1887
Volume 7, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2210-4119
  • E-ISSN: 2210-4127
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This paper is the first to explore the development of Iranian rhetoric from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the current president Hassan Rouhani, in messages delivered to the international community. The study compares eight speeches given by Ahmadinejad at the UN, to two speeches given on the same platform by Rouhani. The speeches were explored by qualitative research of the prominent rhetorical strategies employed by each president, as well as by quantitative research of the frequently used words in each president’s speeches. The findings reveal a radical change in Iran’s rhetoric since Rouhani succeeded Ahmadinejad in 2013. The newly elected president adopted a moderate, modern and rational discourse regarding both Iran’s attitude to the West and the Iranian nuclear program. The findings suggest that this change made the new president and the “new” Iran possible partners to negotiating with the West, and eventually enabled the historic nuclear deal in 2015.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ld.7.2.02kay
2017-10-16
2024-10-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aristotle
    Aristotle 1982Rhetoric. Trans. John H. Freese . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bakhtin, Mikhail M.
    1986 “The Problem of Speech Genres.” InSpeech Genres and Other Late Essays, Vern W. McGee (trans.), Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Cedroni, Lorella
    2013 “Politolinguistics. Towards a New Analysis of Political Discourse.” InMultimodal Communication in Political Speech. Shaping Minds and Social Action. International Workshop, Political Speech 2010, ed. by Isabella Poggi , Francesca D’Errico , Laura Vincze , and Alessandro Vinciarelli , 220–232. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Ensink, Titus
    1996 “The Footing of a Royal Address: An Analysis of Representativeness in Political Speech, Exemplified in Queen Beatrix’s Address to the Knesset on March 28, 1995.” Current Issues in Language and Society3 (3): 205–233.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Harris, Melanie
    2014 “Leadership Analysis: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.” Journal of Public and International Affairs, 73–87. The Trustees of Princeton University.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Hunston, Susan and Gill Francis
    2000Pattern Grammar: A Corpus-driven Approach to the Lexical grammar of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Landau, Rachel
    1988The Rhetoric of Political Speech in Israel [in Hebrew]. Tel Aviv: Akad Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Lewin, Beverly and Zohar Livnat
    2016 “‘Like Everyone Else in the Nation, I Was Also Moved’: Recruitment Strategies in PM Netanyahu’s Hebrew Speeches.” [in Hebrew] Israel Studies in Language and Society9(1–2): 29–51.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Livnat, Zohar
    2014 “Dialogism in the Political Discourse: Who did Netanyahu Speak to in Bar Ilan Speech?” [in Hebrew] Xelkat Lashon47: 120–142.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Livnat, Zohar and Beverly A. Lewin
    2016 “The Interpersonal Strand of Political Speech: Recruiting the Audience in PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speeches.” Language and Dialogue6(2): 275–305.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Oktar, Lütfiye
    2001 “The Ideological Organization of Representational Processes in the Presentation of Us and Them.” Discourse & Society12 (3): 313–346.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Perelman, Chaim
    1984The Kingdom of Rhetoric [in Hebrew]. Hebrew University Jerusalem: Magnus Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Perelman, Chaim and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca
    1969The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation (1958) Translated by J. Wilkinson and P. Weaver . Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Quirk, Randolph , Sidney Greenbaum , Geoffrey Leech , and Jan Svartvik
    1976A Comprehensive Grammer of the English Language. London: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Reisigl, Martin
    2008 “Analyzing Political Rhetoric.” InQualitative Discourse in the Social Sciences, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Michal Kryzanowski , 96–120. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. 2010 “Rhetoric of Political Speeches.” InHandbook of Communication in the Public Sphereed. by Ruth Wodak , and Veronika Koller , 243–269. Mouton de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Sardabi, Narges , Reza Biria , and Nooshin Azin
    2014 “Rouhani’s UN Speech: A Change in Ideology Or Strategy.” International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics World7(3): 84–97.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. van Dijk, Teun A.
    1998Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London: Sage.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. 2001 “Discourse, Ideology and Context.” Folia Linguistica35(1–2): 11–40.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. 2004 “Politics, Ideology and Discourse”. InEncyclopedia of Language and Politicsed. by Ruth Wodak , 728–740. Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. 2006 “Discourse and Manipulation.” Discourse & Society17 (2): 359–383.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Wilson, John
    1990Politically Speaking. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ld.7.2.02kay
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ld.7.2.02kay
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Ahmadinejad; Iran; nuclear; rhetoric; Rouhani; UN speech
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error