Discursive Strategies Research Articles

The politics of distraction in planning English-medium education policy in schools

ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of a critical ethnography focused on the English-medium instruction (EMI) policy in Nepal’s public schools. Through the analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers, the study reveals that policymakers view the EMI policy as a solution to the crisis in public schools by enhancing their competitiveness with private English-medium schools. However, this approach is identified as a ‘politics of distraction’, as it diverts attention from broader issues such as implicit privatization, funding cuts, and accountability deficits for implementing multilingual education policy. By framing EMI as a public policy doctrine using discursive strategies (e.g. neoliberal rationalization and justification) and suggesting that the crisis can be resolved through school privatization, which in turn promotes commodified languages like English and the national dominant language, Nepali, over local/Indigenous languages, policymakers largely disregard inequalities, structural conditions, and reinforce the existing unequal power relations. By diverting attention from critical issues, policymakers perpetuate historical marginalization, colonial agendas and ideologies, and unequal power asymmetries, failing to address systemic challenges. The research underscores the necessity of scrutinizing the motivations and agendas underlying the promotion of EMI in mainstream schools in multilingual contexts.

The Contrastive Study on Discursive Construction of Identities and the Adaptation in Cosmetic Advertising

Discursive strategies are often used in cosmetic advertisements to construct different discursive identities in order to enter larger markets. Based on the graphic advertisements, the article reveals the dynamic selection and construction of discursive identities and their dynamic adaptation in the foundation advertisements of international brands and national brands. It is found that the cosmetic advertisements employ textual features to construct three discursive identities: one explicit identity for marketing purposes and two implicit identities: friend identity and expert identity. Based on the theories of discursive identity and linguistic adaptation, the article explores the dynamic discursive identities in this kind of advertisement discourse and analyzes the ways to dynamically adapt to the psychological, social and physical worlds of the discourse receivers.

Authoritative and epistemic stance in the construction of conspiracy theories: A case study

What is central to conspiracy theories is the revelation of a hidden or manipulated truth. In addition, the speaker/writer who believes in a conspiracy theory and shares their views on it also seeks the listener’s/reader’s adhesion to the theory. As a result, the speaker/writer must solve two problems: first, the version in which they believe has to be perceived as plausible by the audience and, second, the speaker/writer must have, or gain, credit in order to appear credible. These two aspects are somewhat subsumed under what Biber and Hyland, among others, refer to as stance and stance-taking, which correspond to the positioning of a locutor towards viewpoints and interlocutors. In order to analyze these aspects and the relations between the linguistic markers and the discursive strategies (pragmatic, argumentative, or rhetoric), this study is based on a corpus analysis of online articles written by Jon Rappoport, an unequivocal conspiracy theorist. I only focus on plausibility hedges and certainty boosters so as to study the marking of authoritative and epistemic stance in his discourses and the function(s) they perform. The results show that both plausibility hedges and certainty are used to legitimize Rappoport’s theories and strengthen his authority in various ways, depending on the devices used. Plausibility hedges are mainly used to voice a dissenting interpretation of reality, presented as a possibility that cannot be ruled out, and downplay the elite’s viewpoints. Certainty boosters are used to express the author’s confidence and commitment towards his theories, by presenting his interpretation of reality as unquestionable, self-evident or consensual. Finally, the use of first-person pronouns and booster or hedge verbs are also used to strengthen the legitimacy of the theories and the authority of the author by explicitly indicating his contribution to the construction of conspiracy theories or to introduce and support a dissident viewpoint.

Power, solidarity, and sajiao in dementia care

Abstract While scholars in the sociolinguistics of aging have shown that communication in eldercare is characterized by the predominance of infantilizing speech or elderspeak, sajiao, a self-infantilizing speech, has not been examined in this context. Further, current research on sajiao has focused primarily on young women. How sajiao is used in intergenerational communication involving adults and older adults is rarely examined. Drawing on two years of ethnography in two adult day centers in Taiwan, this paper examines the negotiation of power and solidarity through sajiao in dementia care. Sajiao is used for both task-oriented/transactional goals and interpersonal/relational goals and often serves multifunctional purposes to influence and to connect simultaneously. The intent and effect of sajiao as strategies of persuasion and influence (that is, power) and/or strategies of engagement and connection (that is, solidarity) is jointly constructed and negotiated. The multiple data sources of this longitudinal study—including ethnographic observations, interviews, and video-recordings—allow for richly contextualized interpretations of interactional episodes and reflective accounts, revealing a complex picture of power and solidarity negotiated through sajiao. This study contributes to research on eldercare communication by demonstrating the ambiguity and polysemy of discursive strategies in eldercare communication with regard to power and solidarity.

