Thesis on PDA.pdf

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We the Balkanians: A Critical Analysis of the Political

DiscourseElsa Sknder i

Thesis for the degree of Master of Philosophy in General Linguistics

Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies

University of Bergen, Norway

Term, Spring 2014

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN


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We the Balkanians: A Critical

Analysis of the Political Discourse

Elsa Sknderi

Thesis presented infulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of master in

General Linguistics

Institutt for lingvistiske, litterre ogestetiske studier

Universitetet i Bergen2014


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ABSTRACT

The Critical Discourse Analysis is a growing discipline which is being applied to various

fields and subjects and the political discourse is one of the most prominent of those. This

thesis based on Critical Discourse Analysis analyzes the political discourse of the Balkan

politicians. The context of the discourse fragments analyzed is related to political or

economical summits or forums, where the high-profile Balkan politicians give their speeches.

The aim of this dissertation is to understand how the European Integration agenda, which

resembles an ideological project, influences the way the political discourse in the Balkans is

shaped. The way a common Balkan identity is indexed and the linguistic strategies, such as

Syntactic Transformations or Spatial and Temporal deictics are employed to refer to the

common problematic past of the Balkans, or to metaphorically map the European Integration

Process are the focus points of this research.

This inquiry is based on an analysis of the related literature and of the speeches of the political

leaders which comprised the empirical data. The findings and conclusions underline the fact

that the European Integration agenda has eased the ethnic tones and the conflicts in theBalkans region. The politicians tend to shape a different political reality in the region, through

their speeches by indexing a common Balkan Identity, by employing syntactic transformations

for the sake of a politically correct discourse and by expressing solidarity through the use of

the same metaphoric scenarios in their discourse fragments.

This dissertation recommends that similar discourse analysis could be performed on larger

corpora. Another recommendation formulated is related to conducting comparative researches

rather within the Balkans context, or beyond that by comparing two different contexts such as

the Balkans and the Scandinavian one. Such researches could help understanding the way

identities are constructed or indexed, under the influence of European ideology or under the

influence of the problematic past.

Keywords: CDA, PDA, the Balkans, Political discourse, European Union Integration agenda


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my little baby, who spent the very first days of his life doing Critical Discourse Analysis

with me.

Special thanks go to my supervisor, Professor ivin

Andersen and to my

co-supervisor professor Shezai Rrokaj

for their insights and good advice.

I am immensely thankful to my father, to my family and to

my amazing husband for their support and love. I am

forever grateful!


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...2

Acknowledgements..3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.7

1.1 Introduction....7

1.2 Overall research aim and research objectives.....8

1.3 Thesis Outline ....9

1.4 Background knowledge on the Balkans10

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.....12

2.1 Introduction ..12

2.2 Language and Politics....12

2.3 Critical Linguistics ....13

2.4 Critical Discourse Analysis ...14

2.4.1 What is CDA?.....................................................................................................14

2.5 Discourse Analysis and the CDA of Political Discourse...16

2.5.1 WhyPDA?..........................................................................................................16

2.6 Reproaches (Critiques) to CDA.....18

2.6. 1 Neither theoretical nor methodical orthodoxy in CDA.....18

2.6.2 A single plausible interpretation and the issue of bias19

2. 7 On the Importance of this Research..21

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS...22

3.1 Introduction ...22

3.2 Research Strategy ..23

3.3 Data Collection and Sampling Technique .....25

3.4 Data Selection Criteria ..25

3.5 Framework for Data Analysis ...26


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3.5.1 Data Description ...26

3.5.2 Data Analysis ...27

3.5.2.1 The Grammar of Modality ....27

3.5.2.2 Transformations 32

3.5.2.3 Metaphors ..33

3.6 Limitations and Potential Problems 34

3.7 Reliability and Validity ..35

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...36

4.1 Introduction on Main Findings ..364.2 Findings on the Grammar of Modality ..37

4.2.1 Personal Deixes37

4.2.2 Temporal and Spatial Deixes ..43

4.3 Findings on Transformations .....50

4.4 Findings on Metaphoric Scenarios .55

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS ..62

5.1 Introduction .62

5.2 Summary of Findings and Conclusions ...63

5.3 Recommendations for Further Research .67

REFERENCES ...68

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: The deictic map of the speech of Ahtifete Jahjaga .71

Appendix 2: The deictic map of the speech of Boidar Deli.73

Appendix 3: The deictic map of the speech of Bujar Nishani .75

Appendix 4: The deictic map of the speech of Igor Lukic.77

Appendix 5: The deictic map of the speech of Nikola Gruevski .79

Appendix 6: The Speech of the President of Kosovo Ahtifete Jahjaga ..81

Appendix 7: The speech of the Minister of Economy and European Integration of

Serbia, Boidar Deli83


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

This thesis focuses on a Critical Discourse Analysis of the Political discourse in the region of

the Balkans. The Balkan Peninsula is widely known as a region prone to ethnic diversity and

conflict. This phenomenon is strongly related to the history of disputes and war within the

nations of the Balkans. Notwithstanding the past politics of conflict and war, the present day

political reality in the Balkans is changing.

The Balkan countries tend to be more open to cooperation and the Balkan foreign politics is

much more amicable from what it used to be. This new political reality is mainly related to the

policies that the Balkan countries are applying in terms of their European Union Integration

processes.

This new European agenda is a sort of new ideology which makes the Balkans overcome the

nationalistic and ethnic feelings or conflicts. The alterations of the foreign policy of the

Balkan countries are reflected, and it is possible to trace the political discourse of the high

profile politicians. Such a claim supports the principle of Critical Linguistics and Critical

Discourse Analysis that: Discourses are ideological and that there is no arbitrariness of

signs. (Wodak, Cillia 2006:713)


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1.2 Overall research aim and research objectives

The integration process to the European Union resembles an ideological project which can

potentially restructure the political discourse in the Balkans. One of the key claims of the

Critical Discourse Analysis is that: Major social and political processes and movements have

a partly linguistic-discursive character (Fairclough, Wodak 1993:271).

The Critical Discourse Analysis, which is one of the most salient branches of the Discourse

Analysis, is the discipline on which this research relies to draw the theoretical approach and

the methodological procedures. This kind of discourse analysis goes beyond the linguistic

level, to cover even the grounds of the sociopolitical context. Overall the research aim of this

thesis is to perform a Critical Discourse Analysis on the political discourse in the Balkan

context.

First of all we examine the way Balkan politicians index their identity when they talk to each-

other or for each-other in political or economic summits or forums. One of the research

objectives of this inquiry is to shed light on the question: Have Balkan politicians begun to

index a common Balkan identity in their discourses?

Another objective is to interpret how is the construction of this Balkan identity overcoming

the ethnic pathos of the past, and how it can be interpreted in terms of the European

Integration process of the Balkan countries.

Critical Discourse Analysis asserts the lack of arbitrariness of the linguistic signs in the

discourse. Based on this the next objective is to examine how the linguistic discourse

strategies are employed in the Balkan political discourse. First of all we consider some aspects

of the Grammar of Modality, next we find and interpret the Transformations and finally wetake into account the conceptual metaphors used when talking about the European Integration.

Finding and interpreting the main linguistic strategies the Balkan politicians use in their

discourse are helpful to examine how the ethnic diversity is eased, how the politicians refer to

their problematic past, how they present their future goals and objectives and overall how their

discourse help their new common ideological project, which is that of the European Union

Integration.


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This inquiry analyzes and interprets how the current ideology shapes the political discourse in

the Balkans. The term ideology here and throughout this thesis is used in the sense of

worldviews or schematically organized complexes of representations and attitudes with

regard to certain aspects of the social world. (van Dijk (1993) cited in van Leeuwen 2006)

This research is relevant not only to Critical Discourse Analysis, but also to linguistics studies

in the Balkans. More broadly it can be pertinent even to Balkan Studies.

1.3 Thesis Outline

The first chapter states the research objectives and the research aims. At the same time it

offers brief background knowledge on the Balkans history, covering the grounds which are

relevant to this thesis. Chapter two puts forward the Theoretical Framework on which this

thesis is built and makes a brief summary of the main issues of Critical Discourse Analysis. In

addition the chapter offers the main Critiques to Critical Discourse Analysis.

