Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 17, Issue 6, 2018

Abstract

The article’s objective is to analyse the discursive construction of the Czech nation in three cultural magazines, produced by Czech exiles in London during WWII. The theoretical backbone for this analysis is provided by Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory, which in turn supports a discourse-theoretical re-reading of the literature on the nation, first in general and then in relation to the Czech nation. These three theoretical components support an analysis of 650 selected contributions in 36 issues of the three main cultural journals of the Czech London exile: Obzor [Horizon], Kulturní zápisník [Cultural Notebook] and Review. This discourse-theoretical analysis shows the presence, particularity and contingency of a series of internal nodal points (temporal, spatial, linguistic, cultural and popular), in combination with the external nodal point of diversity in relation to outgroups. In the conclusion, the political nature of this construction, which we label the politics of poetry, is emphasized.

Abstract

Coverage of migration in the media intensified during 2015 against the backdrop of a largescale European refugee crisis. Using corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, we explore the representation of refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and migrants from September to November 2015, in UK and Irish newspapers. Data was collected from Nexis, using the Baker et al. (2008) RASIM framework. Using corpus linguistic techniques, we identify how these groups are represented, before drawing on CDA to examine the data sets further. Frequency lists of the UK and Irish corpora were compared across variety followed by more detailed diachronic analysis of the most frequently occurring items. The extent to which the issue of migration is refracted through a discourse of terrorism in Irish and UK coverage is compared through cluster analyses and a close CDA analysis of randomised downsamples of the Irish and UK sub-corpora drawing in particular on the DHA approach.

Abstract

Recently, jihadi rhetoric has been employed extensively to ordain a justified violence and to incorporate radical groups’ identifications. In this article, the researchers take Reisigl’s and Wodak’s discourse – historical approach (2001; 2009), van Dijk’s ideological square (1998: 267) and Chilton’s binary concepts in political discourse (2004: 197–205) to show the significance of the discursive strategies in Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s and Ayman al-Zawahiri’s jihadi rhetoric used to establish their so-called Islamic State. We present two exemplary calls for jihad by al-Zawahiri (2006) and al-Baghdadi (2015) to exemplify their jihadist ideology giving much focus to in-group and out-group representations in their speeches and to their social impacts on Muslim societies over the last ten years. We argue further that such calls are abusive to Islamic religion and are designed in historical, pragmatic and communicative contexts (as mental models) to gain political legitimacy.

Abstract

Euphemism is a discursive strategy that politicians use to approach unsettling, embarrassing, or distasteful, i.e. taboo, topics without appearing inconsiderate to people’s concerns. Following a critical discourse-analytic approach to political language, this paper discusses the communicative functions that euphemism performs in the discourse of local and state politicians from New Jersey (USA) in a sample of language data excerpted from The Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper. The analysis reveals that (metaphorical and non-metaphorical) euphemism constitutes a major strategy of self-protection and positive self-presentation for legislators which allows them – mostly by understatement, periphrasis, and metaphor – first, to refer to socially disadvantaged groups or address delicate subjects without sounding insensitive; second, to criticize their political opponents in a socially acceptable way; and third, to purposely conceal from the public unsettling or controversial topics.

Abstract

Back in 2009, the Labour British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was attacked for “bad spelling” in a condolence letter written personally by him to the mother of a soldier who died in combat, and publicised by The Sun newspaper. “Spelling” here acts as a leveller of hierarchical differences in the national political culture, with ruler and subject both publicly disciplined by the same standard language ideology. Previous research on orthography as social practice has tended to focus on deliberate manipulation of fixed spellings; this article extends the approach to unconventional spellings that have come about ‘by mistake’, and also widens it, to consider aspects of orthography other than spelling, focusing on the look of the Prime Minister’s handwriting. At issue, semiotically, are meanings such as ‘the personal touch’ and ‘respect’.

Abstract

This study is aimed at unveiling the implicit assumptions underlying the language of EU policy-making, drawing on Hannah Arendt’s critique of modernity. It conducts a critical metaphor analysis of strategic EU policy documents from 1985 to 2014 to reveal the extent to which EU policy-making, by relentlessly focusing on the ‘competitiveness, growth, and jobs’ narrative, relies on modern conceptual frameworks. These are characterized by the prominence of rationality and causality, at the expense of sense of purpose, reality and meaning, which is revealed through the validation of four metaphorical keys. These are (i) sensitive inversion, i.e. economic agents are sensitive and humans are functional; (ii) size matters, i.e. big is better than small and one is better than many; (iii) deficit framing, i.e. potential is locked and present is broken/future is bright; and (iv) speed is of the essence, i.e. the world moves fast and we must hurry up.

Abstract

The topic of this paper is framing of collective, national identities in commemorative speeches. It identifies abstract conceptions of Croatian national identity articulated by political elites during commemorative practices and examines what patterns are used for their linguistic expression. The questions that are posed are how Croatian nation and national identity are framed in discourse and whether constructs of national identity are formed depending on the context and on the party political affiliation of the speaker. However, the aim is also to track potential changes in elite narratives over time. The analysis is based on a corpus of commemorative speeches delivered by Croatia’s political elites on the occasion of celebration of the Croatian army victory in a military operation. The main focus is on the conceptual and linguistic analysis of the collective identities and sociocultural concepts in the staged communication during commemoration rituals.

Abstract

Golden age myths as an answer to political crises are a recurrent phenomenon. This article demonstrates how the idea of a past golden age as the answer to a crisis of society was employed in the discourses of the Third Way: At the turn of the 20th century, the Social Democrats (SPD) in Germany and New Labour in Britain employed a golden age myth to define their politics. Analysing a corpus of texts from the Labour Party and the SPD between 1990 and 2005, this article demonstrates how global ideological trends are locally legitimized differently through the use of local political myths. The major contribution to the field of political discourse analysis lies in the discussion of mythopoesis as a legitimatory strategy, as well as in the analysis of the local adaptation of the golden age myth, which draws on Laclau’s discourse theory and its idea of empty signifiers.

This article reviews Soft Power and the Worldwide Promotion of Chinese Language Learning: The Confucius Institute Project9781783098057

This article reviews Lessons from the Past? Memory, Narrativity and Subjectivity

This article reviews A Study on the Tradition of Outward Literary Translation in China: From Late Qing Dynasty to the First Thirty Years of the PRC978-7-300-24405-1¥55