A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Chinese and American News Coverage on Climate Change

As the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) convened, the climate issue remained a focal point of coverage in both Chinese and American mainstream media. This paper seeks to explore the linguistic features of news discourse of climate change in China and the United States and the discursive strategy applied to strengthen national ideologies. Taking the reports on climate change in China Daily and Los Angeles Times within 2 months after COP27 as the research corpus, this paper examines the language features, the discursive processes of the text and possible social factors through a combination of corpus linguistics(CL) and critical discourse analysis(CDA) under the framework of Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model of Discourse. The finding suggests that both countries enhance national ideologies by constructing a responsible national image through objective climate reporting. Chinese media tends to focus on national efforts to improve ecological environment and global cooperation, while US newspaper attaches importance to climate security and pursues a leading position in global ecological governance.

Constructing images of HCWs in Chinese government Weibo posts: a discourse-historical approach

This study examines the image construction of front-line healthcare workers (HCWs) in Chinese government Weibo (microblogs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we rely on a discourse-historical approach to analyze 1,510 posts collected from an influential government Weibo account, @healthchina (健康中国), during the first wave of the pandemic to investigate the diverse images of HCWs constructed, the discursive strategies employed, and the pragma-linguistic devices used by @healthchina. The data analyses find that Chinese HCWs are depicted as professional and competent in addressing the pandemic crisis, compassionate and caring to their patients, and responsible and devoted to public health. Two discursive strategies are found salient in HCW’s image construction—nomination and predication realized through the identity labels, attitude/judgment resources, metaphors and comparisons, pictures, and hashtags. We argue that Chinese government microbloggers intentionally constructed these images of the HCWs to elicit positive emotional responses, reinforce government trustworthiness, and foster social cohesion in the collective fight against the pandemic. This research underscores the strategic communication efforts aimed at shaping the perception of HCWs and their pivotal role in managing the pandemic.

Historiographic imaginary and hypotheses of heredity in the configuration of Romanian cultural identity

This paper analyses the ways in which Romanian culture struggles to forge, at the level of historical and cultural discourse, an identity, a “personality”, and a specificity. It observes, within the process of forging its identity through a series of avatars, the discursive strategies through which specificity is revealed as an essential form of national uniqueness as well as the compensatory trends of identity fabrication. The paper also attempts to highlight the forms of historical and literary mystification through which, over time, Romanian culture responded to complexes related to its age, identity, belatedness, heredity, legitimacy, etc. Thus, the analysis reveals that, in essence, all the efforts, complexes and myths through which an identity was negotiated at the level of the histories of literature and Romanian historiographical texts betray, in fact, the same spectrum of the Identity-Otherness dialectic. Romanian culture, like other emerging cultures, was forced, first to survive and, later, in order to have a potential for prosperity, to define itself as a distinct entity by relating to the surrounding cultural reality, its growth and evolution taking place either under the sign of antagonism (i.e. a refusal of allogeneic import), or under that of synchronism (as permeabilization with regard to foreign influence), but, necessarily, as a reference to the Other. Moreover, the paper highlights, at the discursive level, the two main poles that have obsessively polarized the questions of descent and heredity within Romanian culture: its Roman and Dacian ancestries. The nuanced intentions underpinning the cultural need for international recognition by means of belonging as well as differentiation are discussed in the process.

