Political Discourse Analysis

Taking Socio-semiotics as an analysis tool, this research endeavors to ponder on the dynamics of discursive construction and its communication in the New Media Events. It is found that Transitivity and Intertextuality assume the responsibility of the discursive constructions, which effectively establish the domain interpretative rules of the meanings in the Semiotics Plane, while unite the individual discourses for their contending against the existed domain discourse in the Mimetic Plane.

The aim of this qualitative case study is to investigate how learning in “democratic participation” is constituted by the social interaction and conversation pattern in school democratic meetings in a Swedish primary school. According to the findings, a pupil control discourse and the Initiation-Response-Evaluation pattern dominates the conversations. The teacher initiates by asking a question, the pupils respond by answering the question, and then the teacher evaluates that response. The findings show no discursive shift from traditional classroom talk to democratic deliberative talk. Instead there is an emphasis on the “right answers” and subordinating authorities rather than deliberative dialogue and democratic participation, which influences pupils to adopt a naïve or a cynical attitude to democracy.

Drawing on documentary evidence, and on a common-sense, discursive-political analysis, this essay elaborates and supports the following hypothesis: as to the origins and beginnings of the armed conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, the leader of Moslem-Bosniacs, when compared to the leading representatives of the Croat and Serb peoples during the relevant period, should be considered as at least equally responsible. The essay also offers a detailed analysis of Izetbegović’s key, strategic political beliefs in light of which his preference for violent means of ‘resolution’ of political conflicts, not for a politics of negotiation or of reasoned argumentation and compromise, can be pertinently explained and elucidated. Furthermore, one chapter specifically deals with, and problematises, the role of the US diplomacy during the critical period from Lisbon negotiations (February 1992) till the end of March 1992 and the outbreak of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The last chapter is focused on a particular trait of Alija Izetbegović, as a communicator and negotiator, which can be explained only in terms of the theory of ‘dediscoursation’ as an important part of rationalist perspective in the study of the causes of war and peace. Lastly, the essay presents a concise version of the guidelines for exploration of so-called ‘missed opportunities’ and ‘potential and alternative histories’ in the context of Izetbegović’s political decision-making during the last months of peace in 1992 Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The mothers’ discourse is a reflection of the culture of martyrdom as present in modern Palestinian society. The armed groups that wage war foster this culture and actively infuse themes of martyrdom and religio-nationalist duty to the youths. When the mothers relay this culture via representation in the media, and when they teach it to their children, they are acting within a traditionally female role as a repository and transmitter of culture. These communicative roles are both public and private, yet they remain within a feminine sphere of involvement as they are reactionary in nature, and inseparable from the actions of the children. Within the roles adopted by the mothers of Palestine, they are positioned to reproduce the nation in both sexual reproduction and discourse reproduction. In this role, the mother is positioned as a dual reproducer—birthing both future fighters and the dominant narrative that serves to continue the intifada until nationhood is achieved

""En su célebre artículo sobre la ideología y los aparatos ideológicos de estado, Althusser indicaba que las evidencias por las cuales una palabra “designa una cosa” o “posee una significación” se ubicaban, junto con la evidencia de ser sujetos, al nivel de los efectos ideológicos fundamentales. Por otra parte, Althusser destacaba la carencia de una teoría de la garantía ideológica. Con la primera observación, Althusser se limitaba a señalar un paralelo, sin establecer una conexión. Con la segunda, llegaba a fijar una meta teórica. En el presente trabajo intentaremos reconstruir el trayecto recorrido por Michel Pêcheux para establecer una conexión allí donde Althusser designó una analogía, e intentaremos mostrar cómo el desarrollo de esta conexión permite establecer las líneas generales de una teoría de
la garantía ideológica. Nos concentramos en Les vérités de La Palice (1975), en particular en la operación que, siguiendo los límites de lo que Pêcheux denomina “el materialismo de Frege”, intenta convertir en regla lo que en el campo del pensamiento fregeano se presentaba como un non-sens: que el sentido de las palabras, expresiones y proposiciones se viera afectado por su asociación con otras palabras, expresiones y proposiciones. A partir de allí seguimos la construcción de los conceptos fundamentales con los que Pêcheux intenta definir un “nuevo objeto”: formación discursiva, proceso discursivo, interdiscurso, discurso transverso e intradiscurso, guiado por dos mecanismos discursivos extrapolados de la reflexión fregeana: el de lo preconstruido y el de la articulación o efecto de sostén (grosso modo: procesos metafóricos y metonímicos). Intentaremos destacar dos puntos: que los mecanismos discursivos identificados están sometidos a una divergencia (décalage), a partir del cual pueden comenzar a pensarse las paradojas de la interpelación ideológica sin sucumbir a sus evidencias. La divergencia a la que aludimos consiste en que la inscripción del proceso sin sujeto en la ideología requiere la duplicación de los elementos para que puedan actuar sobre sí como si fueran otros que sí mismos. Insistiremos en que es esta divergencia o contradicción, interna a la forma sujeto, y no la propia forma sujeto, lo que constituye el motor del proceso. Por otra parte, intentaremos mostrar que los dos mecanismos aludidos dan lugar a una concepción dual del sujeto ideológico, por el cual éste está sometido a la “garantía empírica”, por la que el sujeto se identifica a sí mismo, a los otros y al mundo de objetos que lo rodea, y a la “garantía especulativa”, que produce el retorno de lo universal de la formación discursiva en el discurso del sujeto. El paso continuo de una forma de garantía a la otra (de la posición del sujeto del discurso como enunciador a su posición de sujeto universal, pretendido “sujeto de la ciencia” por medio de la identificación con el otro) da cuenta del hecho de que “la ideología no tiene afuera”, ya que tiende a absorber espontáneamente cualquier discrepancia en la forma sujeto, o ruptura con la misma, en el interior de la forma sujeto.""

