikitin and the description of cultural associations, archetypal images and meanings in the linguistic picture of the medieval author of the XV century. The theoretical significance of this study lies in the proposal of the concept of linguistic and cultural adaptation, which makes it possible to identify the conditions for successful socialization of the individual and productive as a strategy for the study of the phenomenon of identity.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Resistance to Climate Change in China’s English-Language News Media

ABSTRACT Climate change has become a global issue, but no study has examined the discursive construction of resistance to climate change as part of crisis response in the media. To fill this gap, this study employs Wodak’s discourse-historical approach to examine 82 news articles collected from China’s English-language news media. The analysis reveals three themes used in the construction of a discourse of resistance to climate change: (1) climate change as a global enemy, (2) China as a leading climate change fighter, and (3) other nations as China’s allies in the fight. These themes are articulated in the news stories using discursive strategies such as nomination, predication, argumentation, and mitigation. The article sheds light on the language state-run news media uses to project China’s image abroad and encourage international collaboration and action in the fight against climate change. It also illustrates how discourse analysis can illuminate the geopolitical and sociocultural dimensions of climate change.

A Tamed Transformation. Debating Digitalisation in Research and Higher Education Policy in Switzerland, 1998–2020

Abstract In this article, I investigate the discursive field of the digital transformation of higher education and research policy in Switzerland. The qualitative analysis of political strategies and documents shows that actors in this policy field use open, ambiguous terms to characterise digitalisation. By building on this discursive strategy, the political actors aim not only to reduce uncertainty about the digital transformation as a complex phenomenon but also to build political consensus about the future development of this discursive field.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Turkish Coup Attempt News in The Guardian Newspaper

The current study addresses how Turkish coup attempt (July 2016) news is manifested in newspaper context. Considering that Türkiye has Islamist government, the researcher has chosen this coup to find out how do the non-Muslim English newspapers view towards an Islamic government? So, a number of lines, that contain vocabularies and structures that refer to ideologies or powers, have been selected to be analyzed. These lines are taken from the important English newspaper which is The Guardian. The methodology used in this study is Fairclough’s three dimensional approach (2001). It consists of three dimensions which are: textual analysis, discursive practice, and social practice. This study aims at identifying types of textual, discursive and social strategies employed in the selected newspaper's articles and showing The Guardian newspaper's attitude towards Turkish government. In order to achieve the aims of the study, the researcher proposes some hypotheses which are 1) Grammar is the most commonly strategy of textual analysis used in The Guardian newspaper's article under study. 2) intertextuality discursive strategy is more commonly strategy of analysis used than Presupposition. 3) Concerning social practice, ideology is the most frequently strategy used than power by The Guardian. 4) There are negative ideologies written toward Turkish government and Islam. The study comes out with the following conclusions: The Guardian newspaper has used more grammar, intertextuality and ideology strategies from textual, discursive and social analysis respectively than other devices within the context of it. The Guardian has negative ideologies. It, in every occasion, tries to offend the Islam and Turkish government.

Manifestations of neoliberal feminism in U.S. teacher lactation behaviours

ABSTRACT This study investigates the material-discursive contexts available for lactation amongst U.S. teachers who wish to continue nursing [a] child(ren) upon returning full-time to the classroom. Using critical feminist methodologies, we interviewed teacher-parents who chose to lactate or nurse their infants while at school. The study suggests that schools in the United States might be rife with neo-patriarchy that is highly oppressive to teacher-parents. Further, we found that the few discursive strategies available to lactating teacher-parents to navigate a tenuous work/life balance tend to be largely rooted in the highly individualized, responsibilised discourse of neoliberal feminism that is woefully inadequate to pose any serious challenge to the entrenched neo-patriarchy in schools.

