Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 24, Issue 3, 2025

Abstract

This article expands on previous research on news trans-editing by examining the relationship between ideology and language. Using a conceptual framework that combines critical discourse analysis with narrative analysis, the study analyses a corpus of trans-edited news articles on the 2014 Hong Kong protests. These articles were collected from Reference News, along with their source texts from various English-language international media. Narrative analysis was conducted using NVivo computer-assisted tools, including cluster analysis, word frequency and matrix coding. The findings reveal significant shifts in the narratives between the original and trans-edited versions, indicating that the trans-editors recontextualised the news narratives by determining the narrators, retroversions and frequency of the narrative texts. These results suggest that news trans-editing is not a neutral process, but is rather influenced by the ideological stance of the news outlet.

Abstract

One of the most overlooked areas of study in the post-Arab Spring narrative is the symbiotic relationship between language and politics. Framed by the micro and macro-level approaches to discourse, the paper’s scope is twofold. First, it identifies and discusses how language elements underpin the performative role of language (Austin 1975 [1962]) and considers Searle’s (1969) work on speech-acts and rhetoric through irony and metaphor. Second, it discusses how the study of language, through power and ideology, provides a candid and deeper understanding of Tunisian politics; an ‘internal’ perspective on how participants in these discourses perceive the Tunisian people, society, culture, and politics, reflecting on a decade since the revolution. The paper hinges on various textual genres, such as televised interviews, debates, and rap songs, sampling some emerging new sociopolitical spaces wherein, through discursive themes, participants address Tunisia’s political and economic grievances since the revolution.

Abstract

This article falls within the conceptual framework of critical discourse studies and cognitive linguistics whose attention has focused on the discourse found in the public sphere on the topic of migration. I will demonstrate the results of my analysis of a corpus composed of 74 opinion articles that were published in a Spanish regional newspaper between August 2020 and February 2021. All of them focus on the same issue: the mass arrival of irregular migrants at one of Europe’s outermost borders, the Canary Islands, and the social, political and economic strain that this is generating. The results of this analysis indicate that the periphrastic auxiliary verb poder (can/could/might) constitutes an essential resource for the way in which knowledge is managed by the authors whose intention is to fuel the debate by guiding the conceptualisation of reality of readers who do not have perceptual access to the events described.

Abstract

How political leaders construct consent is a constant theme of studies in political rhetoric and theories of persuasion. We explore how populist linguistic strategies combine with traditional consensus-building to align populations with the speakers’ messages. We observe similarities and differences in discourse strategies across two contrasting polities, the UK, a foundational modern representative democracy and Russia, which is considered more autocratic. The data comes from speeches given by Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin during the Covid-19 crisis. They were analysed using Corpus Linguistics, compared in qualitative analysis that identities key lexico-grammatical features. The findings show a convergence in some of the strategies and linguistic styles, but also key differences which, we suggest, depend on cultural factors specific to the two nations. The results contribute to our understanding of the operation of these resources in modern political discourse, highlighting the way cultural factors influence rhetorical styles in very different political structures.

Abstract

The EU Directorate General for Research and Innovation’s “European Research Area Policy Agenda: Overview of Actions for the Period 2022–2024” outlines twenty actions to boost research excellence, investment and reform, coordination and support, or green and digital transformation of the academia, in an attempt to create a truly common “European knowledge market.” Filled with strategic planning jargon, the policy specifies the recommended interventions for years to come and with billions of Euros of funding to follow. Using a qualitative critical discourse approach, this study explores policy-making from a linguistic perspective to capture the characteristics of current EU R&I discourse. Language choices have a constitutive role in policy papers due to the discursive capacity for legitimization and subsequent persuasion. The analysis focuses on the persuasive presuppositions induced by certain lexico-grammatical choices, including evaluative and rhetorical devices, and shows how the ERA policy fosters acceptance of a European vision of R&I values.

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the sociopolitical polarisation reflected in the responses to a political metaphor, in French public discourse about covid-19. The aim is to uncover how polarisation may influence metaphorical representation of a political issue. The study focuses on the French President’s metaphor “we are at war”, in his announcement of the national lockdown. Responses to this “war” metaphor in public discourse are analysed following a combination of metaphor theories and argumentation theories. Results show that such responses transformed the ”war” metaphor into the “phoney war” metaphor for covid-19. This yielded four main arguments which 1.established causals links between covid-19 and policies, 2.partially endorsed the metaphor, 3.focused on the President’s discursive pattern, and 4.focused on the President’s status. It is argued that more research is needed into public reception to political discourse, in view of the arguments derived from resistance to metaphor.

Abstract

In October 2019, Chile witnessed an unprecedented social uprising, with millions of citizens rising against social inequalities and injustice. The government employed various strategies to end demonstrations, including the speeches delivered by President Piñera. This study aims to explore the representation of protests and their actors in the presidential discourse and how it evolved over the course of events. Our analysis of themes, discursive actions, and attitudinal appraisals, coupled with a temporal framework, reveals that the initial framing of the uprising as a war shifted to crime rhetoric, possibly in response to negative reactions from the audience. Despite the President adopting a seemingly softer rhetoric later on, our study suggests that violence and division remained prominent themes in his speeches. Examining discourse shifts and fluctuations throughout the timeline of the social upheaval provides a comprehensive understanding of how political discourse is shaped in the midst of an unparalleled social uprising

This article reviews Econarrative: Ethics, Ecology, and the Search for New Narratives to Live By978-1-3502-6311-6£ 22.49

This article reviews Visualising far-right environments: Communication and the politics of nature

This article reviews Metaphor in Socio-Political Contexts9783111001258€ 134.95

This article reviews Translation and race978-1-032-01811-9978-1-032-01813-3