Chapter three presents the research methods of this thesis stating each of the related topics

such as the Research Strategy, Data Collection and Sampling Technique, the Criteria followed

for the data selection, the Framework for Data Analysis, The Data Description and Data

Analysis. Two important subjects this chapter treats are Limitations and Potential Problems of

this thesis and the subject of Reliability ad Validity.

Chapter four presents the results and findings reached after the empirical work and data

analysis. One by one we present the findings on the Grammar of Modality, on

Transformations and on Metaphoric Scenarios.

Chapter five summarizes the findings and conclusion, discusses these findings and offers

Recommendations for further research.


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1.4 Background Knowledge on the Balkans

The Balkans is the geographical and historic name which refers to the Southeastern Europe.

The etymology of the word is related to the mountains Balkan, which lay through Bulgaria

and reach up to the eastern Serbia.

The region of the Balkans has always been in the boarders of great emperies, thus his history

has been dominated by wars, riots, invasions and clashes between emperies, from the times of

the Roman Empire, up to the recent wars in former Yugoslavia. The region has been a battle

field for the interests of Great Powers, in different epochs of history, but at the same time it

has experienced civil wars between some of the countries of the Peninsula.

The Balkans was not only the place of great clashes from the times of Greeks, Romans,

Byzantines, Habsburgs, and Ottomans, but also the place of the cultures amalgamation. The

expansion of the Habsburg Empire toward the Southeast up to the beginning of the 20 th

century and the extension of Ottoman Empire toward North induced the ethnic, linguistic and

religious division in the Balkan region.

Another reason that induced the nationalism in the Balkans, was the injustice of Great Powersfor solving territorial and geopolitical issues through treaties and agreements such as Treaty of

San Stefano (1878) and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) etc. These treaties were considered as

unjust because they did not offer a solution to the Balkans conflicts, but aggravated more the

situation. The Eastern Question did indeed turn the Balkans into the "powderkeg of Europe,"

but the responsibility for this situation lay as much with the great powers and the principle of

the balance of power as with the Balkan states.(Jelavich 1983: 440)

The national wars and revolutions that had started in the beginning of the 19th century,

continued through the 20th century, which started and ended with ethnic wars in the Balkans,

making the regions known in the whole world as The powder keg of Europe.

The whole 20th century has been a tragic period in the history of the Balkans starting by the

crisis of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 and the Balkan Wars in 1912 to end with the war in

Bosnia-Herzegovina during 1992-1995 and in Kosovo in 1999.


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Sir Winston Churchills quote that The Balkans produce more history than they can

consumeseems to have been relevant to those times. During the 20th century in the Balkans

7 wars took place and these wars made the territories of the Balkan countries change

continuously, reconfiguring the identity of the region. The ethnic issues of the Balkans during

the whole history of its wars never served to the good neighborly relations.

Notwithstanding, to the past the actual developments in the Balkans are showing a tendency to

improve the neighborly relations. There is a political will to end the democratization processes

and the European Union integration processes. These positive developments in the region are

leaving behind the philosophy of division, and the Balkan countries are trying to reach

reconciliation.


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CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Introduction

The aim of this dissertation is to shed light to the way Balkan Politicians perform a common

Balkan Identity when they are in the presence of each-other. Next it is aimed to investigate

and analyze the language constructions of this political discussion, when referring to the

problematic past of the Balkans and to the common future. Yet another important objective of

the inquiry is to find out how the process of European Integration is marked through

conceptual metaphors in the Balkan political discourse.

These research objectives cover topics such as Politics and Language, Critical Discourse

Analysis, Political Discourse Analysis, Metaphor and Politics. Based on this, this chapter

outlines the theoretical framework of this thesis. First we consider the theoretical issues of

Language and Politics; secondly the discipline of Critical Linguistics is shortly presented

and then its relevance to this study is laid forward. Thirdly a concise overview of Critical

Discourse Analysis (CDA)and its object of study is give. From the broad domain of CDA we

move to a more specific one that is directly linked to our research, which is that of Political

Discourse Analysis (PDA). The reasons for choosing a PDA are given and then the main

subjects studied by PDA are presented.

2.2 Language and Politics

The study of Politics intertwined to Language has started from the rhetorical studies of

Ancient Greece and Rome and is of a growing interest in scholar practices. Ancient Rhetoric

as the art to persuade others through language was as well concerned with aspects of political

communication. Classical rhetoric, apart from its uses in the courtroom, was primarily

developed as an art to persuade people in a political assembly. Thus, special arguments,

special forms and figures of style were traditionally associated with political text and talk.

(van Dijk 1997: 34)


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Indeed, the concepts of style and figures were essential to Rhetoric, but only as means to

ornament the language. The main interest of Rhetoric was not the study of how language is

used to express a certain standing or ideology, but how language should be used (inter aliain

political texts) to make the speech more persuasive.

A brief historical overview of the research in the domain of Language and Politics can be

found in the works of Wodak and Cillia (2006:707-09) and Chilton (2004:3-48).

Conditioned by this dissertation aims we will focus on some of most important developments

of the history of this research such as that of Critical Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysisand political discourse analysis.

2.3 Critical Linguistics

Critical Linguistics (CL) arouse in the mid-1970s a necessity for an academic branch which

would examine the connections between language and ideology, social structure. CL wastheoretically affected by the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt school and by the Marxist

philosophy. Roger Fowler, Tony Trew and Gunther Kress were the pioneers of CL and their

explicit argument was that: the world-view comes to language-users from their relation to

institutions and the socio -economic structure of their society. It is facilitated and confirmed

for them by a language use which has societys ideological impress. Similarly, ideology is

linguistically mediated [] (Fowler, Kress 1979: 185)

This argument presented the need for a linguistic analysis which would not only be formal or

neutral, as Fowler and Kress put it, but also critical. The need then is for a linguistics which

is critical, which is aware of the assumptions on which it is based and prepared to reflect

critically about the underlying cause of the phenomena it studies, and the nature of the society

whose language it is. (1979: 186)

The systemic functionalist linguistics was where CL relied for an analytical framework. M. A.

K. Hallidays books Language as Social Semiotic (1978) and Introduction to Functional

Grammar (1985) were central to Critical Linguistic Analyses. The concepts of these books


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became important for understanding grammar and interpreting texts, keeping in mind that:

grammar has to interface with what goes on outside language: with the happenings and

conditions of the world, and with the social processes we engage in (Halliday 2004: 24)

Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics became the groundwork to establish three basic

assumptions for CL: 1 that language serves a number of specific functions, and that all

linguistic forms and processes express one or all these functions; 2 that the selections which

speakers make from among the total inventory of forms and processes are principled and

systematic; and 3 that the relation between form and content is not arbitrary or conventional,

but that form signifies content. (Fowler, Kress 1979: 185)

Moreover HallidaysFunctionalist Grammar was the foreground of an analytic method, or the

linguistic toolkit to CL, but not only to them. It still seems to be very important even to do and

understand CL descendant: Critical Discourse Analysis. In most studies there is reference to

Hallidayan systemic functional grammar. This indicates that an understanding of the basic

claims of Halliday's grammar and his approach to linguistic analysis is essential for a proper

understanding of CDA. (Wodak and Meyer 2002: 8)

2.4 Critical Discourse Analysis

CL apart from being the forerunner of CDA, is still being used interchangeably with the term

CDA especially when referring to the Analysis of Political Discourses. (See Wodak, Cellia

2006) Indeed Teun A. van Dijk, one of the pioneers of Discourse Studies, states that CL and

CDA are at most a shared perspective on doing linguistic, semiotic or discourse analysis

(van Dijk, 1993:131).

2.4.1 What is CDA?

The notion of discourse seems to be a fuzzy one. According to van Dijk, discourse has three

main domains: (a) language use, (b) the communication of beliefs (cognition), and (c)


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interaction in the social situation. (van Dijk 1997a:2) The coexistence of these domains urges

the necessity to analyze discourse from a multidisciplinary perspective.

