Positive Self-representation Research Articles

A digito-linguistic analysis of the 2019 Democracy Day speech of former Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari

ABSTRACT This study undertakes a digito-linguistic analysis of the 2019 Inauguration/Democracy speech of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s with a view to identifying the various discursive structures in the speech and the social functions they perform. The study adopts van Dijk’s socio-cognitive theory of critical discourse analysis as a theoretical framework. Data were selected through the purposive sampling method and subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. The study identifies fourteen discursive structures: actor description, authority, comparison, disclaimer, euphemism, evidentiality, example/illustration, irony, lexicalisation, metaphor, self-glorification, norm expression, number game, us-them, pervading the five discourse strategies in Buharis’s speech. The discourse strategies which include: number game; self-glorification; validation of the Nigeria project; highlighting of achievements, and deployment of escapist statements, are engaged to: express commitment to the development of the nation, give a positive self-representation, and dissociate from Nigeria’s woes. Voyant tools reveal the preponderance of Buhari’s expression of commitment to the Nigerian course. The study concludes that Buhari uses his Democracy/Inauguration speech to emphasise the importance of the Nigeria project and to call for social change among Nigerians.

Representations of 5G in the Chinese and British press: a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis

This study employs a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to demystify the dominant patterns of representations around 5G in the Chinese and British press. Keyword analyses identify four thematic categories around the representation of 5G: the nature of 5G, social actors in 5G discourse, actions around 5G and timing in 5G discourse. Findings suggest that the Chinese press tends to use positive evaluative expressions to depict 5G as a trustworthy and beneficial issue and stress China’s strong support for 5G development. In contrast, the British press prefers to frame 5G as a product of geopolitical rivalry and an issue with scientific uncertainties and controversies by repeatedly employing negative language patterns related to 5G risks and conspiracy theories. Besides, a subtle but varying “self versus other” schema is constructed by the two presses. The Chinese press is inclined to use positive predication strategies to construct a positive self-representation, whereas the British press tends to adopt negative predication strategies to portray China as an outgroup and meanwhile use scapegoating strategies to profile Britain as a positive self by using recurrent patterns denoting the pressure exerted on Britain by the United States. Such differences could result from their journalistic ideologies and values and the contrasting socio-political contexts where the two presses are situated.

Legitimation of Linguistic Hegemony Through Language in Education Policy in Nepal: A Critical Discourse Analysis

The constitutional provision of equal right to all languages as a medium of instruction claims that linguistic justice over all the languages has been maintained in Nepalese Education system. However, this 'positive self-representation' of the constitution and the government seem to implicitly marginalize the 'other languages' through legitimation of domination of powerful languages such as, English and Nepali. Based on this issue, this paper critically analyzes the discourse of Language in Education Policy (a part of National Education Policy 2019) in order to examine how hegemony of dominant languages such as, English and Nepali over other minority languages is legitimized through language in Education Policy in the context of Nepal. Critically analyzing the discourse of language in education policy of Nepal through the lens of ideology, power and double voicedness, the paper reveals that even though Nepalese language in education policy seems to adopt mother tongue-based multilingual education policy, hegemony of two dominant languages (English and Nepali) is still prevalent. The hegemony of these dominant languages is legitimized, reinforced and maintained by the nation through language in education policies.

“Mapping and projecting otherness in media discourse of the Russia–Ukraine war”

Abstract This paper shows how otherness, having a negative representation potential, is covered in media discourse with a focus on the first day of the Russia–Ukraine war. In this article, I specifically investigate the representation of otherness that weaves the web of relations within the “us versus them” narrative espoused most strongly by Teun A. Van Dijk (1992. Discourse and the denial of racism. Discourse and Society 3. 87–118, 2002. Discourse and racism. In David Goldberg & John Solomos (eds.), The Blackwell companion to racial and ethnic studies, 145–159. Oxford: Blackwell) and further developed within the premises of a proximisation theory (e.g., Cap 2013. Proximization: The pragmatics of symbolic distance crossing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; Chilton 2004. Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. London: Routledge). This framework concerns the positive self-representation of Ukraine and its performance contrasted with Russia’s negative other-presentation. Following this account, otherness serves as means of legitimising media actions as preventive measures taken to inform society about the past, create the present state of the world through assertions (Dunmire 2011. Projecting the future through political discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; Searle 2010. Making the social world: The structure of human civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press) which endorse media credibility and predict future outcomes with respect to the horror of the unfolding war. This study argues that the representation of otherness takes place at the proximisation level of certain lexico-grammatical choices that are used strategically by media to cover the narrative of a “permanent military standby” and the “immediacy of otherness”.

