Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 10:2 (2019) ► pp.230–250

Time tells a story

Temporality as a marker of ideology in the Palestinian political discourse

| An-Najah National University

This study provides a synthesized perspective on the functions and ideological orientation of time adverbials as (re)situated in their socio-political contexts in five speeches by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN. By analysing adverbials of truncated, extending, and fixed time references, the study reveals some systematic ideological formulations of conflict and resolution in the Palestinian political discourse. Adverbials of truncated and extending time are incongruous and generate a sense of interpretive dissonance. The truncated sense is embedded and more particular, thus counteracting the extending time which is established as more progressive, perseverant and consistent. This represents power asymmetries and different ideological orientations to conflict and resolution. Adverbials of fixed time, however, are transformative; they grant an end to a clash of ideologies due to the conflict between truncated and extending temporalities, and therefore resurrect a discourse that is based on equity and justice.

Keywords: temporality, adverbials, political discourse, language function, ideology, power
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Palestine between time and atemporality
    • 1.2On time
    • 1.3On deictics
    • 1.4On ideology
  • 2.Temporality expressed through adverbials in the Palestinian political discourse
    • 2.1[laħðˤah]: The truncated sense
    • 2.2[mə zælə]: The extending sense
    • 2.3[?al?æn]: The fixed sense
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Links
Published online: 5 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16005.abu
References
Abuarrah, Sufyan
2016 “Now’: a marker to a different mental representation and proximization of threat”. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics 42(2): 195–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aggestam, Karin & Annika Björkdahl
2011 “Just peace postponed: Unending peace process and frozen conflicts”. JAD-PbP Working Paper 10. Retrieved from [URL]
Badarin, Emile
2016 Palestinian Political Discourse: Between Exile and Occupation. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bazzi, Samia
2009 Arab News and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Discourse Study. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benovsky, Jiri
2010 “The Relationist and Substantivalist Theories of Time: Foes or Friends?” European Journal of Philosophy 19(4): 491–506. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1991 Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bühler, Karl
1982 “ The Deictic Field of Language and Deictic Words ”. In: Speech, Place and Action: Studies in Deixis and Related Topics, ed. by Robert Jarvella and Wolfgang Klein, 9–30. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Chilton, Paul
2004 Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul & Christina Schäffner
2002 Introduction: Themes and Principles in the Analysis of Political Discourse. In Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic approaches to political discourse, eds. by Paul Chilton & Christina Schäffner, 1–45. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Daniton, Barry
2014 Space and Time. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eagleton, Terry
2014 Ideology. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan
2005 The Structure of Time: Language, Meaning and Temporal Cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman & Ruth Wodak
1997 Critical Discourse Analysis. In: Discourse as Social Interaction, ed. by Teun van Dijk, 258–284. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1989 Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar
2013 Critical Discourse Analysis: The critical study of language. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, Charles
1971 “Towards a Theory of Deixis”. Working Papers on Linguistics, University of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1982 “The subject and power”. Critical Inquiry 8(4): 777–795. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frawley, William
1992 Linguistic Semantics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Freeden, Michael
2003 Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grzymala-Busse, Anna
2011 “Time Will Tell? Temporality and the Analysis of Causal Mechanisms and Processes”. Comparative Political Studies 44(9): 1267–1297. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hanks, William
2009 “Fieldwork on Deixis”. Journal of Pragmatics 411: 10–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard
2008 Particles at the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface: Synchronic and Diachronic Issues: A Study with Special Reference for the French Phrasal Adverbs. The University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Hill, Tom
2008 “After Oslo: Truth and Reconciliation in the Palestinian Discourse”. Mediterranean Politics 13(2): 110–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirtle, Walter
1977 “Already, Still and Yet”. Archivum Linguisticum 81: 28–45.Google Scholar
Horn, Laurence