In the beginning of 90s a new school of thought arose, aiming to analyze the discoursethrough a multidisciplinary approach. This school established a new paradigm in Discourse

Analysis, that of Critical Discourse Analysis. As Wodak and Meyer point out, the term

critical here stands not for a negative connotation, but in the sense of Critical Theory

proclaimed by Max Horkheimer, one of the members of the Frankfurt School. (Wodak, Meyer

2009:6) Even why CDA has various orientations, mainly the analyses are based on concurrent

phenomena of discourse, ideology, and power. The political discourse is one of the most

salient discourses, where power and ideology are omnipresent.

CDA broadened the scope of CL from textual analysis to intertextual analysis. But at the same

time even the subject to which CDA was applied were extended. There are studies regarding

News and Media, (e.g. Fairclough 1995b; van Dijk 1998, van Dijk 1988). Racism (van Dijk

1991, Wodak and Matouschek 1993), Immigration (van Leeuwen and Wodak 1999), Gender

Issues, Education, Business etc.

There is also a wide variety of methodological approaches to the discourse fragments

analyzed. There is not a uniquely accurate methodology to do CDA, and this has been one of

many debated aspects of CDA (See Widdowson 1995).

2.5 Discourse Analysis and the CDA of Political Discourse

As T v. Dijk (1997) notes PDA contributes not only to discourse studies, but also to political

sciences and the social sciences in general.

In his paper What is political discourse? T. v. Dijk (1997)offers some preliminary criteria

that discourse has to fulfill to be considered a Political Discourse. Based on this assumption

the political discourse analyzed in this thesis is almost a prototypicalone for the following


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reasons.

1. In the analyzed speeches politicians such as ministers, prime ministers, or presidents are the

actors or authors(v. Dijk 1997:13)of the political discourse. The discourse of all the other

individuals, institutions or organizations which are participants in the political process

(ibid.) is excluded.

2. The context of the analyzed speeches is a political one as the talk is contextualized in a

communicative event such as Balkan Summits or media interview on the Balkans politics.

3. The main political processto which the Balkan politicians refer to is the European Union

Integration. Thus when together they set common agendas and policies or at least they talk

politically regarding their progress in the European Union integration process.

4. The Balkan politicians refer in their speeches to sharedpolitical values which are equalityamong Balkan States, justice, and freedom (which is crucial especially for countries like

Kosovo).

2.5.1 Why PDA?

There is a broad corpus of research on PDA, which is very helpful when it comes to the

methodological approach. As it was mentioned, PDA is one of the most representative sub-

branches of CDA, which consecutively employs its techniques of analysis. The most crucial

point why CDA was chosen is its linguistic affinity.

However, the linguistic character of CDA becomes evident in this section, because in

contrast to other approaches to text and discourse analysis (for example, content

analysis, grounded theory, conversation analysis; see Titscher et al., 2000) CDA

strongly relies on linguistic categories. This does not mean that topics and contents

play no role at all, but that the core operationalizations depend on linguistic concepts

such as actors, mode, time, tense, argumentation, and so on. (Meyer 2002: 25)

Beyond this, the previous research in the field of CDA and PDA offers many theoretical and

practical models, which are relevant to the objectives of this inquiry. For instance, in some of

the research conducted by political discourse analysts have continuously paid attention to the


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issues of identity and have already established even a theoretical link between discourse and

identity performance. Discourse not only shapes reality, but it also serves as a medium where

people perform identities.

The performative character of the discourse has changed the way sociolinguistics and studies

of language focus on their object of inquiry. Sociolinguistics traditionally assumes that

people talk the way they do because of who they already are, whereas a performative

approach to identity suggests that people are who they are because of (among other things)

the way they talk (Cameron, 1997 cited by Pennycook 2006: 288)

As our study aims to see whether the common Balkan identity is performed or indexed. The

politicians can position themselves with respect to a Balkan identity implicitly through

pronoun use, through which they create or make their identities specific. For this reason we

take a closer look at person deixis in the political speeches to understand how group identity is

conceptualized.

In addition to person deixis, spatial and temporal deixis are also examined because according

to Chilton and Schffner (2002) these deixes have a political significance too. (see Chilton,

Schffner 2002: ff) Temporal deixis is specifically important for the understanding of how

Balkan Politicians refer to the past or how they make the historical periodisation.

Critical analysts consider of a great importance the syntactic transformations which take place

in the political discourse. Fowler and Kress in their seminal work Critical Linguistics(1979)

give strong arguments to show that linguistics structures such as nominalizations and

passivizations are not arbitrary in the discourse, but serve specific aims to the speakers. These

theoretical assumptions play an important role in our inquiry.

Analysts such as Musolff and Zinken (2009), Chilton (2004, 2006), Chilton and Lakoff (1995)

etc. under the light of the Metaphors we live by(Lakoff, Johnson 1980) have brought to CDA

the mechanism of the conceptual metaphor. The cognitive metaphor in the Lakoffian sense is

beyond the borders of rhetorical metaphor. Its importance is in the mapping of one concrete

and familiar domain of experience to another abstract unfamiliar domain. In the political

discourse metaphors conceptualize political actions or processes by offering a certain

ideological view of the reality. Thus specific metaphoric scenarios can be identified.


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Metaphoric scenarios which are idealized cognitive models Lakoff (1987:185) serve to

build conceptual mapping and can be considered as as a set of standard assumptions made

by competent members of a discourse community about the prototypical content aspects

(participants, roles, dramatic story-lines) and social/ethical evaluations concerning elementsof conceptual domains. (Musolff 2004: 17)

The metaphors also express distance or solidarity in the speeches of the politicians. In our

view metaphors are central to the PDA, (see Meadows 2007) because, as Paul Chilton argues,

Metaphors can contribute to a situation where they privilege one understanding of reality

over others. (1996: 74)

2.6 Reproaches (Critiques) to CDA

CDA has continuously been criticized for having theoretical shaky grounds, for the lack of

scientific methods and for the way analyses are undertaken. Edward Haig makes a remarkable

statement regarding the large number of the critics of CDA, whose activity threatens to

develop into a whole new academic cottage industry of its own(2014: 5).

Here we are presenting some of the most peculiar assumptions of the critique of CDA.

2.6. 1 Neither theoretical nor methodological orthodoxy in CDA.

In some Balkan countries like Albania, Kosovo and Serbia if somebody is referred to as

havingMarxist ideologies,it is almost like being referred to as a traitor. This can be explained

with reference to the bitter Communist past of these countries. Not surprisingly, one of the

most renowned scholars of CDA, Norman Fairclough is often criticized for following a

Marxist theoretical background in his analyses. Being influenced by Marx is somehow

acceptable for Fairclough, as the Marxist approach was also the theoretical foundation of the

Critical Theory (See Breezer 2011: 496-498). However Theo van Leeuwen makes a statement

that may calm down even fanatics from Albania, Kosovo or Serbia. According to him: But,

again, there is no theoretical orthodoxy in critical discourse analysis (van Leeuwen 2006:291).


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Beyond the positive lack of theoretical or methodology orthodoxy there exists in fact a wide

range of approaches. Wodak and Meyer (2001) emphasize that CDA cannot be considered

merely as a theory or method applied to social problems. Actually the essence of CDA is that

it can be conducted in, and combined with any approach and subdiscipline in the humanities

and the social sciences (Wodak, Meyer 2001: 96).

Notwithstanding the homogenous approaches are considered as a vulnerable feature of CDA.

CDA is a broad church, it seems, and can contain multitudes. []The consequences of

operating in such an eclectic framework are obvious: Lack of coherence, indiscriminate

mixing of incompatible concepts, unsystematic application of methods, and so on. Moreover,

intellectual rigour aside, there are issues of disciplinary self-definition or selfunderstandingwhich clearly have yet to be resolved (Breezer 2011: 502).