What is newsworthy about Covid-19? A corpus linguistic analysis of news values in reports by China Daily and The New York Times

Integrating corpus linguistic analysis with news values, this article investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic in different countries is represented as newsworthy by China Daily (CD) and The New York Times (NYT), two news outlets with different cultural and political backgrounds. A distinction is made between reports on the pandemic in the newspaper’s home country and reports on the pandemic in other countries. Three corpus linguistic techniques, i.e., keywords list, collocation, and concordance, are used to analyze the headlines and leads of 2572 news reports published in 2020 and 2021. Analysis results show that when presenting the pandemic in domestic news, CD tends to highlight Proximity, Positivity, and Personalization, whereas NYT gives more prominence to Eliteness and Personalization. When the pandemic in other countries is presented, CD foregrounds Negativity, Impact, Superlativeness, and Eliteness, whereas NYT focuses on Negativity, Impact, and Proximity. Compared with NYT, CD shows a stronger tendency to adopt positive self-representation and negative other-representation in its coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from the analysis results, the significance of the study also lies in its demonstration of the applicability of a corpus linguistic approach to news values analysis.

Euphemization and Derogation in Teacher Students’ Dialogic Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has become a widely used academic research method in the social, political, educational, and linguistic sciences. This paper aims to explain how teacher-student dialogic discourse is presented and evaluated differently to persuade the students. Van Dijk's (2004) framework, is used to identify discursive structures that lead to ideologically based parochial, context, ideology, and social cognition. The CDA of the teacher students’ dialogic discourse has highlighted the reality that ideologies are expressed, performed, sustained, and inculcated through discursive frameworks. In terms of measuring attitudes and opinions, the macro methodologies of positive self-representation and negative other representations have proven to be precise. Euphemism and derogation are frequently used in ideological language manipulations that aiming to portray the self and others negatively and positively. They show how positive self-representation or negative other-representation can serve ideological purposes. The CDA applied to the teacher and students' dialogic discourse in this article shows these in-group/out-group distinctions. The outcomes ofthis study could help students and teachers improve their critical thinking skills in language comprehension and production, as well as revitalize the undervalued idea of language competency.

Self- representation in Biden's Speech on Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Discourse Analysis

The current study is A critical Discourse Analysis to the Self-representation in Joe Biden's speech ''On fighting the COVID-19 pandemic''. The problem of study lies in the scarcity of the studies that tackle the self-representation in Biden's speeches about the Covid-19 rescue plan. The study attempts to answer the following question: what are the self-representation strategies used by Biden ''on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic'' . It has hypothesized that certain self-representation strategies are adopted on three levels of analysis: the meaning level, the argumentative level and the rhetorical level ,moreover each level involves more frequently used strategy than the other strategies. It also aims at figuring out the positive self-representation strategies used by Biden as well as identifying the most frequent strategy and the least one in each level. The study has adopted an eclectic model which is amalgamation of two of Van Dijk's models (2000 and 2006). The study conducts qualitative and quantitative analyses. Finally, the study concludes that, to represent himself positively during the ‘'COVID-19 pandemic'', the president of USA uses the following strategies of self-representation which are: :"actor description", "lexicalization", "national self-glorification'', "victimization", "generalization" ,"evidentiality'' , "populism", "burden", "reasonableness", "comparison", "metaphor", "repetition", ''hyperbole'' and ''number game . Moreover ,the quantitative analysis demonstrates that , among meaning , argumentation and rhetoric levels ,the most frequently used strategy is ''actor description'' whereas the least one is '' national self-glorification''

Discriminatory Discourses against Black People in 12 Years A Slave Movie: A Critical Discourse Study

This research examined on the issue of racial discrimination by white people against black people. This problem can also be identified by using CDA's Van Dijks ideological square which focused on positive self-representation and negative-other representation. The researcher used descriptive qualitative research methods to analyze the data. Specifically, the researcher analyzed the discourses presented in this movie. This study focused on how white People portray themselves and other in their discourses based on their beliefs. From this movie being analyzed, the researcher has collected 44 datum that consist of the Positive-Self and Negative-Others presentation. By employing Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, the researcher found out there are 7 discourse topics implied in movie’ utterances. Furthermore, there are 9 discourse strategies used by white people in defending themselves.

Emi Lo Kan’ Concept in Nigerian Politics: A Critical Discourse Defragmentation

Text and context, mind, and domination are key concepts whenever we consider language and politics. This study examines the ways in which political and ideological undertones were conveyed in political speeches, as well as how texts reproduce and maintain power and unequal power relations. In order to understand how language shapes and maintains power relationships and ideological structures the study employs the principles of critical discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough. Critical Discourse Analysis helps us to see how specific language techniques produce, enact, and legitimise power relations. The study found out that the aspirant used the expression to reflect both good self-ideology and negative self-ideology in order to neutralise the asymmetrical power relationships that exist between his group and the other groups within the APC at the point of liberalising power. It was a declarative. Typically, this resulted in the other aspirants’ power being politically diminished. The aspirant also used discourse structures that have implications for ideology as weapons of persuasion and pleading, positive self-representation of “Emi", meaning "I”, negotiation and personality projection. The researchers conclude that language of politics has the power to weave visions and “imaginaries” that can alter, obfuscate, and politically interpret realities.

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF INDIAN ADVERTISING OF OLAY TOTAL EFFECTS AND POWER DUO

Beauty is one of the essential matters in society. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the awareness of taking care of skin health has increased significantly. It affects beauty industries and encourages them to continue innovating their products, for example, anti-aging skincare from Olay. Olay, a global beauty brand, launched two products to overcome signs of aging skin that have been introduced since the 90s, Olay Total Effects and Power Duo in a different era. This study focuses on the meaning-making by the advertiser and the language used to create beauty myths. The analysis of the subject used deconstruction by Derrida, Fairclough’s 3D model, and attitude in appraisal theory as a linguistic approach. Deconstruction of the text revealed the opposition reversal of the text. Fairclough’s 3D model was used to find the relationship between the text and social context. The result shows that using language helps Olay’s advertiser shift beauty values and maintain its belief about how beautiful skin should look. Findings also reveals that strategies used in advertisements are manufacturing consent through implication, showing deficiency, positive self-representation, celebrity endorsement, and motive words. The power of language also makes people believe what is said is the truth. Aging is not something new, and it is a natural phenomenon. Furthermore, this study will enhance our understanding of the use of language to create new consciousness and maintain it in society

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Audiences’ Comments: Insights From The Channels TV’s Facebook Audiences’ Comments On Farmers-Herders Conflicts News Stories in Nigeria

This paper interrogated The Channels TV Facebook audiences’ discourse on selected top five farmer-herder violent conflicts related news stories from January 1st to July 31st, 2018 in Nigeria. We specifically examined how the audience enacted, reproduced, and/or resisted social power abuse and dominance in their discourses on the selected news stories and their act of stancetaking. We did this by drawing on Van Dijk’s principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Du Bois’s acts of stancetaking. We analyzed 84 (out of the 500) comments and images that directly or indirectly made reference to Fulani Ethnic Group (FEG). Finding revealed that besides lack of access to discourse control by FEG; online audiences’ discourses were crafted to enact or reproduce socio dominance against FEG using the strategies of generalized “positive self-representation” and “negative representation of Others.” Findings also showed that the commenters aligned with and amplified existing stances like Fulanization/Islamization, political conspiracy, leadership failure, and the need to disintegrate the country into smaller governable sizes in their comments. We therefore concluded that such thread of discourse that generalized criminal acts of few individuals on the entire ethnic group could be inimical to the nation’s goal of national integration, security objectives, and continued peaceful and harmonious co-existence among various ethnic groups in Nigeria and therefore called for further investigation into why the online audiences approached the issues as they did in their discourses.

