Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 22, Issue 6, 2023

Abstract

National Identity is a discursively constructed complex entity which can reshape an image of a nation. Even one person powerful enough to be a representative of the whole nation can promote a collective sense of nationality/patriotism and sovereignty of the country in line with social, historical, or most importantly, a versatile geopolitical context. The present study is an illustration of how lexical choices of a particular political figure – the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – identified by specific corpus linguistic research tools in the discourse, defines and emphasizes a national integrity during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to investigate how a prominent Ukrainian political figure – Volodymyr Zelenskyy discursively constructs national identity in the context of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war. The research is based on the linguistic scrutiny of presidential video addresses, which are stored at the official presidential website and transcribed in English.

Abstract

Starting from the ambivalent discursive constructions of belongings and attachments, this paper is a description of the uneasy and uncomfortable relation between the UK and the ‘continent’. It discusses the historical British insular attitude looking at the metaphorical language used around Brexit, with a special emphasis on the metaphor “have one’s cake and eat it”, referring to the “cherry-picking” attitude that the British government wishes to have, retaining EU membership benefits without its obligations. Boris Johnson admitted that his policy on cake was “pro having it and pro eating it”, expressing an argument that, on withdrawing from the European Union, Britain would still retain many of the benefits that it had enjoyed as a member, since Britain was already “cherry-picking from the European tree without bothering to water the soil or tend to its branches”.

Abstract

This paper puts the spotlight on the discursive practices by which politicians, interest group representatives, and other influential public figures in effect promote climate inaction by conveying confidence in technological innovation. Data consist of policy debates on prominent public service television in Denmark. The study uses Discursive Psychology to examine how references to technological innovation are: (i) sequentially invoked as the solution to problematization of policies that allow high levels of emissions; (ii) grammatically designed to highlight the force of technological innovation; and (iii) rhetorically produced to support a subjective contrast between a pessimist and an optimist outlook. Overall, the study finds that invocation of technological optimism constitutes a ‘ready answer’ to communicative challenges that emerge during the debates, which effectively justifies inaction.

Abstract

While there is substantial research on populism and populist discourse, research on discourses about populism is still developing. Scholars highlight the need to understand why populism is so widely used and what the rapid spread of this socio-political keyword tells us about political and media discourse. The main objective of this paper is therefore to understand discourses on populism. To this aim, we examine for what purpose the terms populism and populist – henceforth populis* – are used and what they allow to do in discourse. Based on the analysis of a corpus of tweets produced by political figures in Spain, we show that, contrary to previous analyses, populis* does not have the sole function of being a randomly used buzzword or of proposing an anti-populist discourse. Indeed, our analysis shows that political actors resort to different patterns of use of populis* depending on their political and communicative strategy.

Abstract

One Country, Two Systems (1C2S) is a framework proposed by China to achieve national unification of territories with different economic and socio-political systems. This study explores the discursive construction of 1C2S in two representative Anglo-American newspapers from January 1984 through March 2020 by taking a topic modeling-assisted critical discourse studies approach. The findings suggest that the foci of coverage change throughout the years, and the reports present an increasingly negative portrayal of 1C2S and growing distrust in its future through the use of a variety of discursive strategies such as predication, intensification, and normalization. In addition to practical concerns of the U.S. and the U.K., these findings are interpreted with regard to the underlying ideological conflicts between socialist China and the two capitalist Western countries. This study also shows the advantage of integrating the topic-modelling approach into discourse studies, especially in terms of diachronic analysis.

Abstract

To better understand QAnon’s anti-immigration rhetoric, the study conducted a meta-discursive analysis of one of the group’s active Telegram channels by drawing on Hyland’s (2005) model of interaction. Specifically, engagement markers in their immigration-related discourse were analyzed to see how they contribute to endorsing the group’s macro conspiratorial arguments. The results illustrate a complex rhetorical manipulation and nearly unanimous expression of hate toward immigrants, with the use of ‘directives’ and ‘questions’ being the most prevalent metadiscursive markers. The former suggests that the commenters were more assertive or commanding in their tone, while the latter located within rhetorical persuasion, aimed at stimulating negative attitude toward immigrants. Conversely, a low frequency of the ‘shared knowledge’ markers indicates a lack of interest to establish credibility and constructive dialogue with the audience. The study aimed to unpack the nature of anti-immigration extremist discourse on social media, and its potential to incite violence among public.

Abstract

Using the methodology of conversation analysis and a modified analytical framework, this article attempts to characterize and investigate Trump’s practices to resist the agendas of the interviewers’ questions during the press briefings held by the Trump Administration in 2020. Statistical data show that Trump mainly used four types of overt resistant response practices in order of decreasing frequency: (1) Justifying the resistance; (2) Providing a partial answer; (3) Flatly refusing to answer without any explanation; and (4) Resorting to a personal attack, which is a new type of overt resistant practices. However, only one type of covert resistant response practice is identified, i.e. Repeating words subversively. The potential reasons for Trump’s use of such practices are discussed. In essence, Trump’s deliberate use of resistant response practices is a typical reflection of the right-wing populist politicians’ claim of “authenticity” rather than “truth” in the Post-Truth era.

This article reviews Discourses of Borders and the Nation in the USA: A Discourse-historical Analysis£ 39.199781032263687

This article reviews Political Myth-making, Populist Performance and Nationalist Resistance: Examining Kwame Nkrumah’s Construction of the African Unity Dream978-1-032-10916-9

This article reviews The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres978-9-027-20428-8€ 95.00

This article reviews Moral Metaphor System: A Conceptual Metaphor Approach978-0-19-286632-5£ 75.00

This article reviews Multimodal Chinese Discourse: Understanding Communication and Society in Contemporary China978-0-367-67291-1

This article reviews National Affects: The Everyday Atmospheres of Being Political