2.6.2 A single plausible interpretation and the issue of bias

Furthermore, the work of Critical Discourse Analysts is criticized for offering a single

plausible interpretation and for claiming that the more detailed the analysis, the more

convincing the interpretation will be. Henry Widdowson (1998), one of the faultfinders of

CDA argues that the principles of analysis are unclear. To add Widdowson claims that the

analyses is biased and to some extent arbitrary, as it does not take into account the standpoints

of the writers or the readers of the texts.

The producers and consumers of texts are never consulted. Thus, no attempt is ever

made to establish empirically what writers might have intended by their texts. Their

intentions are vicariously inferred from the analysis itself, by reference to what the

analyst assumes in advance to be the writer's ideological position. Nor is there any

consultation with the readers for whom texts are designed. Their understanding is

assigned to them by proxy, which in effect means that the analysts use the linguistic

features of the text selectively to confirm their own prejudice (Widdowson 1998:

143).

The matter of a single plausible interpretation is also related to the levels of adequacy of CDA.

While its faultfinders argue that the discourse analysis can at its best reach an interpretative

adequacy, the critical discourse analysts and theorists disagree. According to them the range


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of possible interpretations can be narrowed down by deconstructing the text and discovering

the ideologies and power relations embedded in it. Fairclough and Wodak (1997) emphasize

the fact that CDA can reach an explanatory adequacy:

This marks the point where critical readings differ from reading by an uncritical

audience: they differ in their systematic approach to inherent meanings, they rely on

scientific procedures and they naturally and necessarily require self-reflection of the

researchers themselves. In this point, they differ clearly from pure hermeneutics. We

might say they are explanatory in intent, not just interpretative. We also have to state

that interpretations are never finished and authoritative; they are dynamic and open,

open to new contexts and new information (Fairclough, Wodak 1997: 279).

Besides these objections toward CDA, another central critique is that of analysts having

partial or political stances, which effect their interpretations. Although this claim accuses

CDA researchers for being biased and subjective, they do not oppose it. Having such a stance

does not make CDA less scientific. Unlike much other scholarship, CDA does not deny but

explicitly defines and defends its own sociopolitical position. That is, CDA is biased and

proud of it (Wodak, Meyer 2001: 96).

In conclusion the critique towards CDA has been addressed by Critical Discourse analysts

themselves. In this study the PDA aims to consider what is more trustworthy from the

discipline of CDA, to understand the way politicians talk. As we are convinced that the

linguistic features of the political discourse cannot be considered simply stylistic expressions

or preferences. Wodak and Meyer (2001) emphasize that CDA analysts do discourse analysis

with an attitude, and they are in solidarity with the oppressed ones. (96). In contrast to

these, our study is not in solidarity with anyone, nor is there any certain attitude kept. The

analysis conducted here does not belong to someone politically or socially engaged, nor doesit deal with detecting and interpreting ideology, social inequality or power abuses. We want to

use some of the techniques of CDA, mainly concentrating on language as a toolkit. Our work

is based on similar research on PDA.


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2. 7 On the Importance of this Research

The theoretical framework presented in this chapter gives a clearer view of the central

developments in the field of CDA. Moreover it addresses the individual objectives of this

research. As to the importance of this research it may be argued that there is a clear need for

PDA in the context and reality of the Balkans.

We humbly think that it adds value to the current research of CDA, as to our knowledge there

is no similar research regarding the Balkan Political Discourse. This study has a twofold

purpose: to examine the identity as it is performed by the politicians, and to see what language

strategies are used to refer to the problematic past and to the EU integration. This research

work will contribute to discover how past the ethnic conflictin the Balkans is eased by the EU

integration aspirations of the Balkans countries.


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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Introduction

This chapter lays forward the methodological framework that was used to execute the

analysis, aiming to comply with the research objectives of this thesis. As it was mentioned in

the previous chapter, the methodology of PDA is not a preset collection of rules which the

analyst has to follow. It actually seems to be of a learning by doing sort. Peculiarly

Discourse Analysis is considered to have a difficult-to-define method.

(Berg 2009) Much of the work of discourse analysis is a craft skill, something like bicycle

riding or chicken sexing, that is not easy to render or describe in an explicit or codified

manner (Wetherell, Potter (1992) cited in Berg 2009: 218) . Despite such claims this chapter

does its best to describe the elicitation of data and the procedures that were followed to

analyze the collected data.

As it was presented in previous chapters, the focus of this inquiry is the political discourse of

the Balkan leaders. The aim is to discover whether, through their speeches, a common Balkan

identity is constructed, and to find out how Balkan politicians perform identity when they are

gathered in formal forums or summits. The speeches may also be considered as discourse

fragmentsas far as they have the same thematic concerns Each discourse strand comprises a

multitude of elements which are traditionally called texts. I prefer the term discourse fragment

to `text' since texts (can) address several themes and thus contain several discourse fragments.

What I call a discourse fragment is therefore a text or part of a text which deals with a certain

theme, for example, foreigners/foreigners' affairs (in the broadest sense) (Jger 2002: 46).

Another point of interest is the way politicians refer to their problematic common past and

how they talk to refer to the common EU integration process. To shed light on the raised

research questions, the empirical material which must be analyzed are the speeches of the

main Balkan leaders, given in Balkan Summits or Forums.

In the chapter of theoretical framework we mentioned some of the topics that the CDA inquiry

has covered. There is ample evidence as to the need to conduct such a PDA in the Balkan

context. This research makes one step further as it has a twofold scope: to intertwine the issue


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of identity to the issue of the EU integration process. All in all we expect to discover a mutual

correlation between these issues.

The outline of this chapter consists of the Research Strategyof the thesis, where the strategy

intended to complete the empirical study is described. Next it presents the DataCollection

and the technique used to gather the relevant data. Besides, another subtopic of this chapter is

the Framework of the Data Analysis, where the collected data is described and then

analyzed. Finally the chapter poses any possible Limitation and potential problemsof this

research and it also addresses the questions of reliabilityand validity.

3.2 Research Strategy

The research strategy that we have decided to implement is hermeneutic CDA methodology

combined with that of a case study. A case study stands for a detailed in depth study, which

observes how a certain group or population behaves in a certain context. The case study

strategy is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth, within

its real-life context (Yin 2003: 13).

The case study strategy includes various topics, and it is a strategy chosen when other research

strategies such as survey, ethnographic research, historical research or experimental research,

are excluded as relevant strategies that comply with the research objectives. For example,

case studies of programs, events, persons, processes, institutions, social groups, and other

contemporary phenomena have been completed. Sometimes people use the term case studyas

a catchall category for research that is not a survey, an observational study, or an experiment

and is not statistical in nature (Hancock, Algozzine 2006:15 ).

The strategy of inquiry usually is conditioned by the nature of the research. Thus for

quantitative research mainly the experiment or survey strategies are used. These strategies are

also conditioned by the quantifiable data the quantitative research deals with. Patricia Duff

(2008: 44) defines the quantitative research as follows: theory-driven (positivist) research,

where an existing theory or model is tested and the standard quantitative (experimental, quasi-


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experimental) procedures of random sampling, pretesting, assigning groups randomly to

treatments, posttesting, and so on, may be employed.

As to the qualitative research, the researcher is not interested in quantifiable data, and

typically does not belong to the field of natural sciences. Instead he/she studiesthings in their

natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the

meanings people bring to them(Denzin, Lincoln 1994: 2).

A typical research strategy related to qualitative research is the case study. Nevertheless one

has to keep in mind that this strategy does not exclusively belong to qualitative research and it

can possibly be used in quantitative research too. Case studies represent another type of

qualitative research. They are different from other types in that they are intensive analyses and

descriptions of a single unit or system bounded by space and time. Topics often examined in

case studies include individuals, events, or groups. Through case studies, researchers hope to

gain in-depth understanding of situations and meaning for those involved (Hancock,

Algozzine 2006:10-11).

The case study strategy is best suited to perform an in-depth analysis of the chosen political

speeches, and helps to gain a richer understanding of how political discourse shapes reality

through identity performances. Another reason why this strategy is chosen is that the speeches

that are going to be analyzed belong to a small group of politicians, specifically those who

belong to the context of the Balkans.