Navigating homophobia and reinventing the self

Discriminatory practices against the Nigerian gay community take the form of state and non-state sponsored opposition, censorship and violence. This study investigates how gay Nigerians combat homophobia by using language agentively on social media as a semiotic resource towards self-assertion and identity construction. Data retrieved from Twitter via keyword searches suggest that in addition to harnessing agency through positive self-representation and ingroup affirmation, the digital discourses of Nigerian gay men recontextualise religion as a legitimising tool, transforming it into a site of affirmative struggle. These resources reach a crescendo in the practice known as ‘kito-ing’, a discourse strategy that protects the gay community from threats by publicly ‘outing’ homophobic actors, thus contesting the prevailing gender hierarchy. While Nigerian physical space restricts queer livability, the digital space becomes a locus for agency whereby various semiotic resources are used to refuse the status quo and assert nonnormative sexualities against an otherwise oppressive social order.

PECULIARITIES OF LINGUISTIC EMBODIMENTS OF LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH MEDIA RESOURCES

language ideology based on contemporary English media resources, i. e. the largest Indonesian online media – the online newspaper “The Jakarta Post” and the British online publications “The Independent” and “The Huffington Post”. It covers the ideological perspectives found in the English headings on the analysis of lexical features and semantic features. Environmentalism as an ideological perspective defined positive self-representation or quality as one that is fully relevant to the problem and aware of it. The main result of lexical features and semantic analysis tends to be the anger of foreign newspaper headlines about the extinction of the orangutan in Indonesia. The analysis of the similarities and differences of the concept Language Ideology helps to outline their national specific features, which contribute to a deeper understanding of both foreign and native languages and cultures through the analyses of the semantic structure of the concept in question. It is emphasized that Language Ideology has become a widespread phenomenon in modern British and Indonesian societies from the social point of view. The article identifies common and different aspects in of the field structures of the concept Language Ideology on both the local and foreign levels.

The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror

The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror

Donald Trump’s Denial Speeches of the 2020 United States Presidential Election’s Results: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

The primary concern of the present study is to provide a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s denial speeches of the 2020 United States presidential election’s results. Using Van Dijk’s framework of critical discourse analysis, this study investigates the linguistic features in five speeches of Donald Trump delivered after announcing the results of the US presidential election. The data analysis is conducted focusing on the use of 25 discursive devices presented by Van Dijk (2006), which represent the micro-level of text analysis to reveal the ideologies of positive self-representation and negative other-representation which represent the macro-level of text analysis. The findings of the study show that Trump made use of the majority of the discursive devices, with a special emphasis on using the following: lexicalization, evidentiality, example/illustration, number game, polarization, actor description, hyperbole, categorization, victimization, and authority. Furthermore, the analysis at the macro-level shows that Donald Trump used the ideologies of positive self-representation and negative other-representation, but he relied more on using negative other-representation. The findings also show that Trump used these discursive devices to justify his denial of the election results and gain the empathy of American people by showing a positive image of himself and his supporters while portraying others negatively by emphasizing their bad deeds during the election.

Investigating the Discursive Strategies in the Language of the US Presidential Debates

The U.S. presidential debates are rich in revealing national/international policies of the politicians. More specifically, the 2012 U.S. presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are unique in balancing and predicting the election outcome through the candidates' discourses. A Political Discourse Analysis is integrated to Ruth Wadak's (2011) Discourse-Historical Approach to investigate how the candidates employ the discursive strategies in order to gain the public support. The present study adopts a qualitative design of analyzing the candidates' speeches. The materials are particular extracts selected from the transcripts of one presidential debate. The purpose of the study is to uncover the discursive strategies in the candidates' speeches when they debate the most important issues of USA. The findings indicate that Obama's continuous use of the referential strategy indicates that there is a heavy emphasis on positive self-representation, defending the previous policy of Obama's government and presenting the record of achievement to gain the voters' support. On the other hand, Romney uses the argumentation strategy to attack Obama's previous policy and trigger the topos of threat that the same faults will take place if Obama is reelected. That is, Romney diminishes the public support surrounding Obama.

