Article published in:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 15:6 (2016) ► pp. 710–726

Constructing the “self” and the “other” in Bush’s political discourse before and after the Iraq war (2002–2008)

| Universiti Sains Malaysia
| Universiti Sains Malaysia
The article investigates the construction of the “self” and the “other” in George W. Bush’s political discourse before and after the Iraq war. Van Dijk’s ideological square theory is used to examine the group polarization of Us versus Them dichotomy. Halliday’s systemic functional grammar is utilised to analyse the speeches and to designate the strategies that Bush utilises to differentiate between the protagonist (America) and the antagonist (Iraq). Furthermore, the diachrony in Bush’s discourse regarding Iraq’s WMDs and Saddam Hussein is also examined. The results of the study indicated that before the invasion, Iraq was an active entity in upgrading its WMDs’ program and supporting terrorism. However, after the invasion, Iraq is now perceived as a beacon of hope in the Middle East, thus, justifying America’s illegitimate act of invading Iraq.
Keywords: critical discourse analysis, Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, transitivity structures, Iraq war, George W. Bush’s political discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
  • 3.Van Dijk’s Ideological Square Theory
  • 4.Analytical framework
  • 5.Methodology
  • 6.Discussion of findings
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 09 February 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15.6.03abi
References
Baker, Paul, and Ellece, Sibonile
2011 Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. USA: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Cap, Piotr
2015 “Follow-ups in the US anti-terrorist discourse: Proposal for a macro-discursive approach to monologic follow-up sequences.” Discourse & Society, in print. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Ralph
1998 “Congress and Post-Cold War U.S. Foreign Policy”. In After the End: Making U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World, ed. by Scott, J. M, 108–137. Durham: Duke University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul
2004 Analysing political discourse: theory and practice. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
‘Dicator’
2006 Oxford Wordpower. UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Engel, Dominik
2004 Modelling Self and Other: A Hybrid Approach to the Analysis of Images of Self and Other in the Radio Addresses Delivered by the American President Before and After 9/11. Master thesis: University of Salzburg.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1989 Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar
2001 Language and Power, 2nd edition. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Graham, Phil., Keenan, Thomas., and Dowd, Anne-Maree
2004 “A call to arms at the end of history: A discourse-historical analysis of George W. Bush’s declaration of war on terror.” Discourse & Society 15(2): 199–221. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael., and Christian Matthiessen
2004 An introduction to functional grammar, 3rd edition. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Hodge, Robert Ian V., and Kress Gunther R.
1993 Language as ideology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kandil, Magdi A.
2009 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in American, Arab, and British media: Corpus-based critical discourse analysis. Master thesis: Georgia State University.Google Scholar
Kull, Steven, Clay Ramsay., Stefan Subias., and Evan Lewis
2004 US public beliefs on Iraq and the presidential election. Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and Knowledge Networks. Available at http://​www​.pipa​.org​/OnlineReports​/Iraq​/IraqReport4​_22​_04​.pdf (Accessed: January 6 2012).
Lazar, Annita., and Michelle M. Lazar
2004 “The discourse of the new world order: ‘Out-casting’ the double face of threat.” Discourse & Society 15(2): 223–242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mazid, Bahaa-eddin
2007 “Presuppositions and strategic functions in Bush’s 20/9/2001 speech: A critical discourse analysis.” Journal of Language and Politics 6(3): 351–375. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Oddo, John
2011 “War legitimation discourse: Representing ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ in four US presidential addresses.” Discourse & Society 22(3): 287–314. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
‘Regime’
2006 Oxford Wordpower. UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, Paul, and Andrea Mayr
2009 Language and Power: A Resource Book for Students. UK: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sowińska, Agnieszka
2013 “A critical discourse approach to the analysis of values in political discourse: The example of freedom in President Bush’s State of the Union addresses (2001–2008).” Discourse & Society 24(6): 792–809. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Geoff
2004 Introducing functional grammar. UK: Arnold.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1998 “Opinions and ideologies in the Press.” In Approaches to Media Discourse, ed. by Allan, Bell., and P. Garrett, 21–63. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
2000 “Widening information gaps and policies of prevention.” In Digital democracy: Issues of theory and practice, ed. by Hacker, Kenneth L., and Teun A., Van Dijk, 166–183. London: Sage Publications. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2006 “Politics, ideology, and discourse.” In Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, ed. by Keith, Brown, 728–740. UK: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Leeuwen, Theo
1993 “Genre and field in critical discourse analysis: a synopsis.” Discourse and Society 4(2): 193–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weintraub, Megan
2007 “The formative power of wartime rhetoric: A critical discursive analysis of presidential speeches.” Gnovis Journal 8(1): 48–63.Google Scholar
Williams, Michael
2011 The good war: NATO and the liberal conscience in Afghanistan. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth
2001 “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer, 63–94. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer
2001 “What CDA is about – a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer, 1–13. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Randour, François, Julien Perrez & Min Reuchamps
2020. Twenty years of research on political discourse: A systematic review and directions for future research. Discourse & Society 31:4 ► pp. 428 ff. Crossref logo
Wang, Xi
2021. Construing Community with a Shared Future in President Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Discourse (2013–2018): The Role of Personal Pronouns we and they. Critical Arts 35:3 ► pp. 35 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.