Critical Discourse Analysis
Reza Ghanbari Abdolmaleki; Shahrbanou Ghorban Abdolmalaki
Volume 15, Issue 3 , December 2023, , Pages 193-167
Abstract
Taking van Dijk's theory and critical approach, this study sought to examine the discursive strategies employed by James Morier in the transformation and representation of Oriental-Iranian life. To do so, by examining Haji Baba Esfahani’s biography novel, the study attempted to answer the following ...
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Taking van Dijk's theory and critical approach, this study sought to examine the discursive strategies employed by James Morier in the transformation and representation of Oriental-Iranian life. To do so, by examining Haji Baba Esfahani’s biography novel, the study attempted to answer the following questions: 1) How did Morier's ideology affect his speech? 2) How are the identity and life of the Eastern-Iranian represented in the speech of this Western and Christian writer? 3) What are the most practical methods and strategies to identify Morier's ideology in the novel? To this end, the authors have critically examined the role of these representations in the production processes of colonial discourse. The data were collected from libraries, and the research method was descriptive-analytical. The findings demonstrated that Morier's discourse contains representations of the East as it has been conceived by Western Orientalists, which is seen as “other” in their ideology and connected to racism. On the basis of this ideology, Morier has attempted to present an unpleasant picture of Iranian society during the Qajar era by changing the negative image and giving himself identity by attributing negative traits to Iranians. It is worth noting that ideological structures are expressed in several ways in the novel’s discourse in terms of “meaning”, “formal structures”, and “rhetoric”.
Hossein Rezaei Laksar; Yousef Aram; Maziar Mohaymeni
Volume 15, Issue 2 , September 2023, , Pages 100-123
Abstract
Rahesh is the last novel written by Reza Amirkhani. He tried to reflect his concerns about the disproportionate development of Tehran in this novel. As other works written by Amirkhani, Rahesh was also published many times and even won the Ale-Ahmad literary reward; the point which indicates its importance. ...
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Rahesh is the last novel written by Reza Amirkhani. He tried to reflect his concerns about the disproportionate development of Tehran in this novel. As other works written by Amirkhani, Rahesh was also published many times and even won the Ale-Ahmad literary reward; the point which indicates its importance. Hence, in the present article we tried to study this novel with a look at Barthes's theory of narrative codes. To do this, first of all we determined the five codes (with emphasis on semic, symbolic and cultural codes) in selected lexias and analyzed them. Then, in order to understand it's hidden and apparent significations, we criticized the deconstructed text with a look at the concept of ideology. The results of this analysis show that applying Barthes' method beside using a trans-textual reading, can illuminate the dark parts of the text, for example in this article we concluded that Rahesh, like readerly texts doesn't pay attention to readers. Also some binary oppositions like nature/city, purity/impurity and tradition/modernity form from the beginning of the story and continue and expand to the end of it; oppositions which are taken for granted by the narrator. Besides that, the narrator tries to make false oppositions and biased characterization in order to hide some parts of reality or even reversing it. These features, make Rahesh an Idiological text.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Zohreh Niksiyar; Maryam Dorpar
Volume 15, Issue 1 , May 2023, , Pages 125-160
Abstract
In various texts, lexical and rhetorical variables play a prominent role in directing the content, and conveying ideology explicitly or implicitly. In the present research, in order to evaluate the level of frankness or concealment of the authors, the function of four stylistic and discourse-orientated ...
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In various texts, lexical and rhetorical variables play a prominent role in directing the content, and conveying ideology explicitly or implicitly. In the present research, in order to evaluate the level of frankness or concealment of the authors, the function of four stylistic and discourse-orientated variables, "idioms", "vocabularies belonging to specific discourses", "symbolization" and association of meanings" and "narrative allegory" in a number of narratives of Persian socialist realism, written between 1320-1332, have been examined in the framework of critical stylistics. The results show that although all the authors of the works in the question sought to reflect the ruling spirit of the time and legitimize the struggle against domination, but in transferring this ideology to the audience, they have acted in two different ways. Party writers who have been in direct contact with the Tudeh party and have produced their narrative works on the order of this party, Do not have much desire to use the methods of concealing ideology, such as symbolizing and associating meanings, as well as allegory. They mostly use the stylistic alternative of using words belonging to specific discourses to convey the desired ideology naked. This is while critical and independent writers from the Tudeh party, using rhetorical techniques of symbolization and association of meanings as well as allegory, have tried to deepen the text, hide the ideology and implicitly induce it to the audience and the audience is placed not only in contrast to the structural and repressive power ruling the society, but in contrast to the ruling values and their hegemonic domination.
