Persuasive Discourse In The Selected Speeches Of Al-Qaed’s Osama Bin Laden (1998-2004) And Liberation Tiger Tamil Eelam’s Velupillai Prabhakaran (1992-2007): A Critical Discourse Analysis
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Date
2016-09
Authors
Zghayyir, Sawsan Kareem
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Abstract
This study investigates the persuasive discourse of the former leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and Liberation Tiger Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabhakaran which encourages their followers to willingly commit terrorist attacks. The researcher focuses on the examination of macro- and micro- semantic structures of bin Laden and Prabhakaran’s selected speeches and the ideological representations. Ten speeches are selected by considering the different periods of time when the terrorist acts committed were at the peak in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other Muslim nations and regions as well as in Sri Lanka. The researcher adopts van Dijks’ (1980; 1998) theories of Semantic Macrostructures and Ideological Square respectively along with Wodak’s (2001; 2009) Discourse-Historical approach. These theories operate at three levels of analysis: linguistic, ideological, and intertextual. These analytical levels focus on the analysis of bin Laden’s and Prabhakaran’s discourse in terms of macro- and micro-structures and ideology. The themes in the selected speeches are analysed at the macro-level of analysis. Meanwhile, at the micro-level of analysis, the syntactic structures, lexical structures, rhetorical structures, presuppositions, implicatures and speech acts are examined. These phases of analysis reveal the ideological dichotomy of US vs. THEM in their discourse. The findings at the macro level of bin Laden’s speeches uncover the Semantic Macrostructure of the five speeches which could be structured as ‘inciting Muslims to defeat the Western power and its allies by launching a holy war through terrorist acts’. Similarly, the Semantic Macrostructure in Prabhakaran’s
five selected speeches can be formulated as ‘inciting LTTE and Tamil people in Sri Lanka to defeat the Sinhala government and to achieve independence through terrorist acts’. Therefore, the Semantic Macrostructure in the selected speeches of both speakers has the same overall theme that is inciting their followers to commit terrorist acts. The main point in their speeches which is emphasised by both leaders is legitimising their terrorist acts. At the micro level of analysis, both speakers used syntactic structures, lexical structures, rhetorical structures, presuppositions, implicatures and speech acts that are consistent with the two concluded overall themes which stand for the Super Semantic Macrostructures. This is confirmed by the use of negative and positive lexicons, war and military lexicons which in turn can motivate their followers to commit terrorist acts. Therefore, the use of the negative and positive lexicons enhances the ideological representations of both speakers to positively represent the in-group as victims and defenders and to negatively represent the out-group as assailants and oppressors. To sum up, bin Laden employed the religious language to serve his political goals and thus marrying religion with politics. This aspect differentiates bin Laden’s rhetoric from that of Prabhakaran’s which was more reliant on ideas of cultural and national differences between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities. It has been found that the use of manipulated or selectively cited religious discourse is a more powerful tool due to its impact on the ongoing al-Qaeda’s jihadi ideology practiced by some Muslim youths of today.
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The persuasive discourse of the former leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, , and Liberation Tiger Tamil Eelam,