Master Narratives in US Contemporary War Discourse: Situating and Constructing Identities of Self and Other

The present paper aims to discuss the discursive strategies of otherization, legitimation, and normalization typically found in extracts from the author’s video corpus of US Presidents’ selected official statements at the height of actual or potential armed conflicts between the First Gulf War (1990-1991) and the end of the Obama Administration (2016). The underlying working assumption is that, to consolidate asymmetrical power relationships and monitor dissent and/or win domestic consent about the use of force, the US Administration systematically resorts to a relatively restricted inventory of political myths and cultural constructs sustained by strategic storytelling and powerful master narratives, or Intertextual Thematic Formations. The qualitative analysis, informed by a systemic functional, critical discourse approach, is undertaken at both the macro- and micro-levels, with a view to highlighting how master narratives project distinct/conflicting standpoints and socio-institutional roles and identities (e.g. the-President-as-Father-of-the-Nation; the-Community-as-Protector-of-its-Members'-Interests; the-West-as-Civilizer), while feeding the myth of a ‘super-empowered’ President and ultimately sustaining the ideological square. The final contention is that awareness-raising pedagogical models are needed which work upwards from the bottom of the hierarchical narrative structure, contextualizing the master narrative and linking it to the audience’s individual narratives, so that discourse can fulfil its critical function of dismantling potentially manipulative and/or normalizing discourse practices and foster civil society-led, personal counter-narratives that remove stereotyping and oversimplification.

Aestheticizing the Pain: A Critical Analysis of Media Representation of Earthquake Victim Children in Turkey

AbstractOn February 6, 2023, earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 struck southern and central Turkey. The disaster caused severe damage to buildings and resulted in the loss of thousands of lives, leaving many children injured, traumatized, and without basic needs. One of the most sensitive issues was the news stories about children rescued from the rubble. These news stories were highly emotional and sensational, frequently describing the children as miracles. However, they often disregarded the reasons and negligence that caused their victimization. The journalism ethics related to the representation of children, disaster coverage, and interviewing victims are also ignored. This study uses a multimodal critical discourse analysis method to explore the discursive strategies employed in the media coverage of this topic. Three salient common themes were included in the study: “Miracles and hope”, “patriarchal state”, and “sensational/dramatic elements. The analysis shows that media representations of earthquake victim children in Turkey aestheticize their pain and suffering, reducing them to objects of pity or spectacle. By examining these representations critically, the study aims to raise awareness about the importance of ethical and responsible media practices in reporting on natural disasters and other humanitarian crises.

Historical Representations of University Students: Post-War Discourses in the Greek Student Press

In this article, we trace the histories of discourses concerning student identity in post-war Greece. Making use of the discourse-historical approach (DHA), textual data are analyzed in student journals published by students’ unions, factions and collectives of the University of Thessaloniki. Student identity is theorized as being constructed and negotiated in discourse, in close relation to sociopolitical context. In light of the discourse-historical approach it is assumed that the intensification of discursive strategies, such as nominations, predications and argumentations, and the reconceptualization of ingroup and outgroup dichotomy relate to student identity shifts. The findings from such an analysis detect successive shifts in student identity during the post-war period. Student identity is constructed upon the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ dichotomy. Students sometimes self-identify as agents of change and at other times as followers or recipients thereof, while their discourse is tuned with domestic sociopolitical developments.

Authentic cult: media representations of cultural consumption and legitimization of cultural hierarchies

The article explores legitimization strategies related to cultural consumption in the Czech media space by comparing the representations of cultural products in influencer communication on social media and in legacy (print and online) media outlets. Departing from the theoretical debate on the intersection of cultural omnivorousness and the emergence of algorithmic culture, the article poses the question: what strategies do influencers on social media and journalists in legacy media outlets employ to present consumption of cultural products as legitimate, interesting, and cool? Based on qualitative content analysis of 10 Instagram profiles of prominent Czech influencers and culture sections of 10 Czech legacy media, it discusses two main discursive legitimization strategies: (1) the notion of authenticity, used by social media influencers and (2) the notion of cult, used by legacy media in two distinctive ways – as (a) legendary, part of the pop cultural canon and (b) new, contemporary, part of up-to-date cultural savviness.