El libro es una reedición del artículo extenso, homónimo, publicado en la serie "Informe de Investigación", nº 24. El trabajo analiza la relación entre estrategias discursivas de largo plazo y tácticas coyunturales en el dispositivo discursivo de la Conferencia Episcopal Argentina (CEA) durante la década de 1980. La pregunta general que guió nuestra investigación fue cómo articularon los obispos argentinos un discurso que se pretende atemporal, enraizado en una larga historia de alianzas con diversos gobiernos de facto, con la institucionalización democrática que comenzó en 1983. Observamos conjunto de recursos que permiten explotar al máximo la heterogeneidad propia del discurso católico manteniendo una serie de continuidades que le garantizan una estabilidad institucional y una posición en el espacio político-religioso a partir de la construcción de su discurso colectivo. Así analizamos, en primer lugar, las características jurídicas, sociales y políticas que hacen de la CEA un sujeto colectivo productor de discursos atravesado por estas tensiones. En segundo lugar, damos cuenta del sistema de géneros y la tradición discursiva que constituyen, concluyendo que, no obstante los cambios tácticos sufridos por los primeros, se mantienen estables una serie de funciones estratégicas que son redistribuidas en otras clases textuales. En tercer lugar, nos detenemos en los aspectos enunciativos y polifónicos del discurso colectivo de la CEA, especialmente en aquellos sectores del texto que -a través de diferentes recursos enunciativos, argumentativos y léxicos- permiten leer las huellas de conflictos entre los miembros del episcopado. Las conclusiones sistematizan una serie de regularidades entre estas dimensiones de análisis que nos permiten distinguir, en el marco de una estrategia de mediano plazo, tres articulaciones tácticas, que denominamos de “espiritualización de la política” (1981-1984), de “politización de la espiritualidad” (1984-1987) y “despolitización del discurso espiritual”.

"After the death ofthe Choson Queen Dowager Cho in 1890, a Qing mission arrived in Seoul to present the Guangxu emperor's letter of condolence. In accordance with established precedent King Kojong greeted the envoys outside the city and publicly prostrated before the imperial missive. Western scholars have long understood this event as an illustration of Kojong's willing submission to the Qing Empire and evidence ofthe persistence of "traditional " tributary relations into the modern era. The Choson government, however, actively negotiated for months with Qing officials in an ultimately failed effort to cancel the mission. Choson and Qing officials devoted such time and energy in debate not because they were especially concerned with maintaining ancient ritual forms but rather because they were acutely aware of theimpact the public display of tributary ritual would have on Western interpretations of Qing claims to imperial dominion over Choson. Despite continual Choson resistance, Qing officials thus planned and executed the condolence mission as a propaganda exercise for Western consumption in order to secure recognition of Qing authority over Choson. This Qing representation of the condolence mission and the tributary relationship in turn has come to inform decades of Western scholarship on late nineteenth-century Choson-Qing relations."

"The article concerns the two main problems connected to evidentiality in bilingual Macedonian and Albanian political discourse:
Firstly, there is a problem of matching the form in the original to its equivalent in translation, which is not trivial in case of perfect in Macedonian-Albanian and Albanian-Macedonian translation. Macedonian perfect is homonymous to some evidential forms, whereas in Albanian there is an expansion of perfect at the expense of aorist. So perfect in both languages under consideration can be better described as a frame, inside which different phenomena take place, using the suitable definition by F. Fici. The translation between the languages provides some algorithms for defining the intent of the form’s original meaning.
Secondly, the problem of interaction between a grammatical and a lexical marker when used together is described. The bilingual discourse gives some insights as to how the common meaning of the phrase can be drawn from the lexical and grammatical components and then recoded in the target language."

"South Ossetian and Abkhazian cases of secession are often colligated. [Meleshkina, 2009:79] The goal of this paper is to search for differences between them by using cognitive mapping and discourse analysis techniques.

Cognitive mapping methodology applied in this research is based on the triadic typology of pre-understandings (nominalistic, holistic, structural). [Bonham et al., 1997:217-219, Sergeev, 1991:3-6]

The Ossetian text is thus qualified as a manifestation of structural type, while the Abkhazian one is seen a combination of holistic (1st part) and structural (2nd part) types.

Discourse analysis also reveals distinctions.

The Ossetian argumentative strategy is characterized with victimisation of Ossetians and with attribution of negativity to Georgia. The independence is interpreted instrumentally, as a means of survival.

The Abkhazian text is different. In its first part the motif of struggle dominates, but the number of mentions of Georgia is minimized. Struggle for independence is interpreted as an inviolable process that cannot be directly influenced. In the second part a different set of argumentative tools is used. The independence is positioned as a result of democratic procedures and is legitimized with international norms.

Thus, Ossetian and Abkhazian discursive approaches to secession differ, so these two cases should be colligated carefully.


References

1. BONHAM, G. M., V. M. SERGEEV AND P. B. PARSHIN (1997) The Limited Test-Ban Agreement: Emergence of New Knowledge Structures in International Negotiation. International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 215-240.

2. MELESHKINA, E .U. (2009) Post-soviet nation and state building: unrecognized states. Publications of the 5th RISA Convention, Vol. 18, pp. 79-88.

3. SERGEEV, V. M. (1991) Precedent Logic and the Building of International Order: Using the Past to Construct the Future. Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Convention of the ISA, Vancouver."