Media representations of the ‘little fresh meat’ phenomenon in China: a feminist critical discourse analysis of the masculine nonconformity discourse

ABSTRACT ‘Little fresh meat’ (LFM or xiǎo xiān ròu), which describes a masculine aesthetic rooted in ‘soft masculinity’, is a phenomenon across Asia that challenges prevailing concepts of masculinity and patriarchal discourse. This study furthers previous research by using feminist critical discourse analysis to evaluate the construction of LFM masculine nonconformity, via data collected from 42 news articles from China’s English-language news media, including: China Daily, Global Times, People’s Daily Online, Shanghai Daily, and Xinhua News Agency. The analysis generated three key themes: (1) market driving a female consumer fan base, (2) challenging hegemonic masculinities when men wear makeup to imitate their ‘idols’, and (3) criticisms of gender stereotypes. These themes show how a masculine nonconformity discourse is developed by using a variety of discursive strategies in China. This study highlights the need for increased awareness and education regarding gender diversity and the harmful impacts of gender stereotypes on Chinese society.

Neoliberal Feminism and Political Leadership: The Representation of Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein in Popular Culture

Building on a long tradition of studies on the intertwining of politics and popular culture, the article examines the representation of the two Italian political leaders of the moment, Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein, offered by women’s magazines. The study focuses in particular on two interrelated aspects: on the one hand, the extent to which the discursive strategies to talk about the leaders, their personal lives, careers and ideas contribute to strengthen the contemporary hegemony on feminism; on the other hand, the discursive strategies used to represent the leaders through a frame of competition typical of the neoliberalism. Indeed, we refer to the most recent trends in feminism research, contested among post-feminism, neoliberal feminism and celebrity feminism. Within this framework, we examined whether and how female political leaders can become icons of life, style and power in a way that is functional to the neoliberal narrative. The critical discourse analysis conducted on eight Italian women’s magazines over the course of a year makes it possible to highlight some results that contribute to the reflection on neoliberal feminism and female leadership. In particular, leaders are presented through argumentative strategies of genealogism, exceptionalism and compensation: the ways in which magazines justify their position of power refer to family relationships and character qualities, emphasizing the characteristics closest to the neoliberal model and overshadowing all others, including political ideas. Rather, leaders are deradicalized and depoliticized to favour instead a reassuring narrative in which women have broken the glass ceiling. In that way, women’s magazines renounce representing women leaders for their ideas and ideologies, and instead focus on their unique mark of difference: their gender.

Delineating the discursive (de) legitimation strategies outlined by Spanish politicians in their no-confidence motion speeches

Delineating the discursive (de) legitimation strategies outlined by Spanish politicians in their no-confidence motion speeches

Declarações da Conferência Episcopal do Chile durante o governo de Salvador Allende: tensões com Cristãos pelo Socialismo

This article aims to examine the views of the Chilean Catholic Church during the administration of President Salvador Allende. The main themes that arise from the declarations of the bishops will be addressed and the ethical-theological implications of the relationship between religion and politics in the current context will be analyzed. The central axis of the article is to analyze the vision of the bishops towards the Marxist/socialist ideology from the historical and theological analysis of the government of Salvador Allende and the configuration of Christians for Socialism. The bishops’ statements show a critical position towards the Marxist/socialist ideology, seen as synonymous in a discursive strategy of the church hierarchy to disqualify the government and the left-leaning of Catholics. The article is based on a classic analysis of texts, which uses internal and external analysis of episcopal documents between 1970 and 1974, together with a bibliographical review on the historical period.

‘Wolf Warriors’ in the UN Security Council? Investigating power shifts through blaming

AbstractWhat shifts in the extent and patterns of China's blaming are observable at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? This article employs automated content analysis to measure the frequency of blaming by China and other permanent UNSC member states based on a dataset of all speeches (19,623 overall) in the UNSC from January 1995 to May 2022. Furthermore, it uses qualitative text analysis and network analysis to examine the targets of blaming in three different case studies of UN security governance—UN peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia (1998–2008), the UN sanctions regime against North Korea (2007–2017) and the broader peace and security discourse at the UNSC (2008–2018). The study conceptualizes Chinese blaming as a previously unexamined discursive strategy of compulsory power with potential long‐term effects on shifts in productive power. However, the results indicate the absence of blaming‐related shifts in the discursive space of the UNSC: China's rhetoric in the UNSC, compared with other UNSC members, has remained restrained over time. Variance in blaming behaviour between actors and across bilateral and multilateral settings seems to depend on strategic considerations that assess how to exert power most effectively.