Lastly the collected data does not come from an ethnographic research, where the data is

interpreted under the biasof culture, nor does it come from an experiment or survey. The data

is collected to give answers to the specific research questions that we have raised. Thelinguistic categories that are going to be analyzed are not very broad, as the aim is to

accomplish a qualitative research, but also not to depart from the distinctive CDA

methodological approach which is small corpora which are usually regarded as being typical

of certain discourses (Meyer 2002: 25).


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3.3 Data Collection and Sampling Technique

The data that constitutes this corpus was collected by the technique of convenient sampling.

That is because we are interested in scrutinizing the speeches of the high profile politicians

from Balkan. Thus the convenient sampling technique is quite relevant, as far as our aim is not

to make generalizations regarding a large population, as the random or stratified sampling

tends to do.

The speeches which comprise our corpus or data were either found on the official websites of

the politicians or on YouTube. The speeches gathered from YouTube were transposed into

writing. In the cases when the speeches were in languages different from English, which the

author of this dissertation does not speak, the speeches were translated into English.

3.4 Data Selection Criteria

The main criterion for the speech selection was the context. Hence a certain political speech

would be selected as appropriate if it was given to a political gathering, forum, summit, where

the speakers talked about the Balkans (political/ economical situation).

Another criterion for data selection was that of representativeness. A speech can be assumed

to be representative of its genre, if it is given by a high profile politician. The politicians are

presidents, prime ministers or ministers.

As we already pointed out, the research is predisposed to be a qualitative one. In addition to

this fact the typical way of building a corpus in CDA is also taken into account. The corpora

of CDA are not too broad, and the texts analyzed are among the prototypical ones of the

selected discourse. Although there are no explicit statements about this issue, one might

assume that many CDA studies (perhaps with the exception of Teun van Dijk and Ruth

Wodak) mostly deal with only small corpora which are usually regarded as being typical of

certain discourses (Meyer 2002: 25).


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3.5 Framework for Data Analysis

We are going to develop the framework of the data analysis by first describing the data. Then

we are going to explain step by step the data analysis process.

3.5. 1 Data Description

The speeches that consitute our corpus are:

The speech of the Kosovo President Ahtifete Jahjaga at Western Balkans Leaders

Meeting of the Brdo Process SourceOfficial website of the President;Date and Place:

Slovenia 25/07/2013

The speech of the Serbian Minister Boidar Deliof Economy and European Integration

on Serbia and Western Balkans- The Economic Challenges and European Perspectives.

Source- YouTube; Date and Place: Ireland 10/ 2011

The speech of Albanian President Bujar Nishani, at Western Balkans Leaders Meeting

of the Brdo Process SourceOfficial website of the President;Date and Place: Slovenia

25/07/2013

The speech of the Montenegro Prime Minister Igor Lukic, at the Balkan Leader

Summit 2011. Source: YouTube ;Date and Place: Turkey 22/09/ 2011

The speech of the prime minister of the Republic of Macedonia Nikola Gruevskiat the

Balkan Leader Summit 2011. Source: YouTube;Date and Place: Turkey 22/09/ 2011

All these speeches transposed into writing are included in the section of the Appendixes.

Ideally all the speeches would belong to a single political gathering. But this was not possible

as the Balkan Leaders were not present at all summits or forums organized. For example

Serbia did not attend the Balkan Leader Summit of 2011. On the other hand even when the

Serbian Leaders attended such Balkan Summits, their speeches could not be found published

on the internet or on the official websites of the politicians.

A typical example of this is the case of the Serbian President Tomislav Nicoli, who actually

attended the Western Balkans Leaders Meeting of the Brdo Process, but whose speech was

not published on his official website. The only material that could be found elsewhere on the


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online newspapers, were some sentences elicited from his press interview, held on the

occasion, but those would be insufficient to our corpus.

3.5.2 Data analysis

Several aspects of the data will be analyzed to achieve a proper Political Discourse Analysis.

The linguistic categories that are going to be analyzed are not too broad, as the aim is to

accomplish a qualitative research, but also not to depart from the distinctive CDA

methodological approach which is that of considering a restricted number of linguistic

categories. (Meyer 2002)

Once more we want to accentuate our point of view that the linguistic forms used in the

politicians speeches are not arbitrary and that they serve specific functions. The selections

which speakers make from among the total inventory of forms and processes are principled

and systematic. [] The selection of one form over other points to the speakers articulation

of one kind of meaning rather than another. (Fowler, Kress 1979: 188-f)

In their seminal article Critical Linguistics Fowler and Kress (1979) provide the critical

analysts with a useful checklist of linguistic features with five headings (198 ff) which arerelevant to pursue a critical analysis. The linguistic features we are going to analyze using the

headings of Fowler and Kress checklist is: The grammar of Modality and Transitivity.

3.5.2.1 The Grammar of Modality

Fowler and Kress define the grammar of modality this way: This covers linguistic

constructions which may be called pragmatic and interpersonal. They express speakers

and writers attitudes towards themselves, towards their interlocutors and towards their

subject-matter; their social and economic relationships with the people they address; (1979:

200) In other words the grammar of modality deals with deictic categories. Likewise Chilton

and Schffner (2002: 30) claim that the linguistic resources used to perform deixes are

indexical expressions. Thus interpreters or listeners generate meaning by relating the

indexical expressions to the deixes. The deixes we are going to analyze from the speeches of

Balkan politicians are theperson deixes, spatial deixes, and temporal deixes.


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Michael Meyer (2002) asserts that the categories like deixis and pronouns can be the object of

the analysis in any linguistic method, but he proclaims that they are crucial for CDA.

Explicitly or implicitly CDA makes use of a concept of the so-called linguistic surface

(Meyer 2002: 16, my italics).

Many critical discourse analysts claim that the use of pronouns in political discourse is

significant and manipulative, since it generates political stands. (Fowler and Kress: 1979,

Fairclough: 1989, Wilson: 1990, Chilton and Schffner: 2002, van Dijk: 2002, etc.)

Pronouns, especially the first person plural (we, us, our) can be used to induce interpreters to

conceptualize group identity, coalitions and parties and the like, either as insiders or as

outsiders. Social indexicals arise from social structure and power relations, and not just from

personal distance (Chilton and Schffner 2002: 30, my italics) .

We are going to examine each of these pronouns of our discourse fragments to see the

prevailing forms and to interpret them. The pronouns that is going to be searched for are all

the personal pronouns, possessives and reflexives. Although the main focus will be on the

first person, plural pronoun we, because the aim is to examine closely the relation between

pronoun deictics and the identity performance. Accordingly we can conclude whether a

common Balkan Identity has started to be performed by the politicians or not and whether the

national identity is overcome by the construction of a Balkan Identity.

The technique of Diectic Mapping which was developed by Santon Wortham (1996) is a

good one to shed light to the participants in a conversation and to their interaction. The shifts

of the pronouns change the roles of participants and their interactional positions.

Deictic mapping is as a framework to analyze the use of pronouns. [] a methodological

technique- which I call deictic mapping- that can help analysts uncover interactional patterns

established through deictics (Wortham 1996: 4).

Deictic mapping technique makes use of charts that map systematically the deictics. In our

case we are not dealing with transcribed texts, but with texts which are transposed into

writing. That is why we are going to build the charts of the map, presenting all the deictics ineach line of each text. Through the following mapping tables we can analyze the relationship


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of the speakers with hearers, and how these relations are transformed through indexical

expressions such as personal pronouns.

The technique is also helpful because it gives us the opportunity to look at the person deixis,

spatial deixis and temporal deixis at the same time. The spatial deixis could be defined as

follows: that aspect of deixis which involves referring to the locations in space of the

communication act participants; it is that part of spatial semantics which takes the bodies of

the communication act participants as significant reference objects for spatial specification

(Fillmore 1982: 37). PDA sees the spatial deixis through the light of a political connotation.

They do not refer merely to the conventional physical location, but spatial indexicals relate to

political or geopolitical space (Chilton, Schffner 2002: 30).

