چکیده:
The present study was aimed at exploring the use of pronominal reference for identity representation in terms of power and solidarity in English political discourse. The investigation was based on a corpus of four political interviews and debates amounting 26,500 words. The analysis was both qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative analysis, a discourse-analytic approach was used to find out the pronouns, their references and their identity load, and in the quantitative analysis, the distribution of different representations of identity were calculated. A nonparametric test, that is, Chi-Square was run in SPSS as the statistical operation needed for the current study. The analysis showed that most of the personal pronouns represented identity in the form of solidarity. The results also showed that political figures use I-pronoun and its variants to represent their identity in terms of power. The representation of identity in terms of power was also found to be correlated with the use of certain terms such as veto and active voice constructions. Furthermore, the results showed that when making claims, instead of giving pronominal reference to self, political figures use first-person plurals. In order to show solidarity, the speakers may also make use of discoursal proximity. Considering the important role that discourses play in constructing reality, it is important for CDA researchers to reveal sources of power, inequality and prejudice in discourses and interpret their hidden meanings. Pronominal choice and academic voice as linguistic constructions that are ideologically loaded need to be brought into the spotlight.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Linguistic Devices of Identity Representation in English Political Discourse with a Focus on Personal Pronouns: Power and Solidarity Leila Ali Akbari Hamed 1, Biook Behnam 2*, Mahnaz Saeidi 3 1, 2, 3 Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran *Corresponding author: b.
ir (Received: 2020/7/1; Accepted: 2020/11/18) Online publication: 2020/11/29 Abstract The present study was aimed at exploring the use of pronominal reference for identity representation in terms of power and solidarity in English political discourse.
Keywords: identity representation, power, solidarity, English political discourse, personal pronouns Introduction In recent years, scholars working in a remarkable array of social science and humanities disciplines have taken an intense interest in questions concerning identity.
How this inequality and power is manifested, what identities politicians take to show their power and what linguistic devices are used to represent identity has become the subject of many research studies (Behnam & Moghtadi, 2008; Benoit & Benoit-Bryan, 2014; Bramley, 2001; Fairclough, Wodak, & van Dijk, 1997; Jibrin, 2003; Kaewrungruang & Yaoharee, 2018; Sharndama, 2016).
The present study was an attempt to investigate how politicians show their power and solidarity through the use of personal pronouns in their political talks and debates of American presidential candidates.
Later, in another discourse analytic approach which was also a qualitative analysis, these cases of pronominal reference were investigated manually to see in what way, that is, power and solidarity, represented the identity of the participants in the talks.
Altogether, the results of the study suggest that the speaker’s use of personal pronouns reflects his/her identity in terms of power and solidarity in English political discourse.