Ailin Firoozian Pooresfahani; Ferdows Aghagolzadeh; Arsalan Golfam; Aliyeh Kord-e Zafaranlu Kambuziya
Volume 10, Issue 19 , January 2019, , Pages 1-21
Abstract
Extended Abstract Introduction Although it is believed that language is the sheer truth (Cook, 2003), this fact should not be ignored that language specifically the socio-political discourse is sometimes used to conceal the truth and conveys the purport the way that affects people and persuade them ...
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Extended Abstract Introduction Although it is believed that language is the sheer truth (Cook, 2003), this fact should not be ignored that language specifically the socio-political discourse is sometimes used to conceal the truth and conveys the purport the way that affects people and persuade them to accept the untruth. The translator who is responsible for transferring the content that in turn, includes meta-language elements such as culture, history, politics, authority, and different ideologies from the source language (SL) to the target language (TL) and by manipulating and altering the linguistic forms of source language, he affects the readers' schools of thoughts and feelings and finally lead them to a certain ideology (Mason, 2010; Penycook, 2004). therefore, it can be said that in a translation process, the translator can convey the source of language's content to the target language the way he likes by applying diverse strategies and techniques, consciously or unconsciously (Schäffner, 2007, 2009). As far as the way a socio-political translator’s choice of any of the linguistic forms considerably influences the reader’s mind, the research aims to augment the precision of translations done by students of English translation from different social classes, to improve people's critical thinking, to find and analyze manipulative syntactic structures of socio-political texts, and to express translators’ ideology or the dominant ideology of their society. Theoretical Framework The framework of this paper is based on critical discourse analysis and socio-cognitive Van Dijk’s approach (2004). His analytical method, suggest two levels of analysis: macro level and micro level. Macro-level is related to the analysis of meta-linguistic elements such as ideology. For investigating this level in this study, “ideological square” defined by Van Dijk (2004) will be used. The concept of this square based on polarization, designate the following dimensions: Emphasizing our positive actions or properties Mitigating their positive properties and actions Emphasizing their negative properties and actions Mitigating our negative properties and actions Microstructure as another level is related to the analysis of the text in terms of linguistic forms. This research focuses on all syntactic strategies which might be applied by translators’ in order to represent their ideologies. Methodology Among approximately 600 texts collected from different written English socio-political content that were translated to Persian language and were limited to national, international or regional issues related to subjects about Iran, 250 utterances were selected for analyzing. These excerpts had the most obvious syntactic manipulation done by Persian translators. They were taken from written news, interviews, resolutions and the like from different sources such as websites, press, and magazines. Searching all syntactic strategies and manipulations, the Persian translators’ ideology were then challenged within CDA framework and Van Dijk’s theoretical pattern (2004). After that, Van Dijk’s ideological square was used to analyze how Our and Their actions and properties were polarized and how they were reflected in translation were examined. In the end, the frequency of the applied syntactic strategies was calculated. Results and Discussion In this part of the research according to Van Dijk’s theoretical pattern (2004), the frequency and percentage of each syntactic manipulations including eight strategies (word order, passivization, topicalization, nominalization, addition, deletion, modality and tense shift) which were used to manipulate the syntactic structures of English (ST) in order to convey Persian translator’s dominant or intended ideology, are excluded and analyzed. Conclusion and Suggestions The conclusions show that the syntactic strategies and manipulations do have a salient role in representing Persian translators’ ideologies in English written translated socio-political texts through the polarization of us and them. In other words, the effectiveness of syntax, manipulations, and changes made on syntactic structures and the Van Dijk’s theoretical pattern (2004) syntactic strategies could considerably echo the Persian translators’ ideologies in translated socio-political English discourses. Hence, studying these analyses clearly demonstrates that the major strategies or strategies used for emphasizing and mitigating actions in the content that Van Dijk explained in his ideological square has been significantly effective in justifying syntactic changes and the manipulations done by Persian translators. Also, comparing syntactic frequencies showed that the findings of the mostly applied strategies such as deletion and addition represent that among all such strategies, Persian translators pick the clearest and most direct way to express intended ideologies and hitherto, they have been trying to affect the meaning and the ideology of the target language indirectly. As far as the current research chose to study syntax among different discourse terms, studying other terms can show a more comprehensible picture of changes that represent the efforts translators have made to demonstrate beliefs, principles, personal and social culture through words, structures, and ideological meanings.
