Citation

Manabu K. Bull. Foreign Lang. Cent. Tokai Univ. 2006; 27: 7-25.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Tōkai Daigaku)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

This study explores how ideologies are construed and how national identities are embedded in the discourses of Iraq War speeches made by George W. Bush and John Howard. The paper, following Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), is based on a lexicogrammatical analysis on Transitivity and Mood & Modality, which correspond respectively to experiential and interpersonal metafunctions of language. The lexicogrammatical analysis of the two political war speeches is combined with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), particularly the theory of membership categorisation (us versus them), to show how ideologies are constructed and how membership categorisation is realised through experiential and interpersonal lexicogrammatical resources. The experiential and interpersonal analysis reveals that the two political actors try to establish legitimacy for their military action and future violence in different ways while both leaders categorise and construct positive us and negative them in accomplishing rejections and recruiting allies. Bush's typical technique of legitimisation is to broaden the range of us to its maximum and build solidarity among us, while Howard's technique of legitimisation is to stimulate anxiety or fear caused by them. The paper discusses the interrelation of the lexicogrammatical features seen in the two speeches with the socio-ideological contexts surrounding them, and further mentions that the grammatical construal of the naturalised ideologies and national identities, embedded in the seemingly benign and unbiased political war discourses, can be affected by discources those socio-ideological contexts produce.