A Study of Pro and Anti-Islamic Ideologies in the Speeches of Donald Trump and Barrack Obama
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Date
2018
Authors
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Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
This research examines pro and anti-Islamic elements in the speeches of presidents Barrack Obama and Donald Trump. It debunks the linguistic devices (e.g., simile, metaphor, parallelism, synonyms and antonyms) in the presidential speeches. The researcher takes a mix method approach by describing and interpreting the content of the speeches with the percentage of similarity and dissimilarity through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as proposed by Fairclough (1989 and 2001). CDA provides insight to analyze the elements of power, ideology and identity found in the speeches of the American presidents. The study reveals that Donald Trump relies more on repetition in laying emphasis on criticizing the Muslim world than Barrack Obama. Moreover, it is further analyzed that Obama strengthens his point of view by using synonyms and metaphors. It is important to note that an overwhelming use of linguistic devices such as metaphors and synonyms not only gives the mixed feelings of Obama's stance towards the Muslim world in relation to pro and anti-Islamic elements but also signals a kind of his political maturity. Instead of addressing directly to the Muslim world, the choice of language masks certain meanings in the speeches of Barrack Obama; whereas less use of synonyms and metaphors in the speeches of Trump conveys supposedly more aggression. In conveying the message to the Americans and the Muslim world, the president Trump appears to be overly focused on the Americans and Americanism that reflects sometime if not always his Xenophobic stances in the speeches. Trump seems better at using simile to criticize the Muslim world. On the other hand, Obama, like the seasoned politician, seems to be conscious in conveying his message to the Muslim World. This study provides an understanding about the linguistic choices of American presidents for and against the Muslim nations.
Description
Supervised By:DR. MUHAMMAD SHABAN RAFI
Keywords
Critical Discourse Analysis, anti-Islamic, pro-Islamic, M.Phil