Ideological Polarization as a Deception Strategy in the Discourse of American Think Tanks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Deception is an inseparable facet of political discourse in attaining strategic political gains though compromising public opinion. However, the employment of discursive deception strategies by the policy-making institutions of think tanks has not received due attention in the literature. The current study aims at exploring how the ideologizing deception strategies are utilized by the conservative American think tank of the Washington Institute to reproduce socio-political realities and re-shape public opinion. To fulfill this task, van Dijk’s (2000) notion of ideological polarization which shows positive self-representation and negative other representation is adopted to conduct a critical discourse analysis of four Arabic texts released with the main focus on four different political topics. Results reveal the centrality of employing deception strategies for the sake of realizing political wins for establishing an ideological hegemony while simultaneously polarizing an Us against Them extreme.

Ideological Polarization as a Deception Strategy in the Discourse of American Think Tanks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Deception is an inseparable facet of political discourse in attaining strategic political gains though compromising public opinion. However, the employment of discursive deception strategies by the policy-making institutions of think tanks has not received due attention in the literature. The current study aims at exploring how the ideologizing deception strategies are utilized by the conservative American think tank of the Washington Institute to reproduce socio-political realities and re-shape public opinion. To fulfill this task, van Dijk’s (2000) notion of ideological polarization which shows positive self-representation and negative other representation is adopted to conduct a critical discourse analysis of four Arabic texts released with the main focus on four different political topics. Results reveal the centrality of employing deception strategies for the sake of realizing political wins for establishing an ideological hegemony while simultaneously polarizing an Us against Them extreme.

MANIPULATION AS A MARKETING STRATEGY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF BILLBOARDS IN GHANA

The discourse of advertising has provided a fertile ground for scholars with keen interest in the effects persuasive rhetoric has on both the emotional and the psychological dispositions of people. This study focused on one particular type of advertisement, the billboard advertisement. The aim of the study is two-fold: first, to explore the linguistic and nonlinguistic devices used as persuasive artifacts in billboard advertisements; and second, to find out how ideology was projected by the billboard advertisements. The study is qualitative research. Data collection was done in the Cape Coast metropolis. A total of fifteen billboards were collected. Of these, five were sampled for analysis. The sample was a mixture of billboards that advertised institutions, services, products, or people. The analysis reveals that linguistic devices such as nominals, participles, etc., images, and multiple colours are employed in billboard advertisements to persuade consumers to patronize some product or service. Secondly, billboard advertisements make use of the technique of positive self-representation and negative other-representation in an attempt to manipulate the perceptions of their target consumers. Significantly, the study contributes to existing scholarship on the discourse of manipulation.

A Comparative Analysis of Dominance and Resistance in the Rhetoric of Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez: A CDA Perspective

This article intends to compare the speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez with the help of Critical Discourse Analysis. This article has applied Van Dijk’s theoretical framework to dig out the issues of domination, imperialism, violence, resistance, and injustice not only in a social context but also in a political arena inculcated in speeches. The research has analyzed one speech of each president qualitatively to investigate the concepts of resistance against the hegemonic domination of the US. The study finds that both the leaders have utilized positive self-representation and negative other representation with the help of discursive devices. The study has also found the brutality, domination, and injustice of the US. There may be found ideological similarities between the two presidents' positions over the imperialist designs. They are agreed that certain global powers' incursions and hegemonies need to be resisted due to their designs of imperialism and hegemony in places like the Middle East and Venezuela. The Study recommends that resistance rhetoric in politics can be significantly helpful in terms of international political diplomacies and policies for the nations of the world.