Open AccessSyria-Israel Relations in Al-Assad’s Speeches and Interviews: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Study
Author(s) -
Linda S. Al-Abbas
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
theory and practice in language studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-0692
pISSN - 1799-2591
DOI - 10.17507/tpls.1202.10
Subject(s) - solidarity , negotiation , thematic analysis , sociology , polarization (electrochemistry) , gender studies , political science , law , qualitative research , social science , politics , chemistry
This paper uses a 1,445,000-word corpus to examine Syria-Israel relations in the speeches and interviews of Syrian President Basher Al-Assad from 2000 to 2016. Van Dijk’s (2009) notions of manipulation and polarization are employed to highlight the discursive strategies that Al-Assad uses to legitimize his points of view regarding a range of regional issues. Examining how Al-Assad constructed Israel* in his speeches revealed recurrent thematic categories, such as conflict, occupation, negotiation, and criminality/violence. The analysis suggests that Al-Assad used Israel to build solidarity with his people portraying himself as a man of values who does his best to resist the occupier and liberate the occupied Arab lands.