Zahra Hamedi Shirvan; Fatemeh Kazemi Motlagh
Volume 10, Issue 19 , January 2019, , Pages 73-95
Abstract
Extended Abstract Introduction In this research, it has been tried to study and analyze a few books in teaching the Persian language based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) using the concepts discussed in the Fairclough and Van Dijk’s approaches. About analyzing the discourse of teaching Persian ...
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Extended Abstract Introduction In this research, it has been tried to study and analyze a few books in teaching the Persian language based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) using the concepts discussed in the Fairclough and Van Dijk’s approaches. About analyzing the discourse of teaching Persian to the speakers of other languages’ texts, no research has not been done before, except a case study and therefore, conducting such studies seems necessary.The main issue in this study is how one single issue – that is Iran, Iranian and Iranian culture – is represented by different authors in various educational books. What are the differences in terms of vocabulary and linguistic structures used in the books? What are the goals and attitudes that underlie these differences, and what messages are conveyed by these differences? Therefore, the main research questions are: How is the choice of vocabulary, terminology, attributes, predicates and their meanings about Iran and Iranian in the books in question and what does it indicate? What are the concepts, beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies about Iran and Iranian in the reviewed books? Through which linguistic structures are these ideologies and concepts expressed and conveyed to the audience? Theoretical Framework Fairclough believes that discourse is a concept used by sociological theorists and analysts as well as by linguists. In his view, discourse means "spoken or written language use; it also includes other semiotic activities such as visual images (photos, videos, etc.) and non-verbal communication (like gestures), (Fairclough, 1992, p. 62).Fairclough believes that CDA is the "Analysis of the relationship between the objective use of language and wider social-cultural structures". He considers three aspects for each discourse event: 1. Text: texts may be oral or written, and oral texts can only be audio (such as radio) or audiovisual (such as television), 2. Discursive practices and 3. Social practices the components (elements) studied in this study are: 1. Choice of vocabulary and their meanings 2. Predication 3. Transitivity 4. Modality 5. Topics or semantic macro-structures. Methodology This study was conducted as descriptive-analytical research. The population in the study is Persian teaching materials (books) for the speakers of other languages. The sampling method in this study has been accessible and purposeful sampling. The studied series in the present study are four sets of Persian language teaching books for non-Persian speakers, respectively, Modern Persian Teaching, Let’s Learn Persian, Farsi Shirin Ast and Persian of Iran Today. Of these four series, the first two have been published in Iran, while the other two series have been published outside of Iran. Given that the two books Farsi Shirin Ast and Persian of Iran Today are only published for the elementary level and do not have intermediate and advanced levels, only the elementary level of all the series are analyzed in this study. In reviewing and analyzing the books, all the content of books, including the reading part, dialogues, listening, and all types of the exercises and even the review lessons were carefully studied. Then, among them, the reading texts, dialogues, listening and exercises which were related to Iran, Iranian or the Iranian culture were selected for analysis. Results and Discussion In this research, the elementary level books of four Persian language teaching series was analyzed based on CDA using Fairclough’s approach. Reviewing the educational textbooks and determining their discursive structures can reveal the hidden ideologies and their hidden aspects of meaning. The content and subjects presented in these materials play an essential role in creating a logical and real or an unrealistic and wrong viewpoint about the destination language and culture. Thus, there is a great responsibility and burden on material developers and writers in this regard.In the first part of the data analysis, the main and secondary themes related to Iran and Iranians were discussed and analyzed and a summary of the themes were: important places of Iran, Iranian prominent characters, personality traits and attitudes of Iranians, Iranian’s culture and customs, Iranian’s