1970 “Aint it Hard Anymore”. In: Papers from the Sixth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, ed. by M. A. Campbell et al., 318–328, Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Hyatt, David
2005 “Time for a Change: A Critical Discoursal Analysis of Synchronic Context with Diachronic Relevance”. Discourse and Society 16(4): 515–534. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jamal, Amal
2016 “Conflict Theory, Temporality, and Transformative Temporariness: Lessons from Israel and Palestine”. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 23(3): 365–377. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kimmerle, Heinz
1996 “How to repeat what never has been?” In Time and Temporality in Intercultural Perspective, ed. by Douwe Tiemersma & Henk Oosterling, 1–11. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang
2009 How Time is Encoded. In The Expression of Time, eds. by Wolfgang Klein & Ping Li, 39–83. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Time in Language. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C.
1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Deixis. In The Handbook of Pragmatics, eds. by Laurence Horn & Gregory Ward, 97–122. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Machover, Moshé
2012 Israelis and Palestinians: Conflict and Resolution. Chicago: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Mall, Ram Adhar
1996 Time Arrow Within the Bounds of Cyclic Time. In Time and Temporality in Intercultural Perspective, eds. by. Douwe Tiemersma & Henk Oosterling, 65–75. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
McDowell, Sara, & Maire Braniff
2014 Commemoration as Conflict: Space, Memory and Identity in Peace Processes. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McMahon, Sean
2016 “Temporality, Peace Initiatives and Palestinian-Israeli Politics”. Middle East Critique 251: 1–7. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Michaelis, Laura
1993 “Continuity within Three Scalar Models: The Polysemy of Adverbial still ”. Journal of Semantics 101: 193–237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pappé, Ilan
2006 The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: One World Publications.Google Scholar
Peteet, Julie
2017 Space and mobility in Palestine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piwek, Paul, Robbert-Jan Beun & Anita Cremers
2008 “Proximal’ and ‘Distal’ in Language and Cognition: Evidence from Deictic Demonstratives in Dutch”. Journal of Pragmatics 40(4): 694–718. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rauh, Gisa
1983 Aspects of Deixis. In Essays on Deixis, ed. by Gisa Rauh, 9–61. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Ramzi
2002 On Marginal People: The Case of the Palestinians in Israel. In Psychoanalysis, Identity and Ideology: Critical essays on the Israeli/Palestinian Case, eds. by John Bunzl & Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 71–83. New York: Springer Science and Business Media. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Therborn, Göran
1980 The Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology. London: Verso.Google Scholar
1995a Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis. In Language and Peace, ed. by Anita Wenden and Christina Schäffner, 17–33. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing.Google Scholar
1995b “Ideological Discourse Analysis”. The New Courant 41: 135–161.Google Scholar
1998 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Sage.Google Scholar
2011 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Zeno
1967 Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitrow, Gerald J.
1972 What is Time? The Classic Account of the Nature of Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric
1990 “Facing Power: Old Insights, New questions”. American Anthropology 921: 586–596. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yule, George
1996 Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Links

The speeches were retrieved from the following websites:

  1. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 23 September, 2011

    http://​www​.kawther​.info​/wpr​/un​-information​/un​-general​-assembly​-debate​-66th​-session

  2. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 29 January 2012

    http://​www​.wafainfo​.ps​/atemplate​.aspx​?id​=8748

  3. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 27 September 2012

    http://​www​.maannews​.net​/Content​.aspx​?id​=524172

  4. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 26 September 2014

    http://​www​.mawwal​.ps​/ar​/mawwal​/58379

  5. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 30 September 2015

    https://​www​.amad​.ps​/ar​/Details​/91417

  6. Abbas, Mahmoud, UN, 22 September 2016

    http://​www​.pbc​.ps​/Episodes

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Ma, Qian & Qiufang Wen
2023. Can space be conceptualized in a different way in political discourse? An extended application of Discourse Space Theory. Discourse & Society 34:6 ► pp. 712 ff. DOI logo
Scholz, Norbert
2020. Bibliography of Recent Works. Journal of Palestine Studies 49:2 ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 april 2024. 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.