Figure 1 Wesn (2003) Scheme showing three kinds of deixis (person deixis, space deixis,time deixis), as well as the relation of proximity and distance of the deictic center. Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deixis.pngRetrieved 08/02/2014

Temporal deixes bear the same political purport, they do not simply indicate a temporal point

(see figure 1). Temporal deixis can have a political significance. It can require one to assume

historical periodization - for example nowadays, today or just now could require to be

understood as after the revolution, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, after the election of

New Labour, or some such. (Chilton, Schffner 2002: 30) The temporal deixes used in the

Balkan political discourse fragments are particularly important to this inquiry. As it is aimed

to analyze the way politicians make a historical periodization and how they refer to theBalkans problematic past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deixis.pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deixis.pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deixis.png


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An excerpt from the speech of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, that shows the way that the

lines of the texts were numbered is presented in Table 1.

3 Its a great pleasure for meto take part in the Balkan leader summit. Please allow meto

greet all participants and convey cordial congratulations to the organizers who provided

uswith this opportunity for exchange of opinions, stemming the confidence among us, and

creating new bridges for corporation in the spirit of unity. Todays event symbolizes the

commitment to such cooperation. Itis a prove of the various share by the Balkans

countries. Weare connected by the past, but weare connected by the present, but most of

all by ourcommon future. The belief in a better tomorrow for ourcitizens for modern and

developed countries, for open borders, for cultural competition, in creating new values

and benefits to ourcivilization. The Balkan region has proven itselfas a center for

spreading science, education and culture throughout history. This is a good basis to

confirm that wehave joined platforms and that wecan improve ourselvesin every view.

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Table 1 An excerpt from the Speech of Nikola Gruevski, which shows how each line of the text is numbered.The pronouns are marked with boldfaced font.

Based on the texts, as the one shown in Table 1, the deictic maps were then built. Below Table

2 presents the corresponding deictic map to the excerpt (Table 1) from the speech of mister

Gruevski. Whenever a certain pronoun is used more than once in a line, referring to the same

object, its number of occurrence is indicated in parenthesis.

LINE

SPEAKER 1STPERSON 2

NDPERSON 3

RDPERSON SPATIAL TEMPORAL

3Gruevski me- Gruevski (as current speaker)

(2)

It -expletive

subject

5Gruevski us- participants (Balkan leaders)

incl. (2)

6 Gruevski today-

7 Gruevski It- the event

8 Gruevski we- Balkan countries incl. (2) past-

8 Gruevski present-

9our- Balkan countries/peoplesincl.

future

9 Gruevski our- Balkan citizens incl. tomorrow

11Gruevski our- Balkan region incl. itself- Balkan

region

13Gruevski we- participants (Balkan leaders)

incl. (2)

Table 2 Deictic map corresponding to the excerpt of the speech of Nikola Gruevsi. The fifth and the sixth

column also include the spatial and temporal deictics. Such an arranging model is taken from Wortham (1996:

12)


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The same procedure of deictic mapping is followed for all the speeches that comprise our

corpus. After building all the deictic maps we are going to compare and contrast the use of

inclusive versus exclusive we. This way we might find out how is Balkan Identity performed,

and how the politicians position themselves and others both temporarily and spatially.

Chilton (2004) argues that while positioning themselves both temporarily and spatially in the

deictic centre, the utterers position the interpreters or the people to whom they address, near to

or somehow remote from the deictic centre. The concept of deictic centre (Verschueren

1999: 20) is sometimes used to denote the implied anchoring point that utterers and

interpreters construct or impose during verbal interaction (Chilton 2004: 56).

The relations among the spatial and temporal dimensions in the speeches, will be examined by

placing the events on a spatial and temporal axis for each of the speeches that comprise our

corpus.

Space deixis (or spatial deictic, as Chilton names it), serves to understand the remoteness of

hearers from the speaker, who is typically equal to the deictic centre. Thus deixis play an

important role in mapping the other political actors, or situating them as distinct or similarentities. Language as a distinction-making machine can create both distance and solidarity

between two entities(Meadows 2005: 4).

Another mean that plays a similar role to the deictics are the metaphors used in the political

discourse. The metaphors can not only position the political actors, but also they serve to show

distance or solidarity (See Meadows 2005).


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3.5.2.2 Transformations

Syntactic transformations that have been useful to the CDA are nominalizations and

passivizations. Nominalizations is the syntactic transformations in which nominals arederived from sentences or parts of sentences- to put it another way, nominal expressions of

concepts for which an expression involving a verb or an adjective would have been available

to the writer or speaker (Fowler, Kress 1979: 207).

The discourse fragments that comprise our corpus are going to be checked in order to find

examples of nominalizations. The reason for preferring nominals instead of other grammatical

classes is related to the impersonal style. The impersonality is marked by the deletion of

participants in the nominalized processes or the deletions of participants.

The logic that stands behind the deletion of the participants is the same as for passivizations.

Passivization allows a noun denoting an affected participant, a non-agent, to be placed in the

subject position in the sentence, the left-hand noun-phase slot which is conventionally

regarded as the theme or topic of the sentence.[] This device allows a writer or speaker to

emphasize his thematic priorities, to emphasize what a text is about. (Fowler, Kress 1979:

2009).

A typical example of a passive structure from our corpus is this one: We from Serbia are

being not always welcomedto talk about other countries (Deli 2011). In this sentence what

is put in the first place is the topic, which is informationally important to the speaker. As to

those(who do not always welcome the ones from Serbia to talk about other countries) they

are hidden, not mentioned and simply left out! Either to avoid an open attack on them, or not

to give them too much importance, as to the speaker we from Serbia are the topic or what

it is being talked about.

Similarly, we are going to find the passive sentences or structures present in the all the

speeches that comprise our corpus and then it is aimed to interpret them as a typical critical

analyst would do.


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3.5.2.3 Metaphors in PDA

Traditionally metaphor has been considered as a property of words, a linguistic trope, which

belongs to the domain of literature and bears rhetoric and artistic effects. This traditional view

was challenged by the Cognitive Metaphor Theory which considers metaphor not only as

poetic ornament, belonging merely to language, but as a cognitive phenomenon.

Humans organize their concepts through means such as the metaphor, which maps concepts

from one source domain to a target one. The target domain is the domain that we try to

understand through the use of the source domain (Kvecses 2010: 4).

Fairclough (1992) recommends that as a part of a practical methodology of CDA, the analysis

should be organized under four headings which are: Vocabulary, grammar, cohesion and text

structure. As to the metaphor it falls under the category of vocabulary, where words are

analyzed to examine their ideological or political significance.

Apparently metaphors not only affect the human cognition and the organization of knowledge,

but they seem to play a central role in the construction of social and political realities (Lakoff,

Johnson 1980). It is evident that such a perspective on metaphor as a conceptually

significant, even central, cognitive mechanism matches the research interests of CDA to a

large extent. As a consequence, a continuous stream of cognitively orientated CDA analyses

of metaphor has been published overthe past decades [](Musolff 2012: 302).

Each of the speeches of our corpus will be analyzed to see the use of the metaphoric scenarios.

In this way we will reach to results regarding the common metaphoric scenarios and seewhether they help in constructing political and social realities which are free of disputes and

more pacific. At the same time shared metaphoric scenarios can contribute to a less ethnically

marked political discourse and to positioning the politicians themselves closer to each-other.

3.6 Limitation and potential problems

There is no problem free dissertation, so in every case there might exist some potential

wrongdoings. The potential problems of this inquiry might be related mainly to the research

strategy that was chosen. The research aimed to offer an in-depth analysis based on the


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methodological approach of CDA. Thus the results cannot be generalized to all contexts, as

they come from a specific case study.

The corpus of data analyzed could be bigger, but for the sake of a critical analysis it was

aimed to analyze a small number of speeches and to look at various linguistic strategies

employed in those speeches and then interpret them. The relatively small number of speeches

is also related to the qualitative research that was intended to be conducted.

A convenient sampling technique was used, instead of a random one as the speeches we were

looking for should have been of a special nature and coming from specified sources. As it was

mentioned above regarding the empirical level it would have been great if all the speecheswere gathered from the same political forum or summit, but this was practically impossible, as

the Balkan political leaders have not yet reached a full consensus to participate common

political gathering regarding the region.