celebrations, and Iranian’s way of life. Most Iranians depicted in the books which are published outside Iran (Group 1), have emigrated from Iran, and their life is closer to the Western lifestyle, they are separated from their parents and their families, and they are interested in the Western lifestyle. On the contrary, the Iranians in the books which are published inside Iran (Group 2), live in Iran and have an Iranian lifestyle; they even maintain an Iranian lifestyle, even if they have migrated; and they care about Persian language and Iranian culture and even teaching it to their children, too. In summary, in Group 2 books, no subject containing negative connotation about Iran and Iranian was found, while in Group 1, books, challenging issues, and even subjects containing negative connotation about Iran and Iranians were numerous. After the component of the topics, the chosen vocabulary and their meanings and also their predicted formats were discussed and analyzed in these materials. As the given examples show, the vocabulary, terms, and the attributions used to describe Iran and Iranians in group 2 books generally contain a positive connotational meaning and provided a positive, optimistic point of view to the audience. No negative words, terminologies, and traits with a negative connotation were observed in these books; while in group 1 books, some words, terminologies, and traits with negative meanings and connotations were observed, which conveys a negative and pessimistic view from Iran and Iranian to the audience.In the following, the syntactic components were analyzed and discussed. Since the sample was the elementary level books, it is obvious that at this level, the discourse of the books has less structural and syntactic variation. Therefore, only two syntactic components were analyzed in these sources. Regarding these two components, namely, modality and transitivity, there is a difference between the two groups of books. In the group1 books, the indicative mood in the sense of certainty has been used mostly to express the negative points about Iran and Iranians; while in the group 2 books, the same structure has been used to express positive points about Iran and Iranians. Also, in group 1 books, the subjunctive mode in the sense of compulsion has been used to express negative points in Iran, which can be a kind of expressing the absence of freedom. Conclusion and Suggestions The results of the data analysis in this study indicate that the discourse of all four sources is an ideological one, and the differences represented, is due to intellectual infrastructure, ideologies, and the goals of the materials developers and writers. In general, the producers of the two series of Modern Persian Teaching and Let’s Learn Persian, compare with the other two series, have tried to construct and present a more positive and optimistic view of Iran and Iranian in the minds of the non-Persian audience; and in their produced discourses, they have emphasized on the positive and honorable points of Iran and Iranians.In the end, it is suggested that quantitative and statistical researches be carried out on the use of discursive components in Persian language teaching textbooks for non-Persian speakers. It is also recommended that Persian teaching materials and resources for the intermediate and advanced levels, be analyzed and discussed from discourse analysis perspective; because of the much more diversity of vocabulary and grammatical and discursive structures at that levels.
Ebrahim Rezapour
Volume 9, Issue 17 , July 2018, , Pages 81-120
Abstract
Extended abstract
1- Introduction
In the present article, the writer tries to investigate poems of contemporary poets such as Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali regarding the effects of different ideologies of these two poets on the construction of conceptual metaphors of death. The goal of writer ...
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Extended abstract
1- Introduction
In the present article, the writer tries to investigate poems of contemporary poets such as Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali regarding the effects of different ideologies of these two poets on the construction of conceptual metaphors of death. The goal of writer in selection of these two poets in present research is that they lived in the same social world and in the same period. The political, social and cultural worlds of the two poets are alike, but their worldview and ideology are different. The main questions are: Do the different ideologies of poets effect on the production of conceptual metaphors of death? To which semantic fields do source domains of conceptual metaphors of death in poems of poets belong?