Teddy Afro's Music: A Fusion of Nationalism, Humanism, and the Cry for Ethiopian Democracy

This qualitative analysis employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to explore the song lyrics of "Naʾət (ʾəyamämäw qut’ər 2) Naat (Paining No. 2) " by Teddy Afro, a prominent Ethiopian musician known for blending elements of nationalism, humanism, and political activism in his music. The study focuses on understanding how Teddy's lyrics reflect themes of nationalism, humanism, and the quest for democracy within the Ethiopian context. Drawing upon CDA, the analysis examines linguistic and discursive strategies employed in the lyrics to convey socio-political messages. The study highlights Teddy's role as a cultural figure and activist whose music serves as a medium for expressing societal concerns and advocating for change. Through the lens of CDA, the analysis elucidates the ways in which Teddy's music contributes to ongoing discourses surrounding Ethiopian identity, social justice, and democratic aspirations. Ultimately, this research provides insights into the intersection of music, politics, and culture in Ethiopia, shedding light on the socio-political significance of Teddy's musical contributions.

Understanding Colourism in Malaysia Through Discursive Constructions of Skin Colour on Social Media

Colourism refers to any act of discrimination that is portrayed on the basis of skin colour or the act of attributing negativity upon dark skin. This article explores the extent to which colourism prevails in Malaysia by studying the discourse of skin colour on social media. The data is gathered from Twitter (now known as X), a social media platform that allows users to interact with short messages called “tweets”. The tweets are sourced from the Malaysian Twitter diaspora via the keyword “kulit gelap”—a phrase in Malay language which translates to dark skin. The analysis is conducted in alignment with the viewpoint of discourse-historical approach, where a qualitative analysis is employed to examine the linguistic devices and discursive strategies utilised to construct the notion of dark skin. The results indicate that dark skin is often portrayed in a negative light, suggesting that colourism is pervasive in language use. Through the analysis, several discursive strategies are identified, such as nomination of dark skin as a problem and stereotypical predication of dark skin.

Constructing Disability and Special Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Punjab Special Education Policy 2020

Utilizing a framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper focuses on the Punjab Special Education Policy 2020 to evidence how disability and special education are discursively produced or positioned within the broader policy context of Pakistan. This paper analyzes this policy document, using Mullet’s (2018) CDA framework to explore the linguistic dimension and discursive strategies employed and their ideological underpinnings. That study finds a move to the social model of disability and rights-based education rather than traditional medical or charitable models. However, the analysis also highlights restrictions and inconsistencies in the policy’s inclusive and empowerment approach for persons with disabilities. This study exemplifies this point, and it illustrates how language and rhetorical methods can depoliticize power and render inclusion an inevitable process rather than an ongoing social battle. The findings offer an essential contribution to the broader field of disability and education in Pakistan, further informing our understanding of policy discourse as a mobilizing force behind enhancing rights and inclusion for people with disabilities. The research concludes by discussing the implications for policy and practice and suggesting areas for future research to further explore the implementation and impact of the policy. Keywords: , , , ;

Stuck between group and transgression

Abstract This study examines how politicians navigate the challenge of publicly condemning transgressions committed by members of their in-group. Examining ten transgressions committed by Israeli political actors which attracted public attention, the study engages in a discourse analysis of politicians’ posts, illustrating eight discursive strategies for coping with this challenge. It utilizes Du Bois’ stance triangle to illustrate how politicians navigate conflicting affiliations to their in-group and to public values. While certain types of in-group condemnations illustrate an adherence to public values at the expense of group cohesion, other types of downgraded condemnations demonstrate how group affiliation trumps value-affiliation. The study illustrates that the prevalence of downgraded in-group condemnations is indicative of extreme polarization at the expense of “statism”–an increasing trend in Israel in recent years.

