Patterns of adverbial stance marking in United Nations political discourse: a corpus-based study

115 Pages·2016·3.94 MB·English

by  Adrian Florea

Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations
Dissertations
2006
Patterns of adverbial stance marking in United
Nations political discourse: a corpus-based study
Adrian Florea
Iowa State University
Follow this and additional works at:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd
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and Literature Commons, and theFirst and Second Language Acquisition Commons
Recommended Citation
Florea, Adrian, "Patterns of adverbial stance marking in United Nations political discourse: a corpus-based study" (2006).Retrospective
Theses and Dissertations. 14454.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/14454
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Patterns ofadverbial stance markinginUnitedNations politicaldiscourse:
A corpus-based study
by
Adrian Florea
A thesis submittedto thegraduate faculty
in partial fiilfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Major: Teaching English as a SecondLanguage/Applied Linguistics
(English for SpecificPurposes)
ProgramofStudyCommittee:
Viviana Cortes, MajorProfessor
DanDouglas
James McCormick
Iowa StateUniversity
Ames, Iowa
2006
Copyright© Adrian Florea, 2006. All rights reserved.
11
Graduate College
IowaState University
This is to certifythatthe master's thesis of
AdrianFlorea
has met the thesis requirements ofIowaStateUniversity
Signatures have been redacted forprivacy
Ill
To the love ofmylife, mywife, Lavinia
IV
TABLE OFCONTENTS
LIST OF ABBRE\TATIONS vi
LIST OFFIGURES vii
LIST OFTABLES viii
ABSTRACT ix
CHAPTER1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1.Purpose ofthestudy 5
1.2.Research questions 6
CHAPTER2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8
2.1. Linguistic analysesofpoliticaldiscourse 8
2.2. Stancemarkingin English 13
2.3. Theoretical framework for the study 16
CHAPTER3. METHODOLOGY 19
3.1.Criteria forselecting targetstancemarkers 19
3.2.Corpus selection 20
3.2.1. Selection oftexts 20
3.2.2. Corpus collection mechanics 22
3.3. Data analysisprocedures 23
3.3.1 Quantitativeanalysis 23
3.3.2 Qualitative analysis 24
CHAPTER4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 30
4.1. Overviewofthe chapter 30
4.2. Frequencyoftargetstancemarkers in the corpus 30
4.3. Grammatical analysis offinal stancemarkers 35
4.3.1. Grammatical analysis ofindeed 35
4.3.2. Grammatical analysis ofofcourse 37
4.3.3. Grammatical analysis ofclearly 40
4.3.4. Grammatical analysis ofextremely 41
4.3.5. Grammatical analysis ofunfortunately 43
4.4. Functional analysis offinal stancemarkers 47
4.5. Adverbial stancemarking and power representations in UNSC discourse 51
4.5.1. UNSC discursivepractices- general considerations 51
4.5.2. Powerand adverbial stancemarking in UNSC discourse 55
V
CHAPTER5. CONCLUSION 66
5.1. Research questions and overview ofthe results 66
5.1.1. Research Question 1 66
5.1.2. Research Question 2 67
5.1.3. Research Question 3 68
5.2. Limitations 69
5.3. Suggestions for further research 70
APPENDIXA. FREQUENCIES OFTARGET STANCE MARKERS
BY CATEGORY 72
APPENDIX B. COLLOCATE FREQUENCIES FORTHE FINAL
STANCE MARKERS 74
APPENDIX C. THE KOSOVO DEBATE 76
REFERENCES 100
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 105
VI
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CDA Critical DiscourseAnalysis
KFOR Kosovo Force
MP MemberofParliament
RQ Research Question
UN UnitedNations
UNDPI UnitedNations Department ofPublicInformation
UNHR United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees
UNMIK UnitedNations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
UNSC UnitedNations SecurityCouncil
US United States ofAmerica
WTO World Trade Organization
Vll
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1.Imageofthe concordancingprogram 24
Figure2.The suggested power taxonomy 28
Figure3.Frequencyoftargetstancemarkersbycategory 32
Vlll
LIST OFTABLES
Table 1.Listoftarget adverbialstancemarkers 20
Table2. List oflinguistic items that correspondtopowerful/powerlessdiscourses 27
Table3.Research questions anddataanalysisprocedures 29
Table4. Frequency oftarget stance markersinthecorpus 31
Table5. List offinal stancemarkers 33
Table6.Lexico-grammaticalpatterns forthefinalstancemarker indeed 35
Table7. Lexico-grammaticalpatterns forthefinalstancemarker ofcourse 38
Table8.Lexico-grammaticalpatterns forthefinalstancemarkerclearly 40
Table9.Lexico-grammaticalpatterns forthefinalstancemarker extremely 42
Table 10. Lexico-grammatical patterns for thefinal stancemarker unfortunately 43
Table 11.Examples ofadverb centrality 46
IX
ABSTRACT
Languagehas always beenan importantconsiderationin political analysis. This study
examines adverbial stancemarkingin political discourseand posits that this important
linguistic component offers new insights into politicalmetadiscourse. The focus ofthe
research is institutional political discourse, more specifically United Nations Security
Council discourse. Politicalinstitutions are also formed and maintained in discursive
practices, and understandinghowthese discursivepractices are produced and disseminated
canhelp us appreciate the extentto which social andlinguistic phenomenahave political
significance. Adverbial stance marking in UnitedNations Security Council discourse
represents one type ofhnguisticphenomenathat deserves further inquirydue to the
complexity ofthe discursiveprocedures andpower repertoires displayed by the United
Nations SecurityCouncil discourse community.
Using corpus-based methodologies,andworkingwithin acriticaldiscourseanalysis
framework, this study investigates thefrequencyandfunctionofadverbialstancemarkersin
UnitedNations SecurityCouncil discourse, andthe extent towhich stance adverbials
contribute to powerrepresentations. The results demonstrate that adverbial stance markers
arerelativelyfrequent inthistypeofinstitutional political discourse, thattheydisplayvarious
functions basedongrammatical, semanticandpragmatic characteristics, andthatthey
contribute,to someextent, topowerrepresentationsandprojections.