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3.7 Reliability and Validity

In the last section of this chapter it is appropriate to address some matters which are really

important to the integrity of a scientific research, such as reliability and validity.

A valid empirical research is one which is acceptable to the research community. We suppose

our research is valid as the research community has already known and approved similar

research strategies and data collection techniques as the ones that we have employed. The data

analysis techniques are of this research fall in with techniques used and proclaimed by critical

discourse analysts.

Potential problems may be related even to CDA methodological approaches in a broader

sense, but those do not belong to this study exclusively and are a risk taken when choosing to

conduct such a research.

This inquiry can be considered as a reliable one as the information regarding the each phase

of the research is given in detail. The speeches used and analyzed are transposed into writing

and presented in the appendixes.

The issue of bias can be a concerning one as completely avoiding bias is almost impossible;

There is no such thing as unbiased observation (Phillips, Pugh 2007: 50). This can be stated

with certainty especially when performing the role of a critical discourse analyst. Although

continuously through our work it was aimed to stay far from biased choices and

interpretations, by reiterating that the researcher of this inquiry is not politically engaged,

notwithstanding with most of the critical analysts, who emphasize that Critical discourse

analyst are aware that their own work, too, is driven by social, economical and political

motives, but they argue that this applies to all academic work. [] Critical discourse analysts

at least make their position explicit and feel they do not need to apologize for the critical

stance of their work (van Leeuwen 2006:293).


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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction on Main Findings

This chapter reveals the findings of the CDA case study which was already described in

chapter three. The research focuses on the Grammar of Modality, on Transitivity and on the

conceptual Metaphors found in the political speeches of the Balkans politicians.

In this chapter it is aimed to describe the empirical findings, then to analyze them through

specific interpretations. Finally a synthesis of those findings is aimed to be reached by

comparing the Empirical findings to the Theoretical Framework findings.

The way this chapter is structured is as follows: In the Main findings section, firstly the results

elicited from the deictic maps are presented in tables and graphs for each of the politicians. A

special attention is paid to the results of the pronominal use.

Secondly, Passive structures and Nominalizations under the heading of Transitivity are

presented for each of speeches, giving an overall generalizing interpretation for all of them.

Finally we present the results achieved from the procedure of identifying and eliciting the

metaphoric scenarios from the political speeches, giving brief annotations which explain them.

All the speeches, from which the data are elicited and interpreted, but which also stands as the

ground from where the findings descend, can be found in the section of Appendixes.


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4.2 Findings on the Grammar of Modality

Under the heading findings of the Grammar of Modality we are going to present first the

results of the person deixes which show the use of pronouns in political speeches. For each of

the speeches analyzed the overall results elicited using the Deictic mapping technique

(Wortham 1996), are going to be presented in tables. Next we are going to present and analyze

the results for the spatial and temporal deixes.

4.2. 1 Personal Deixes

The deictic mapping tables that present all the deictics found in the speeches of our analyzed

corpus can be found in the Appendixes 1-5. The results regarding each deictic table from each

speech are going to be presented in specific tables for each of the politicians whose speech

was analyzed.

Firstlywe are going to look at the results gathered from the speech of the Serbian minister of

Economy and European Integration, Mister Boidar Deli, which are presented in the

following table:

SPEAKER PRONOUNS TIMES USED

Boidar

Deli

I (or other first person singular relatedpronouns)

6

You (or other second person relatedpronouns)

10

He/ She/ it (or other third personsingular related pronouns) 19

nclusive WE (or other first person plural

elated pronouns)

6

xclusive WE (or other first personlural related pronouns)

27

They (or other third person pluralrelated pronouns)

3

Table 3 Results of Pronouns used in the speech of Boidar Deli

Interpretation of the numbers:

As it is seen from the Table 3, in the speech of the Serbian minister Boidar Deli there is a

frequent use of the deictic personal pronoun weas an inclusive pronoun. Inclusivewe is used

almost four times less compared to the exclusive we. Notably the exclusive we is the most


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dominant form even when compared to other pronouns used. Although the Serbian minister

Boidar Deli, makes statements like this: And for usin the Balkans joining the EU is a way

also to make sure that it happens never again, that webe together around the same table and

we solve differences through discussion, not through weapons (Deli 2011), he still refersmore to his national identity, rather than to the Balkan identity. Even when mister Delialigns

himself, or what he represents with other countries or others from the Balkans, this is done

because of the agenda of joining EU, which is actually a common agenda of all the Balkan

countries.

The main role of Europe, useful role, some say the last positive utopia, definitely under-

stressed right now, but this idea that put basically German and France, definitely not to wagewar anymore (Deli2011). For the mister Delithe European agenda of the Balkans is what

can ease the ethnic conflicts and bring reconciliation: We did not do it because of

conditionality, wesee the reconciliation as one of the most important basis that wehave in the

region. (Deli2011) The first two we-s are exclusive, but the third one is an inclusive we, as

it refers to all the members of the region. Even though the Serbian minister draws on other

identities, as a prime minister (when using the first person pronoun I) or as someone

belonging to the Balkans, the prevailing identity indexed by his pronoun usage is that of being

Serbian.

Secondly, we are going to look at the results gathered from the speech of the president of

Albania, Mister Bujar Nishani. The pronouns used in his speech are presented in Table 4.2


Bujar

Nishani

I (or other first person singularrelated pronouns)

6


0

He/ She/ it (or other third personsingular related pronouns)

6

Inclusive WE (or other first personplural related pronouns)

13

Exclusive WE (or other first personplural related pronouns)

10

They (or other third person pluralrelated pronouns) 4

Table no. 4 Results of Pronouns used in the speech of Bujar Nishani


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In the speech of the president of Albania Bujar Nishani, there is almost an equivalent use of

the inclusive vs. exclusive we. He chooses to index almost equally his national identity to the

same extents that he indexes the Balkan identity.

The Albanian president Nishani, similarly to the Serbian minister Deliseems to use more the

inclusive pronoun wewhen talking about the European integration agenda. An example would

be the following statement The Slovenian and Croatian achievements present an asset that

must be used in ourEuropean integration process. Wewould be able to share our experiences

about what each one of ushas done well or not. (Nishani 2013)

Thirdly, we present the results extracted from the deictic map of the speech of the

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.


The numbers presented in Table 5 show remarkable results. The Macedonian Prime Minister

Gruevski indexes from the beginning to the end of his speech a common Balkan Identity.

Implicitly, he does not index his national identity through the use of exclusive we. Setting

common goals to be achieved, overcoming the barriers that could lead to cooperation and

reconciliation in the Region is much more important and relevant to Mister Gruevski.


Nikola

Gruevski


4


3


6

Inclusive WE (or other first person pluralrelated pronouns)

37

xclusive WE (or other first person pluralrelated pronouns)

0


1

Table no. 5 Results of Pronouns used in the speech of Nikola Gruevski


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It is a proof of the various share by the Balkans countries. Weare connected by the past, but

weare connected by the present, but most of all by ourcommon future. [] This is a good

basis to confirm that we have joined platforms and that we have to be competitive in the

future (Gruevski 2011).

Gruevski situates himself in the Balkan political discourse and the context of his speech, a

Balkan political summit serves to construct and perform a Balkan identity.

Fourthly, the speech of the president of Kosovo Ahtifete Jahjaga showed a noteworthyamount of inclusive pronoun we.

Interpretation of numbers:

As Table 6 shows that the inclusiveweand related pronouns to the first person plural form,

which have an inclusive sense occur in the speech no less than 34 times. In contrast all the

other pronouns are all in all 18.

Apparently this fact has to do with the drive of Jahjaga to make her country a considerable

member of other countries of the Region. As Kosovo gained its independence from Serbia

only some years ago, on February 17, 2008. Jahjaga indexes the same identity as that of the

other countries. By using the inclusive wethrough her discourse she considers all the countries

of the Balkans as equal and tries to leave behind the discrepancies among the countries, which

are a result of the previous wars and ethnic conflicts in the Balkans. On the promise of future

cooperation for a lasting peace and stability, we, the countries of the region, must work

together. We had a difficult past, a past from which we may not have fully recovered and the

consequences of which we continue to suffer, but we are now coming together to the

promising vision of a united Europe (Jahjaga 2013).