Attributing blame: how political parties in Germany leverage cooperative federalism

This study investigates how political parties used the federal structure of government for discursive blame attribution strategies in parliamentary debates during the Covid-19 crisis. The analysis focuses on the German case which is considered an embodiment of cooperative federalism. Largely intertwined responsibilities and joint decision making provide incentives for self-serving blame attribution strategies. The empirical investigation includes a qualitative content analysis of 212 parliamentary debates in the Bundestag and the 16 state parliaments. Overall, 2067 statements were manually coded and integrated into a novel dataset. The data reveal a more diverse discursive toolkit of blame attribution strategies than commonly conceptualised. The study demonstrates that parties, especially when they are involved in intergovernmental bodies and coalition governments, resort to ‘softer’ forms of blaming. The vertical integration of the party system also creates an effective blame barrier, containing self-serving strategies even during the prolonged crisis and several election campaigns.

‘Arm your community’: Ideology in vaccine advertising campaigns across countries

This paper represents a comparative study that explores the governmental vaccine advertising campaigns that were authorised by two English-speaking and two German-speaking countries – namely Australia, Britain, Austria and Germany – within the context of the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The data set in question comprises 40 vaccination posters issued by each country’s respective government between January 2021 and July 2022, all of which were displayed in public spaces. The study aims to explore how national governments use their ideological foothold to persuade their respective populations to take action against the virus by getting vaccinated, thus demonstrating how ideology and persuasion are interrelated in governmental vaccine campaigns across countries. In terms of methodology, this comparative study employs primarily methods of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA). The strategies identified in the four countries under investigation concentrate largely on two key strategies: (1) providing a sense of community and solidarity; (2) issuing warnings and eliciting a sense of fear. The discourses of the German-speaking countries gravitate towards the discursive strategy of community, with Austria constituting a notable exception. In contrast, the Anglophone discourse in Britain and Australia employs strategies involving fear and warning, although their campaigns differ in terms of the intensity of the discourse they employ.

How student healthcare providers in a communication skills course respond to standardized patient resistance

Encountering and responding to patient resistance can be especially challenging for student healthcare providers. Navigating who ultimately holds the authority to know and understand a health concern, make recommendations for a course of action, and accept or resist these recommendations are all part of how epistemic authority is negotiated in medical settings.The purpose of this paper is to systematically examine how student providers enrolled in a communication skills course at an American university responded to standardized patient resistance. The data for this study were 121 video-recorded and transcribed final objective structured clinical examinations from the fall 2019 course. We used discourse analysis informed by principles of conversation analysis to identify several discursive strategies used by the students, including: 1) asking for clarification; 2) expressing uncertainty and offering to gather additional resources; 3) aligning with and offering an account for the resistance; 4) recommending a new course of action; and 5) confronting the resistance. Our findings point to the value of including instruction for both student healthcare providers and standardized patients on how to respond to resistance they encounter in ways that may help improve healthcare outcomes.

Symbolic violence and discrimination in a social media comment section: A study on discriminatory discursive strategies targeting non-binary gender identity in the context of Indonesia

Symbolic violence and discrimination in a social media comment section: A study on discriminatory discursive strategies targeting non-binary gender identity in the context of Indonesia

The discursive construction of organizational legitimacy in higher education: Multimodal discourse analysis on Chinese business schools

Applying a Multimodal Discourse Analysis framework, this study focuses on university websites to explore how organizational legitimacy is constructed through discursive strategies. Our findings show that under authoritative administrative logic and market logic, universities construct two organizational identities: policy followers and product/service suppliers, and use exemplification and authorization strategies respectively through visual discourse to legitimate the identities. To avoid potential conflicts between the legitimacy claims associated with these two identities, universities apply a decoupling strategy to isolate the two identities, along with both explicit and implicit expressions, through the intertextuality between visual and verbal discourses. The constitutive characteristics of universities’ website discourse reveal the complexity of Chinese institutional context in higher education field and the constitutive influence of the institutional background on organizational discourse and legitimation strategies.