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- Volume 20, Issue 4, 2021
Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 20, Issue 4, 2021
Volume 20, Issue 4, 2021
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The Bangkok Blast as a finger-pointing blame game
Author(s): Changpeng Huan, Menghan Deng and Napak-on Sritrakarnpp.: 493–514 (22)More LessAbstractThis article sets out to explore the potential of journalistic attitudinal positioning in dis/aligning readers into different feeling and moral communities in traumatic news event. To do so, it utilises the appraisal framework to examine how the Bangkok Post and the New York Times present and represent ‘attitude’ of different news actors in the coverage of the Bangkok Blast. Analytical findings show that while journalistic attitudinal positioning constitutes a means of political empowerment through bringing in otherwise marginal and silenced voices, it also opens up a space for journalists to evaluate risks and negotiate responsibilities. News reports of the Bangkok Blast eventually construe the Thai society as divided by representing the event as a blame game. The findings also extend the conceptual scope of symbolic codes of victims, villain and hero by resorting to attitudinal resources.
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Protest graffiti, social movements and changing participation frameworks
Author(s): Hong Zhang and Brian Hok-Shing Chanpp.: 515–538 (24)More LessAbstractAs a type of written discourse without guaranteed readership and response, protest graffiti nonetheless projects a participation framework in which protesters address different participants, including not only the government but also other potential ‘participants’ in the social/cultural/political context. This paper studies a dataset of graffiti associated with a protest movement in Macao, China. A survey of the longitudinal data reveals that the contents and visual representation of the graffiti have changed to reflect evolving participation frameworks which are in response to different stages of social movements. While graffiti in earlier stages tends to be more accusatory and anti-governmental, graffiti in later stages shows a shift of protesters’ position more in alignment with patriotism and allegiance to authority. Instead of presenting views competing with mainstream political discourse, our data, with their multimodal resources, draw heavily on Chinese cultural discourses which are supposedly shared among the protesters and addressees in this context.
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Informing the government or fostering public debate?
Author(s): Yu Sun, Todd Graham and Marcel Broersmapp.: 539–562 (24)More LessAbstractThis article focuses on a popular form of civic practice in China: casual political talk that occurs in online spaces that are not ostensibly political. We investigate how Chinese citizens engage in politics through a comparative analysis of everyday talk on health issues across three popular online discussion forums: a government-orientated forum (Qiangguo Luntan), a commercial-lifestyle forum (Tieba), and a commercial-topical forum focused on parental advice (Yaolan). Our findings show that conventional deliberation directly involving conflictual and resistant attitude against state authorities is not prominently embraced by Chinese citizens in everyday online settings. However, communal and less confrontational forms of discourse are important for the proto-political talk to turn political, thus serving as prerequisite conditions for the emergence of an online public sphere. We argue that to explain how the public sphere emerges in everyday (non-political) spaces in China, it is essential to take communal discursive forms into account.
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Narratives of dialogue in parliamentary discourse
Author(s): Naomi Truanpp.: 563–584 (22)More LessAbstractThis paper puts forward an argument about the relation between narratives and constructed dialogue in political discourse. Narratives of dialogue are special cases of constructed dialogue that emphasize the embeddedness of the speaker, displayed as a discourse participant engaging in a conversation with an ordinary citizen or a public figure. Close analysis of British, German, and French parliamentary debates reveals how narratives of dialogue shape an image of the speaker involved in a dialogue. While being engaged in the activity of debating, parliamentarians simultaneously perform the act of debating. I argue that the main point of narratives of dialogue is not so much to report on a prior or hypothetical situation, but to create the ethos of a Member of Parliament receptive to their interlocutors.
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Working Royals, Megxit and Prince Andrew’s disastrous BBC interview
Author(s): Jagon P. Chichonpp.: 585–606 (22)More LessAbstractThis research incorporates Corpus Linguistic techniques with the socio-cognitive approach (SCA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) to analyse the discursive representation of the British Monarchy (BM) through the categorisation of its individual members within the Now Corpus from 2010–2020. Analysis concentrated on their categorisation around key events over the ten-year period, most notably the accusations that Prince Andrew had sexual relations with a minor and Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s decision to relinquish their roles within the Monarchy. Significantly, the Royals were positively represented through the affixation of agency and active form to attach them to positive actions, for instance, performing work and charity related duties. Negativity was deemphasised via the removal of agency, passive use and a refocus onto less serious acts which distanced them, particularly the Queen and Prince Andrew, from scandal.
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National construction and popular erasure in Colombia
Author(s): Gregory Joseph Lobopp.: 607–625 (19)More LessAbstractThis article analyses the diachronic symbolic struggle (1810–1991) waged in Colombia’s foundational documents over the legitimation and delegitimation of social relations through the concepts “people” and “nation.” Following the introduction, the method and theory are explained: concept analysis and language-based social ontology. The analysis of the foundational documents follows. These are analysed as extended status function declarations that attempt to legitimate and delegitimate the concepts “people” and “nation”, in order to authorize/deauthorize possible social relations. On the basis of the analysis, the conclusion briefly specifies the discourse of nationism as the ontologisation and wielding of the idea of the nation against internal dissent/opposition, and points up the fundamental importance of symbolic practice in the struggle to change social reality.
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Review of Pennycook & Makoni (2020): Innovations and challenges in applied linguistics from the Global South
Author(s): Huan Yik Leepp.: 626–629 (4)More LessThis article reviews Innovations and challenges in applied linguistics from the Global South
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Review of Fuchs (2020): Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory
Author(s): Marcos Engelken-Jorgepp.: 630–633 (4)More LessThis article reviews Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory
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Review of Zappettini (2019): European Identities in Discourse: A Transnational Citizens’ Perspective
Author(s): Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowskapp.: 634–636 (3)More LessThis article reviews European Identities in Discourse: A Transnational Citizens’ Perspective
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Review of Schneider & Eitelmann (2020): Linguistic inquiries into Donald Trump’s Language: From ‘Fake News’ to ‘Tremendous Success’
Author(s): Adam Hodgespp.: 637–640 (4)More LessThis article reviews Linguistic inquiries into Donald Trump’s Language: From ‘Fake News’ to ‘Tremendous Success’
Volumes & issues
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Volume 24 (2025)
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Volume 23 (2024)
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Volume 22 (2023)
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Volume 21 (2022)
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2015)
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Volume 13 (2014)
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Volume 12 (2013)
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Volume 11 (2012)
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Volume 10 (2011)
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Volume 9 (2010)
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Volume 8 (2009)
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Volume 7 (2008)
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Volume 6 (2007)
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Volume 5 (2006)
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Volume 4 (2005)
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Volume 3 (2004)
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Volume 2 (2003)
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Volume 1 (2002)
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