Except through the implicit indexing achieved by the pronominal use, Jahjaga highlights the

equality of Kosovo to other countries even explicitly when stating: It is crucial that our

cooperation is comprehensive and inclusive.

No cooperation in the region will be completed without the participation of Kosovo; no

regional policy will be fully enacted without Kosovos inclusion and the European Union


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project be incomplete without the full membership of the countries of the Western Balkans

(Jahjaga 2013).


Ahtifete

Jahjaga


4


2


7

nclusive WE (or other first person pluralelated pronouns)

34

xclusive WE (or other first person plural

elated pronouns) 3

They (or other third person pluralrelated pronouns) 2

Table no. 6 Results of Pronouns used in the speech of Ahtifete Jahjaga

Lastly, the deictic map drawn from the speech of the Montenegro Prime Minister, Igor

Lukichas reflected the following results as shown in table 7


Igor

Lukic


22


3


22

nclusive WE (or other first person pluralelated pronouns)

57

xclusive WE (or other first personlural related pronouns) 7


8

Table no. 7 Results of Pronouns used in the speech of Igor Lukic


On closer examination we find that the inclusive we is used 57 times. On the other hand the

exclusiveweis used only seven times. It is interesting to notice that during the whole speech

the Prime Minister Lukic addresses the listeners not mainly through the second person


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pronoun you, but by the inclusive we. Thus he implicitly indexes a common Balkan identity.

Yet this common identity as we saw from the speeches of other Balkan politicians emerges

and takes shape under the European Integration process and objectives.

The term identityhere does not stand for the typical meaning of identity, actually it represents

identifying oneself as belonging to a certain group. The Balkan politicians through their

speeches do not refer to themselves or do not simply index themselves as belonging to a

common geographical region; they actually refer to one another as belonging to a common

group with some specific identity pattern.

In comparison to the speeches of other politicians, the speech of Lukichas a considerableamount of the first person singular pronoun I and other related pronouns to it. This inclination

might be considered as an expected tendency because the speaker is not simply a politician,

but a high profiled one. Speakers tend to use the first person pronoun I when they hold the

appropriate authority to make certain statements. The I of action is also a regular (but less

foregrounded) feature of signed investigative and eye-witness reporting, where it seems to

suggest exclusivity and authenticity (Fowler, Kress 1997: 201).

The same explanation to the use ofIis helpful for the speeches of the other politicians too. We

might only add another interpretation in the cases where I is used less frequently, compared to

other pronouns. The reason beyond this might be the aim to generalize ideas or thoughts or to

give the speech an impersonal tone.

In all the speeches that comprised our corpus, the pronoun youhas a low frequency and this

can be explained by the fact that the politicians address not the potential listeners directly, but

they address mainly one-another and to do so they tend to use the inclusive we. You is, as

might be expected, complementary in meaning and usage to I/we; [] Its occurrence, and

its frequency of occurrence, are measures of the speakers consciousness of, care for or, most

often desire to manipulate the addressee (Fowler, Kress 1997: 203).


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4.2.2 Temporal and Spatial Deixes

Temporal and Spatial deixes are crucial to a PDA because, as Chilton (2003: 56f) states, the

speakers situate themselves and the listeners through their speech regarding a certain time and

place. The Balkan political leaders anchor themselves in a deictic center, from where they

evoke the others (be they people or places), the past events, and the future expectancies or

goals. To represent the temporal and spatial deixes graphically the spatial and temporal

deictics were placed on two axes: the horizontal axis which stands for the temporal axis and

the vertical axis which stands for the spatial axis. The most remote point on the left of the

temporal axis is the past, and on the right of this axis there is the future. The events to which

the politicians refer will be placed on this axis.

On the other hand the spatial axis serves to illustrate how the speakers position other places

with respect to their assigned space where they stand. It is noteworthy to keep in mind that

when placing the mentioned entities along an axis, we cannot simply measure distances. It is

not that we can actually measure the distances from Self; rather, the idea is that people tend

to place people and things along a scale of remoteness from the self, using background

assumptions and indexical cues(Chilton 2003: 58).

The spatial and temporal indexicals gathered from the deictic table of the speech of the

president of Kosovo, Ahtifete Jahjaga are placed on the respective axes. The figure 4.1 shows

the events located on the spatial and temporal axes.

The left upper quadrant of the graph is about the European Union foundation and about the

progress that was noted during the last five decades. Below the left downer quadrant points to

the difficult past and unfortunate turns of the history of the Balkan countries which were left

behind. Although the events happened in the past they are actually opposite to one-another.

On one hand there is the progress, political stability, freedom of movement and deeper

understanding (Jahjaga 2013) of European Union and more broadly of the countries which

founded it and on the other hand there is the difficult past of the Balkan countries.


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Figure 2 Events from the speech of Ahtifete Jahjaga located on the spatial and temporal axes.

The right upper quadrant presents the main points of the speaker who stands in the deicticcenter regarding the future and the European Union agenda. In a spatial sense everything tends

to go up toward the EU. The right upper quadrant tends to be a mirror of the left upper one

regarding the positive expectancies or results which are inside the grey tags.

Keywords regarding the past: difficult past, not recovered yet from it, suffer the sequences

of the past.

Keywords regarding the future: cooperation, European perspective, unification of the

Balkan countries (inside EU), lasting peace, economic development, membership in EU.


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Figure 3 Events from the speech of Boidar Deli located on the spatial and temporal axes.

The events, actors and spaces to which the Serbian Minister Boidar Deli of Economy and

European Integration refers in his speech Serbia and Western Balkans; The Economic

Challenges and European Perspectives.are placed on the spatial and temporal axes.

M. Deliovertly refers to two of the most important members and economically developed

members of the European Union such as Germany and France and draws a significant analogy

between the war that they had and the war that the Balkan countries had with one another.

This analogy is seen as an attempt to regard war as an inevitable phenomenon of the past, but

which could be avoided by the last positive utopia (Deli 2011) which is the European

Union. The EU is the ultimate solution and condition to stay away from war: And for us in

the Balkans joining EU is a way also to make sure that it happens never again, that we be

together around the same table, and we solve differences through discussion, not through

weapons (Deli2011).

The past is knotty for M. Delinot only because there were wars in the Balkans, there were

committed terrible crimes and because the region has suffered 700 years of conflicts and


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blood (Deli2011), but also because Serbia was broken up against its own will. The Serbian

minister considers the reconciliation and the settlement as the key to find a solution to the

disputes, but also to make it possible to get closer to the European Union in the future.

At the quadrants on the left the negative events of the past are placed, but at the quadrants on

the right there is seen a tendency to completely turn the page and to move to reconciliation

and settlement.

Keywords regarding the past: wage war, conflicts and disputes, weapons, conflicts and

blood.

Keywords regarding the future: Reconciliation, settlement, together around the same table,

no war, economic development, joining the EU.

Figure 4 Events from the speech of Bujar Nishani located on the spatial and temporal axes

The figure 4 presents the events from the speech of the president of Albania Bujar Nishani

located on the spatial and temporal axes. M. Nishani does not make many statements

regarding the problematic past of the Balkans, but significantly he refers to the region as a

source of headache. The Western Balkans region has turned the page of its history by beingtransformed from a source of headache into a space of numerous opportunities. (Nishani


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2013) Solving bilateral issues among countries is what can make the actors such as Albania

and other Balkan countries, which he places inside the deictic center, move towards the

European Union.

Another condition set to reach the EU is to strengthen the neighborly relations and to intensify

the regional cooperation. As in the previous figures illustrated based on the speeches of the

respective politicians, even in this one based on the speech of M. Nishani the European Union

is the spatial destination to be reached and Albania together with other Balkan Countries

should be moving towards it.

Keywords regarding the past:Headache, and lack of the keywords regarding the future.

Keyword

Thesis on PDA.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Thesis on PDA.pdf