Linguistic Legitimation of Political Events in Newspaper Discourse - Vol. 7 No. 4 - August 2016

Oct 15, 2026

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This paper examines the discursive structures used to legitimize the U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraq and links these structures to linguistic features. It analyzes how language and legitimation discourse interact in depicting this political event in the Iraqi English newspaper, The Kurdish Globe. The study applies qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis to identify legitimation structures and their linguistic realizations. Results show authorization, rationalization, and moral evaluation, supported by five verb process types.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Problem Statement and Aims of the Study

Review of Literature

Newspaper and Critical Discourse Analysis

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 7 No. 4; August 2016 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | Flourishing Creativity & Literacy | | | Linguistic Legitimation of Political Events in Newspaper Discourse Marwah Kareem Ali (Corresponding author) School of Education & Modern Languages, College of Arts and Sciences University Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia [E-mail: marwakareem16@yahoo.com](E-mail: marwakareem16@yahoo.com) Anne A. Christopher School of Education & Modern Languages, College of Arts and Sciences University Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia E-mail: [althea@uum.edu.my](althea@uum.edu.my) MunifZarirruddin Fikri B. Nordin Centre for General Studies, College of Arts and Sciences University Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia [E-mail: munif@uum.edu.my](E-mail: munif@uum.edu.my) Doi:10 .7575/aiac.alls.v.7n.4p.76 URL: [http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.7n.4p.76](http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.7n.4p.76) Received: 15/03/2016 Accepted: 08/05/2016 Abstract This paper examines the discursive structures employed in legitimizing the event of U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraq and identifies them in relation to linguistic features. It attempts to describe the relation between language use and legitimation discursive structures in depicting political events. The paper focuses on the political event of U. S. forces’withdrawal from Iraq in the English newspaper issued in Iraq. The study shows the way in which journalists express their values and attitudes concerning this critical event. Consequently, this requires a critical discourse analysis (henceforth, CDA) to analyse news articles in the Iraqi English newspaper: The Kurdish Globe (henceforth, KG) newspaper. Accordingly, the study presents a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles to identify the legitimation discursive structures and their linguistic features. It is found that the main discursive structures of legitimation employed in the KG newspaper are: authorization, rationalization, and moral evaluation. Besides, there were five verb processes used to represent this legitimation, including material, verbal, relational, mental, and existential. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, legitimation discursive structures, linguistic features, newspaper discourse, systemic functional linguistics 1. Introduction Recently, newspaper discourse attracts the researchers’ attention in the critical analysis field, particularly in relation to political issues (Farahani & Ahmadian, 2014; Sadeghi, Hassani, & Jalali, 2014) . The essence of the newspaper discourse has changed. Thus, news articles in newspapers can be analysed to disclose the underlying intentions hidden behind the discursive construction of them (Sadeghi et al., 2014) . Newspapers occupy an important role in any modern society since they address its various issues. The language employed in the newspaper does not simply convey the information that it overtly indicates. Language is, as asserted by Wodak (2001), a medium of domination and social power so that language is a suitable medium for uncovering hidden ideologies intended to construct social norms and values (Fairclough, 1995; van Dijk, 1996, 2001; van Leeuwen, 1996) . As well, the linguistic features used in the depiction of certain political events in newspapers, such as the political event of U. S. forces’withdrawal from Iraq, can be an important tool to legitimize these events. van Leeuwen (2008) argued that the discursive constructions of legitimation can be recognized through certain occurrences of text which may barely denote the legitimized practice or can be covered through detailed prescriptive or descriptive explanations of the institutions and practices they legitimize. The relation between language use and legitimation discursive structure can reveal the hidden ideologies under the

FAQs

What political event does the paper analyze?

The paper analyzes the event of U.S. forces’ withdrawal from Iraq and how it is legitimized in an Iraqi English newspaper.

Which newspaper is the study focused on?

The study focuses on The Kurdish Globe (KG) newspaper’s English news articles.

What legitimation discursive structures are identified?

The main legitimation discursive structures identified are authorization, rationalization, and moral evaluation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk