Ministry of sciences, Research and Technology
Shahid Madani University of Azarbaijan
Faculty of Literature and Humanities
English Department
Thesis submitted to the English Department in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts (MA) in English Language
Teaching
"Self "and "Other" Representation, A Critical Study of Metaphorical
Expressions in Iranian and British Press
Supervisor:
Bahram Behin (Ph.D.)
Advisor:
Farzad Salahshour (Ph.D.)
By:
Hamid A’zami
February, 2014
Tabriz, Iran
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Acknowledgements
This thesis was completed due to the intellectual, emotional, and material support that I
received from my teachers, friends, and family who I would like to thank here. My gratitude
also goes to those whose names I may forget to mention. First, I am grateful to the members
of the English language and literature Department, DrBahramBehin, my thesis supervisor,
Dr. FarzadSalahshoor, my thesis advisor. NedaSalahshour, because her M.A. thesis was
really a perfect direction for me to do my research. Actually, her thesis was my second
advisor. I am also so grateful to Google books too, since it provides me with an excellent
opportunity to have access to some references, which I could not find by myself in Iranian
bookshops or library bookcases.
I am grateful to the emotional support that I received from my wife and for her untiring
patience and assistance during the preparation of this thesis.
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Abstract
Metaphors do not function merely at the linguistic level but also on the conceptual,
physical, and socio-cultural level. They are not merely employed to help people understand
complex abstract situations; but also, as instrument of social control that the media have at
their disposal.
This study explores how BBC on-line version and Keyhan(Farsi edition) represent ‗self‘
and ‗other‘ regarding metaphorical expressions they use in their news through critical
discourse analysis to contribute to the understanding of the discourse-ideology link from the
data selected in a six month period from 2012 23th September to 2013 19st March.
Van Dijk's notion of ' ideological square' and also his ‗rhetorical structures‘ have been
employed for the analysis of the data texts. BBC mostly uses negative other presentation both
in ‗self‘ and ‗ other‘ sections to accentuate the negative properties of out group to show the
West as the victimized group of other eastern group actions. While, in Keyhan majority of
data concentrate on positive presentation of self rather than negative other to present Iran as a
protector of the Mideast. In both sources the negative other presentation was the most
apparent structure followed by positive self presentation. A conclusion that can be drawn
from the analysis is that while the metaphors used in two newspapers are overlapping with a
degree of conventionality, there are differences in the way two parties present self and other.
Such research has important implications for teaching awareness of constructive and
functional nature of language in studying the press and news discourse in particular.
Key terms: Ideology, ‗Self‘ and ‗Other‘, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Metaphor, Van
Dijk's Ideological Square and ‗rhetorical structures‘, Political Discourse
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements….…....……………………….…………………………………………..…….I
Abstract………………….…………………………………………………………..………….......II
1 Introduction
1.1 Background:................................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Statement of the Problem:........................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Purpose of the Study:....................................................................................................................4
1-4 Research Questions..................................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Significance of This Study:.......................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Limitations: .................................................................................................................................. 6
1.7 Definition of Key terms…………………………………………………………………………..8
1.8 Organization of this study:………..………………..………………………………..……..……11
2 .Review of related Literature
2.1 Background:................................................................................................................................. 14
2-2-1: Ideology................................................................................................................................... 15
2-1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis .......................................................................................................17
2-2 Major Directions in CDA........ ..................................................................................................... 20
2-2-1 Fairclough and Critical Language............................................................................................. 20
2-2-2 Wodak and Discourse Sociolinguistics…..................................................................................24
2-2-3. Van Dijk and Socio-Cognitive Model...................................................................................... 25
3. Methodology
3.1 Data Collection:………………….. ……………………………………………………………...31
3.2 Procedure…………………………………………………………………………………………32
4. Data Analysis and discussion......................................................................................................... 34
4.1 Micro analysis of Self( in-group) and ‗Other‘ (out-group) presentation in Keyhan:………... ….35
4.1.1 ‗Self‘ (in-group) presentation in Keyhan:…………………………………………..….36
4.1.2 ‗Other‘ (out-group) presentation in Keyhan:………………………………………… 36
4.1.3 Macro analysis of metaphors in Keyhan:…………………………….…………..……37
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4.2 Micro analysis of ‗Self‘ ( in-group) and ‗Other‘ ( out-group) presentation in BBC:…………..41
4.2.1 ‗Self‘ (in-group) analysis in micro level in BBC:………………………………….…..41
4.2.2 ‗Other‘ representation in micro level in BBC:………………….………………..…….42
4.2.3 Macro analysis of metaphors in BBC:……….………………………………………..42
5 Conclusion
5-1 summary of findings and answering the research questions………………………..……........ 51
5-2 Implications……………………………………………………..……...................................... 59
5-3 Limitations... ............................................................................................................................. 60
References ...................................................................................................................................... 62
Appendices
Appendix1…………..……………………………………………………………………………69
Appendix2…………………..……………………………………………………………….…..76
Appendix3………………..………………………………………………………………………79
Appendix4……………………………………………………………………………………….84
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Chapter 1
Introduction
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1.1 Background:
Nowadays nobody can avoid the presence of news broadcasting in their lives. They are
crucial presenters of cultures, politics and social life, shaping as well as reflecting how these
are formed and expressed.
―There is probably no other discursive practice, besides everyday conversation, that is
engaged in so frequently and by so many people as news in the press and on television‖ (Van
Dijk, 1991, p. 110). As news contributes to building and adapting knowledge and beliefs,
news discourse is naturally a particularly rich source of figurative language. It is not
surprising that a large body of research on metaphor in news discourse is available. For
example, metaphorical language in news texts has widely been studied with the aim of
revealing ideologies and persuasive effects in political discourse (Sandikcioglu, 2000; Kitis
and Milapides, 1997; Muller, 2005; Taiwo, 2012). Studies have also looked at business
discourse and financial reporting (e.g.Charteris-Black, 2004; Koller, 2004) or sports
reporting (e.g.Charteris-Black, 2004), to name just a few. Metaphors are not merely
employed to help people understand complex abstract situations; they also have a rhetorical
function. Metaphors are thus an instrument of social control (Fairclough, 1989, pp. 36-37)
that the media have at their disposal.
1.2 Statement of the Problem:
An increasing number of studies from various disciplines (Fairclough, 1995; Fowler, 1991;
Van Dijk, 1983, 1995, 2001, 2003 and 2004) have demonstrated that "due to the nature of
news itself, news cannot be totally value-free reflection of facts. According to Richardson
(2007) ―there are three set of characteristics about press, the language of journalism, its
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production and consumption and the relationship of news to social ideas and institutions that
are clearly inter related and difficult to disentangle. News–producing processes comprise
selection, interpretation, and presentation of events to audiences, thereby constructing reality
in a manner corresponding to the underlying ideologies of the presenters and their intended
audience. So inevitably news reports produce meanings that construct ideological
representations of the social world". The content used in newspapers is not facts about the
world, but in a very general sense ‗ideas‘, ‗beliefs‘ , ‗values‘ , ‗theories‘ , ‗ properties‘ , and ‗
ideology‘. In this sense language is not neutral, but a highly constructive mediator
(Fowler1991, p.12). Thus news is a practice which far from neutrally reflecting social reality
and empirical facts, intervenes in what Berger and Luckmann (1976) cited in (Fowler1991,
p.16), call it ―the social construction of reality‖. And because all the institutions of news
reporting and presentations are socially, economically and politically situated, all news is
always reported from some particular angle from a particular ideological position. In order to
be persuasive, news reports, and commentaries on political issues need to be shown to be true
and plausible by incorporating persuasive content features (Van Dijk, 2001, p.320). As
Fowler (1991, p.21) puts it our choice of linguistic structure to represent particular events is
just as significant as from the point of view of the ideologies they reflect. One of those
linguistic elements is the use of metaphor, which is one of the rhetorical strategies used in
political discourse. The pervasiveness of metaphor has been recognized in a variety of
discourses which are essential to our everyday life, from politics and economics to
specialized scientific discourses, such as medicine and physics. (Lakoff And Johnson, 1980,
p.41). And political discourse, which is mostly persuasive and rhetorical in nature, uses
rhetorical strategies and indirect and figurative language like metaphor. So, metaphors help
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to shape the structure of political categorization and argumentation. Although an array of
research has been done by different researchers in different context and regions, little
information is found about the representation of ideology in Iranian and the British press
regarding metaphorical expressions they use. Matters which are of intense concern in
contemporary life in political genre such as inequality, discrimination, inhumanity, war,
election, migration have been analyzed by researchers in other contexts and with the use of
different linguistic frameworks, but there is little information on the study of the ideological
concepts ―self and other‖ in media specially newspapers.
1.3 Purpose of the Study:
This study will delve into Iranian and the British presses regarding metaphorical
expressions to find out how these parties reflect and represent positive self and negative
other. Such research has important implications for teaching awareness of constructive and
functional nature of language in studying the press and news discourse, in particular and the
influence of media on peoples‘ social life. Not only do Media reflect and represent the social
habits, the life and the culture of people, the speech communities and above all the social
meaning and models but also through (re)producing discourse can influence people and
social groups, and make some changes within these structures. In much the same vein, they
can teach people many things about other nations and other peoples‘ cultures and way of life
that finally can be considered as a good direction to rectify and improve peoples‘ social
habits.
1.4 Research Questions:
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-How do the British and Iranians paint a word picture of ‗self‘ and ‗other‘ in the press they
release?
– What kinds of metaphors do they use to represent their ideologies?
-Why are metaphors used as representative of ‗self‘ and ‗other‘?
-Is there any universality or are there variations between the two languages and cultures in
question in terms of the metaphorical expressions?
1.5 Significance of This Study:
Ideology plays an important role in both life and society. Therefore, the modes of transfer
of this ideology should be studied meticulously. Ideology can be carried out in all types of
medium. The focus of this research will be on the role of ideology in creation of ‗self‘ and
‗other‘ regarding metaphorical expressions used in the West and the East press. Because of
more access to them, as the role of media in the frame of social events becomes more
colorful, there are more discussions about what media function is and how this function plays
its role. Naturally, CDA undertakes a great part of this job and one of the most important
parts of this job for CDA is to investigate and criticize the role of media in the field of
international relations. Certainly, there are many of such studies in CDA literature review
and I will mention some of them during writing the different chapters of this research.
However, to my knowledge there has been no other similar study in this relation.
One important thing to be elaborated here is the link between Ideology and metaphor. It is
the aim of this study to find out implicit or explicit systematic ideas (ideologies) and
representations through the practice of metaphors.
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Ideologies of language are important for social analysis because they are not only about
language. ―They enact connections between linguistic and social phenomena. Metaphors are
part of the cognitive process that routinely enables us to understand abstractions and
enormously complex situations.‖ Lakoff (1980)
Said (1997) in an article ― Covering Islam‖ gives an example about the power of metaphor
as a linguistic device in the hands of press in the U.S. to practice the West ideologies for the
justification of war against Iraq.
He suggests:
―The canonical coverage of Islam in the U.S. has been shaping for the past two
decades. It is a scary image capable of justifying war to protect the Western way of
life or civilization. It is clear that the U.S. by presenting the clash as another case of
Islam vs. the Judeo-Christian West tries to depict the enemy as the evil on the one
hand, and themselves as the savior on the other.‖
In another words the frame of self-presentation vs. Frame of other-presentation and the
help of metaphors as a powerful device to depict dichotomy convince the public that
eventually war against Iraq is justified to defeat the enemy.
Said continues:
―There should be little doubt whose metaphors are more powerful as powerful cultures
and civilization are more likely to have both the metaphors and the means to justify
their position than less powerful.‖
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He is true in saying that metaphors can create the needed ideological justifications for
social practice. To be more precise the linguistic marks such as metaphors in the process of
presentation self vs. other was the core of the war.
In practicing ideology it is necessary to present the opponent position as wrong or inferior.
Often this requires the images of self and other and this is where metaphors come into
picture. As they help the intended ideologies to be activated in the discourse.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms:
Ideology and ‘self and other’:
The basic sense of ideology is simply the system of ideas, beliefs, values and categories by
reference to which a person, a group or a society perceives, comprehend and interprets the
world. In this sense, ideologies are representations of who we are, what we stand for, what
our values are and what our relationships with others are. In this sense ideology becomes a
schema for the representation of us and them as social groups.
Fairclough
(2001)
declares
that
"ideologies
are
partial
representation
and
misrepresentation". (p.134), and Van Dijk (2004) believes that "ideologies are sociocognitively defined as shared representation of social groups and more specifically as the
axiomatic principles of such representations". (p.115).So, ideologies have been defined as
beliefs that underlie the shared social representation of specific kinds of social groups. It is
the basic framework for organizing the social cognitions shared by members of social
groups, organizations, and institutions. These group members use ‗self‘ as a positive
representation of their norms and beliefs and try to accentuate their achievements and in
relation to other groups which they distinguish as different from their own group, call them
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as ‗Other‘ and try to accentuate their negative characteristics to practice their power over
them or just only misrepresent their values, beliefs and achievements in negative terms.
Ideologies are implied in the discourses that are produced but as they are implied and not
stated they need to be carefully analyzed. Since groups learn, express and produce ideology
through discourse, a discourse analytic approach is required to unveil these latent meanings
embedded within the disguise of language. This discourse analytic approach is called Critical
Discourse Analysis.
Critical Discourse Analysis:
Critical discourse analysis has identified several relationships among language, ideology,
and power. At the basis of CDA is the aim to view language use as a social practice and to
uncover the role of language in constructing social identities, relationships, issues, and
events. Its central concern has been to examine the socio-political nature of texts and
discourses through which social reality is constituted and investigate how these discourses
maintain power through their ideological properties (Fairclough 1995, Fowler 1979). The
aim of CDA is to gear us with the right equipment to scrutinize the taken for granted
ideologies and to reduce opacity in the discourse. According to Van Dijk (1995), CDA is a
type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse,
dominance & inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social
and political context (p.352). For Widdowson (2004, p. 89) the aim of CDA is revealing
''how language is used for the exercise of socio-political control''. In other words, the role of
CDA is the uncovering of implicit ideology in text or talk.
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Metaphor:
A general definition of metaphor would be to say a metaphor is an imaginative way of
describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way.
But as Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual theory of metaphor (1980) claims they are not just
linguistic phenomenon of figures of speech, but a matter of thought. They are a matter of
cognitive linguistics which sees learning, creation, and usage in language as being explained
in reference to human cognition. By allowing us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in
terms of another, metaphors draw our attention to a particular aspect and away from other
aspects which are not consistent with the metaphor, one of the most important insights of
conceptual theory of metaphor is that metaphors structure our everyday activities in a
systemic fashion. Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 8) give an example TIME IS MONEY, for
which a number of expressions can be found in English, such as ' saving time' , 'using time
profitably' , ' investing time' and many others. So, according to the cognitive view, metaphors
do not function merely at the linguistic level but also on the conceptual, physical, and socio
cultural level, it should not become as a surprise that they vary across and within languages.
Metaphors may communicate something which is difficult to express in other ways. It may
help in face- threatening situations in which it is more appropriate to speak in an indirect
way. They may add vividness to a text or speech and they help structuring the arguments and
introducing new angles of sight.
Political Discourse:
The idea of political discourse is approached by different disciplines from different
perspectives. Political discourse will hinge on what one considers as politics. Politics has
wide and narrow sense. The simplest definition would be the one limited to the activities of
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institutions, such as political parties, government and parliament, in the fulfillment of
political obligations. Politics is also conceived of as a struggle to gain and retain power
among members of this institution. Political discourse is a wide set of discourses or genres or
registers such as: policy papers, ministerial speeches, government press releases or press
conferences, parliamentary discourses, electoral speeches, and so forth. A political discourse
therefore is discourse in any political forum, such as campaigns, parliamentary debates,
interviews, speeches, writing and so forth.
Van Dijk's Ideological Square:
According to Van Dijk the main strategies of talk about others, is positive-self
presentation and negative-other representation which is shown in his Ideological Square
Model (2004).
Positive
Us
Them
Accentuates our positives
Minimize their positives
Negative
Minimize our negatives
Accentuates their negatives
Van Dijk's Ideology Square (2004)
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1.7 Organization of the study:
This study is divided into five chapters:
Chapter 1 is introduction. Chapter 2 gives the needed theoretical information for the
study and introduces the background knowledge of CDA, its principles and main directions.
Chapter 3 introduces the methods of analysis. In this chapter beside the method, the way
that data are analyzed, is discussed. Chapter 4 goes for data analysis and discussion. In this
chapter, sampled data will be discussed from different perspectives. The main objective of
this chapter is to elicit the linguistics components and their usage to build ideology and
conveying desired meanings.
Finally, chapter 5 is devoted to conclusion. In this chapter, firstly the linguistic results of
previous chapter will be discussed to draw a general sketch of operation system of these
linguistics components (metaphors) and their role in constructing ideology. Later on there
will be a conclusion of what has been said about language and ideology and their relation
together and if there is a new finding about the theoretical framework, it will be added, too.
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Chapter two
Review of related Literature
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2.1 Background:
As Richardson in his book of analyzing news (2007) says: discourse of news paper is
based on five fundamental assumptions:
1. Language is social and central to human activities. It exists with a kind of dialogue
with society.
2. Language enacts identity. What this mean is that people try to present themselves as a
certain type of person and the identity a person projects is in form of some specific
actions and activities.
3. Language use is always active. This is closely related to Austin‘s speech act theory
that language is not just talk; it should be regarded as an activity and a social action.
4. Language use has power. Some peoples‘ speech is more powerful than others. As
George Orwell in ‗Animal Farm‘ (1944) his commendable novel writes ‗All Animals
are equal but some are more equal than others‘. Some ways of speaking and
communication have more power than others. Some genres like journalism are
precisely such genre of communication. It can reinforce some beliefs and shape
peoples‘ opinions.
5. Language use is political. Giving the two combination of language use as social and
has power; there isn‘t any way that language use couldn‘t be political. Thus language
is a medium of power.
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2-1-1: Ideology
Generally, ideologies reflect the basic standard that constitutes the social identity and
defines the interests of a group. That is, ideologies are self-serving groups schemata,
including categories such as Membership (Who belongs to our group? Who may be
admitted?) Activities (What do we do?) Goals (Why do we do this?), Values (How should
we do this?), Position (Where are we? What are our relations to other groups?) and
Resources ( What do we have? And what do we not have?) (Van Dijk, 2001).
Van Dijk defines ideology (2003) as systems of ideas of social groups not only to
understand the world (from in-group view), but also they are as a basis for the social
practices of groups members and on the other hand crucial social practices are influenced by
ideologies in language use and discourse, so there is a degree of reciprocity as we acquire
and learn or change ideologies by the influence of discourse, be it spoken or written. Van
Dijk focuses on mental and cognitive characters of ideologies. For him they consist of
shared, social beliefs, and not of personal opinions. They are associated with the properties of
groups, such as: identity, their position, interests and aims, their relations to other groups and
their natural environment. Ideologies are taken as abstract axiomatic oasis of socially shared
belief systems of groups.
Ideologies are evaluative: they provide the basis for judgments about what is good or
bad, right or wrong and thus also provide guidelines for social interaction. Many ideologies,
those of underlying relations of social conflict, domination and resistance, may be organized
by a polarization defining in-group and out-group which categorize people as US vs. Them,
as own people vs. foreigners. This dichotomy is on the base of a group self- schema against
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other groups they are proposed by Van Dijk (2003) as: membership, activities, goals, norms
or values, position, resources.
A definition of ideology by Bourdieu and Eagleton who believe that it is a ―spontaneous
belief or opinion [that] . . . would seem unquestionable and natural‖ (Bourdieu & Eagleton,
1992 p. 112) or ―things people accept without knowing‖ (p.114).
For Fairclough (2001) ―ideologies are partial representation or misrepresentation‖ (p.134).
He thinks of ideology as representation of power relation, domination and exploitation that is
mediated through the channels of discourse.
Now the missing link between Ideology and discourse is clear. Ideologies organize
specific groups; their attitudes may be expressed in text and talk. Ideologies constitute what
Van Dijk call as ‗Models‘. Models represent what people know and think about an event or
situation. They are as a person‘s personal experiences and cognition called as world
knowledge or schematic knowledge. Models can affect content and semantics of discourse.
As defined above ideologies control the mental representations, contextual embeddedness
of discourse and its structure. So, discourse is monitored by underlying ideologies that there
must be a broader framework to study the relations between discourse and ideology since our
matter of interest is press and the ideologies of newspapers are usually not personal, but
social, institutionalized or political. There should be a discourse analytical framework to
remove the opacity of texts and scrutinize the ideologies. This is called Critical Discourse
Analysis.
All of these cases can be the reflex of this fact that how much the question of ideology is
important for CDA. Generally, we can say that the ideology governing a discourse is
responsible for a major part of the circumstances taking place in that discourse. It determines
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