2- Theoretical Framework
Cognitive semantics therefore conceals a dimension of metaphor that is revealed by critical metaphor analysis; this is the way that metaphor selection in particular types of discourse is governed by the rhetorical aim of persuasion. In many cases, therefore, metaphor choice is motivated by ideology. The same notions could have been communicated using a different metaphor had the ideology been different and the same metaphors can also be employed in different ways according to ideological perspective. Since situational context plays such a dominant role in metaphor, a semantic view of metaphor must always be complemented by a pragmatic one.’ This perspective does not exclude neither cognitive nor semantic views of metaphor, but it does claim that metaphor choices may be governed by cognitive, semantic, and pragmatic considerations and by ideological, cultural and historical ones. The discourse theory of metaphor claims that both individual and social resources influence metaphor choice in discourse. Individual resources can be sub-divided into three components: our thoughts, feelings and bodily experiences of the world; our understanding of what will be effective in particular contexts of use; and our knowledge of the linguistic system – of lexical fields and the various word senses that are available. The social bases for metaphor choice are ideological outlook – primarily political or religious viewpoint – and historical and cultural knowledge.
3- Methodology
The research methodology is based on correlation between ideology as a social variable and metaphor as a semantic variable. The writer tries to investigate the relationship between ideology and conceptual metaphors of death based on discourse theory of metaphor in order to determine the degree of effects of ideology on the choice of metaphor. The research corpus includes all poems of Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali. Poems of Shamloo and Tavallali include 17 and 6 collections of poetry, respectively.
4- Results and Discussion
The results of research indicate that the majority of conceptual metaphors of death in poems of Shamloo is related to nature, family, and music. The life situations of Shamloo can be displayed based on three global ones: when Shamloo as a young man entered the social world, he has chosen the policy of fighting and Jihad against wrongdoing rulers of Pahlavi and he always called his co-fighters for the battle. So, in this situation which is represented in collections of poetry such as irons and feeling, resolution, Ayda in mirror and Ayda, tree, dagger and memory, Shamloo portrayed immortality of death in most cases and he believed that death in the way of ideology is the most beautiful one. The second situation has happened in this way that Shamloo has lost his helpers in the way of fighting and he suffers from cowardice of people. Such a situation in the life of the poet has resulted in the formation of conceptual metaphor including death as an awesome expectation that Shamloo wishes to embrace like a woman. However, the third situation appears after these frustrations and when Shamloo seeks to resort to his love (Ayda). This lovely situation in the life of Shamloo results in the formation of conceptual metaphors including Death as a husband of love, Death as a sister of love and Death and Love as a king; and the dark symphony of jasmines and cedars results in mixing of sorrow and pleasure.
However, the third situation has appeared after this frustration and seeking refuge of Shamloo toward love (Ayda). Such a lovely situation in the life of the poet has resulted in formation of conceptual metaphors including Death as a husband of love, Death as a sister of love and Death and Love as a king which dark symphony of jasmines and cedars has resulted in mixing of sorrow and pleasure. Source domains of conceptual metaphors in poetic collections of Tvallali including semantic fields of wild animals such as black torpedo, hungry torpedo, snake, black monster, owl, leopard, semantic fields of demon such as demon, devil, and also semantic fields of nature such as the elusive wave of mortality, haste and defeat valley, silent plains and cavern indicate that Tavallali has been affected by Baudelaire’s thought, and black and emotionally oriented romanticism.
5- Conclusion
Research data indicate that the role of pragmatic factors in the production and selection of metaphor in poems of Shamloo is prominent. However, about emotive function in the production and selection of conceptual metaphors of death, it can be said that streaks of emotions and feelings in poems of Shamloo play an important role in the production of conceptual metaphors of death. The writer has not observed the effects of emotions and feelings of Tavallali in the production of conceptual metaphors of death. Therefore, the results of research indicate that ideology plays an important role in the production and selection of metaphors in literary texts and also individual resources such as cognitive and affective, pragmatic and linguistic factors play important roles, too.
