Abstract
In the twenty-first century, diplomatic discourse has gained significant attention in the study of political discourse and international relations. Power and national identity are the distinguishing features of American diplomatic language in leading international communications. This study investigates the construction of the American national identity and power through various linguistic strategies in American diplomatic discourse depicted in 13 speeches by US Ambassadors to Iraq since 2003. To do so, the study relies on Van Dijk’s theory of critical discourse analysis (1997) and Halliday’s functional linguistics (1994). The quantitative analysis applies the corpus tool to count the frequency of each linguistic feature, using the Lancaster Corpus program (LancsBox6.0) to describe their significant distributions and variations in transmitting power and identity. The study is also qualitative in nature, intending to reveal the functional aspect of the linguistic features that construct power and identity in ambassadors’ speeches. The results show that most personal pronouns, repetition, and active voice employed in US diplomats’ speeches are applied ideologically to construct a form of power and identity and control argumentation. Furthermore, there is a significant correlation between hidden American political and economic goals in diplomatic communications in the Iraqi cultural context and the use of various linguistic elements. There is a need to consider these factors in the investigation of any linguistic applications in the diplomatic discourse.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
DIPLOMATIC DISCOURSE, POWER, NATIONAL IDENTITY, LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES, CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