Metapolitics and Cultural Hegemony: The Concept of the Elite in the Discourse of the New Right Institut für Staatspolitik

Most research on right-wing populism focuses on the construction of ʼthe peopleʼ. Conversely, I ask how the other side of the populist conflict line – ʼthe eliteʼ – is discursively constructed. To this end "I examine the debates of the far-right Institut für Staatspolitik (IfS) using Robert Entmanʼs framing analysis. Subsequently, I contextualize the results within the elite discourse of the German New Right. Summing up the results, the IfS states that starting from the student protests in the 1960s and 1970s the elite has become leftist or ʼmulticulturalistʼ. Through the eliteʼs hegemony in the media, it exerts a pressure of conformity. While the IfS constructs the elite negatively, it is not anti-elite. By labeling its political enemies as elites, the IfS tries to speak in the name of ʼthe peopleʼ. At the same time, it is elitist argues even for a right-wing elite. In pointing out this paradoxical construction, it becomes clear that the framing of right-wing actors should not be confused with the actual reality. Notably, the IfSʼs discursive strategy reflects a metapolitical or hegemony theoretical approach that is paradigmatic for the New Right.

Legitimizing video-sharing practices on local and global platforms: A multimodal analysis of menu design, folk genres and taxonomy

There have been extensive public and academic debates on the role platform algorithms play in shaping social media (sub)cultures. Little attention, however, has been paid to how platform (sub)cultures are discursively constructed by the design of the platform interface. This study examines Bilibili, a leading Chinese video platform, and investigates how it discursively frames video-sharing culture through platform menu design. We developed a three-level analytical framework that includes: 1) a multimodal social semiotic analysis of Bilibili’s menu design; 2) a contrastive analysis of YouTube’s video menu, and 3) a focused analysis of guichu or kichiku videos (as a linguistic phenomenon, a transcultural practice and a multimodal semiotic artefact). Our findings reveal that Bilibili discursively frames and legitimizes video-sharing practices by establishing a folk taxonomy of video genres and integrating subculture into its menu design. Furthermore, Bilibili controls access to cultural knowledge through explicit (gatekeeping) and implicit (semiotic) measures, in contrast to YouTube’s visual and superficial taxonomy. This study unveils different discursive strategies platforms use to shape unique online video cultures.

Atrocity in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: A Critical Discourse Approach

This paper examines the discursive tactics employed in The Handmaid's Tale to (re)produce social reality. Using critical discourse analysis, the study reveals the ideological polarization between a favorable self-presentation and a negative portrayal of the other. Through the analysis of excerpts and the application of Van Dijk's framework, the pervasive use of discursive techniques is uncovered, emphasizing the ideological division between a positive self-portrayal and a negative depiction of the other. Pronouns and adjectives play a crucial role in conveying optimistic self-representations and pessimistic other representations, highlighting the characters' struggle against the inherent sexism and patriarchy within legal systems. The findings demonstrate the significance of polarization, lexicalization, positive and negative representation tactics, and the proximity of contrasting stages, illustrating the tension between the individual and society. Considering these results, the paper recommends fostering awareness and critical analysis of discursive tactics, promoting diverse narratives to cultivate empathy and understanding, encouraging dialogue and critical engagement, and actively addressing and challenging gender inequality. These recommendations aim to deepen our understanding of how discursive tactics shape social reality and promote a more equitable and inclusive society. By recognizing and interrogating these discursive strategies, individuals can navigate and challenge the manipulation of language and narrative. The study's insights contribute to a broader understanding of the underlying gender inequality and societal tensions portrayed in The Handmaid's Tale, shedding light on the power dynamics and systemic oppression present in society.

The (Re)surgence of Sinophobia in the Australian Far-Right: Online Racism, Social Media, and the Weaponization of COVID-19

ABSTRACT In this article I critically examine the role of the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Discourse-Historical Analysis of (n = 133) Facebook posts from Australia’s most prominent far-right populist party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, revealed a range of discursive strategies, linguistic and rhetorical devices, and multimodal semiotic practices were employed to scapegoat China and Chinese-Australians throughout the pandemic. The findings highlight the unique role played by the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the health crisis which engendered a wave of Sinophobic and anti-Asian racism on a global scale. This research furthers our empirical understanding of how crises are exploited by the far-right to advance their racial politics in the twenty-first century.