Sara Yazdani; Shahla Sharifi; Mahmoud Elyasi
Volume 8, Issue 15 , January 2017, , Pages 27-51
Abstract
1. Introduction
Hyland (2005) defines metadiscourse as a “cover term for the self-reflective expression used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with reader as members of a particular community” (p. 37). Hyland has admitted ...
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1. Introduction
Hyland (2005) defines metadiscourse as a “cover term for the self-reflective expression used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with reader as members of a particular community” (p. 37). Hyland has admitted that these rhetorical features convey the relation between the writer, text and reader which is more than a pure exchange of information. In this vein, newspapers are important means of information exchange. Readers of any social level in communities have access to it and on the other hand, unlike TV and radio, it would not oblige its users to confine themselves to a specific time or place. Therefore, the role of newspapers in reflecting the news is really significant. In spite of the importance of newspaper discourse, it has not been successful in absorbing researchers’ attention to study on language devices like metadiscourse markers in this type of texts.
2. Theoretical Framework
In analyzing the data of this study, Hyland’s (2005, p. 49) framework was utilized since it is a more elaborated and convincing model for metadiscourse categorization and it has been used in most of the recent studies. Hyland (2005) divided the metadiscourse markers into two broad categories: interactive and interactional, each of which is divided into five sub-categories. The interactive metadiscourse group contains: (1) Transition: expresses relations between main clauses, e.g. in addition, thus, and, (2) Frame marker: refers to discourse acts, sequences or stages, e.g. finally, my purpose is, (3) Endophoric markers: refers to information in the parts of the text, e.g. noted above, see figure, (4) Evidential: refers to information from other text, e.g. according to X, Z states, (5) Code gloss: elaborates propositional meanings, e.g. e.g. such as. The second group of metadiscourse markers includes: (1) Hedge: expresses writer’s uncertainty, e.g. might, perhaps, (2) Booster: expresses writer’s certainty, e.g. in fact, definitely, (3) Attitude marker: expresses writer’s attitude, e.g. unfortunately, surprisingly, (4) Self-mention: Explicit reference to author(s), e.g. I, we, (5) Engagement marker: explicitly build relation with a reader, e.g. consider, note.
3. Methodology
The data of the present study were collected from the leading and most widely read newspapers in the U.S. and Iran by means of random sampling. Random sampling is a contributing factor to overcome the diversity of writers’ styles. The English news articles were retrieved from an online newspaper archive, while the Persian ones were collected from Astan-e-Qods- Razavi library archive. The data sampling was based on easy accessibility, popularity and mass circulation of news articles. To normalize the present study to a common basis to compare the frequency of occurrence, this research employed 100 words approach. In fact, all of these articles were published on 12 September in 2001. All news articles were examined to determine and classify metadiscourse markers manually. Furthermore, to analyze the data statistically, SPSS 18 software was applied. To find out whether there is any difference between the metadiscourse distribution in both English and Persian news and to explore the meaning beyond this difference, the chi-square test was employed.
4. Results and Discussion
The findings revealed that all types of metadiscourse markers were present in both sets of data, but that there were similarities and differences between the two groups regarding their distribution and frequency. In general, interactive metadiscourse markers were employed the most in news reports, in comparison to interactional metadiscourse markers, according to chi- square test results. As for the subcategories of interactive metadiscourse, transitions and evidentials were meaningfully the most frequent markers in English and Persian news reports. Regarding the subtypes of interactional metadiscourse, hedges, attitude markers and boosters were statistically employed the most in both sets of data in terms of frequency of occurrence. Moreover, attitude markers, hedges, boosters and evidentials were used in both groups of news articles to display the hidden ideology for achieving power, but engagement markers and self-mentions were only present in English news reports to show the totalitarian ideology.
5. Conclusion
This study tried to investigate the role of metadiscourse markers about 9/11 news articles published in 2001 in the U.S. and Iran. This comparative study might provide pedagogical implications. It would be practical to train journalism students about using metadiscourse markers appropriately in order to achieve more success in reporting the world’s events. Hence, journalists by exerting metadiscourse markers not only would be able to deepen their readers’ understanding, but also might ensure to conduct them to grasp the content completely and ideally.
Ferdows Aghagolzadeh; ailin firoozian
Volume 8, Issue 14 , November 2016, , Pages 25-49
Abstract
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Without a doubt, people communicate their feelings and thoughts through discourse and texts. Every text is formed based on some metalinguistic variables including, culture, history, relations of power, politics, norms, and rules of the society. The author is supposed ...
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Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Without a doubt, people communicate their feelings and thoughts through discourse and texts. Every text is formed based on some metalinguistic variables including, culture, history, relations of power, politics, norms, and rules of the society. The author is supposed to organize a text considering all these mentioned variables and the translator is expected to take them into account while translating the same text (Wodak & Meyer, 2001). Hence, it can be inferred that the metalinguistic variables find their reflection in the language (the choice of words) both the author and translator employ and therefore, the trace of ideology can be found in all texts (Basnett, 2002; Schäffner, 2009). Moreover, the translator conveys his intended meaning to the reader by clever manipulation of words and structures (Tymoczko & Gentzler, 2002; Mason, 2010).
Considering all mentioned points and despite various ideological discourse structures proposed by Van Dijk (2004), Iranian researchers paid scant attention to the study of style and rhetoric as compared to other discourse structures introduced by Van Dijk (2004). Furthermore, regarding the reciprocal relationship between culture and language and the fact that Persian language is occupied with literary devices for long time, writers of different types of texts especially literary texts make use of these sources. Concerning the paucity of research in this realm, the chief purpose of this paper is to apply the Van Dijk (2004)‘s model as the starting point for critical discourse analysis of Persian political translated texts to arrive at deeper understanding of how political translators use these two discourse structures and their strategies in order to impose their intended ideologies. In addition, we try to uncover the ideological reasons of political translators in applying these two discourse structures.
2. Methodology
To collect data, a corpus of 300 English paragraphs and their translated counterparts in Persian were accurately scrutinized sentence by sentence. All these paragraphs were related to the recently important political issues in Iran which were translated into Persian by translators. This corpus is taken from a comprehensive collection of newspapers, websites, theses, magazines, recorded deals, and so on. To achieve the aim of this study, all sentences in the 300 paragraphs were read meticulously and critically, concentrating on each phrase, clause, and sentence separately and in conjunction with the neighboring phrases, clauses, and sentences. They were searched for the strategies of style and rhetoric; the strategy of style includes lexicalization and rhetoric is composed of 7 strategies which are simile, number game, irony, repetition, hyperbole, dramatization, and metaphor. Subsequently, one example was given for each strategy.
3. Discussion
The analysis of results exhibited that among 300 paragraphs taken into account, 50 instances of lexicalization were found; the reasons of applying such strategies were not the same throughout these paragraphs translated by different translators. The researchers cited three reasons behind making use of lexicalization which are as follows: 1) ideological lexicalization 2) stylistic lexicalization 3) complementary lexicalization (i.e., the translator resorts to the use of two strategies simultaneously, one of which is lexicalization, to express his ideology more effectively). The complementary lexicalization was classified into three groups: a) lexicalization and generalization b) lexicalization and euphemism c) lexicalization and nominalization. This finding is in line with the Ideological Square of Van Dijk (2004). Furthermore, the finding showed that the occurrences of the strategies of rhetoric were just equal to 7.
4. Conclusion
The results indicated that the frequency of employing rhetoric strategies was much less than the use of the style strategy. This would mean that the translators enjoyed more tendency to apply lexicalization strategy than the rhetoric ones. As a matter of fact, rhetoric strategies may embrace literary devices, the abundance of which can be apparently seen in Persian language and culture. However, it was found that Persian translators showed less tendency to use rhetoric strategies to reflect their own ideology. This result may lend support to the fact that political texts are mostly written in direct and straight manner and as a result, translators would prefer to use lexicalization strategy more frequently than rhetoric strategies.
Every scientific enquiry opens new directions for further research. Future directions for research in this area would be to survey political discourses in other countries and compare their results with the results of current study. Since this study focused on written discourse, it is engrossing to conduct another study to deal with spoken discourse.
