A Critical Discourse Analysis of Hillary Clinton‘s interviews on the Ukraine-Russia conflict = Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán các bài phỏng vấn của Hillary Clinton về xung đột Ukraine-Nga
INTRODUCTION
Rationale
CDA is one of the most effective approaches to discourse analysis, which enables linguistic researchers to conduct their studies in a variety of discourse in different fields It could provide enormous analytical power that helps reveal underlying ideologies embedded in language, particularly in political discourse Typically, politicians are skilled spokespeople with engaging language strategies by using linguistic features that are deployed in order to persuade audiences and imply their ideologies and points of view In other words, language in political discourse is immensely complicated and reveals a plethora of hidden meanings inside it Therefore, political discourse is frequently targeted by linguists who hold a great passion for CDA Those smart politicians provoke my interest in CDA in political discourse
One of the prominent politicians in the twenty-first century is Hillary Clinton, whose political discourse has been chosen for analysis According to Kanwal and García (2019), she is likely the voice and choice of most Americans with her very tactfully and strategically used language Her use of language often reveals her presentation of gender identity, ideology, and power The presence of Hillary Clinton‘s speeches in CDA research is continuing even though her power and authority in politics have somewhat decreased However, Clinton‘s linguistic prowess still significantly attracts my attention
In addition, the world is now keeping their eyes open to the political issues between Ukraine and Russia, and I am not an exception The acceleration of political tension between these two nations triggers deep curiosity about the reaction of superpowers to the situation There has been a myriad of speeches and interviews conducted by European countries and members of NATO Nevertheless, I suppose the response of
2 the US is at the centre of political interest at present During 2022 and 2023, Hillary Clinton has participated in several interviews about the political issue by different press agencies These interviews could provide precious data for those who desire to employ CDA to decode the language use of Clinton
The convergence of these elements—CDA's analytical power, Clinton's linguistic prowess, and the urgent geopolitical landscape motivates this thesis It aims to reveal how an excellent politician could use words as weapons in political games and the power circle I wonder how language could draw a politician‘s portrait and a picture of those who are involved in the tension, whether these pictures are created based on reality or merely by language strategies.
Significance of the study
I hope my MA thesis could bring value to three spheres, namely academic, teaching, and social In terms of academics, the study might be a reference for those who are confused with the theoretical frameworks used in CDA and what frameworks should be applied in their analysis since I had spent one month in total reading, synthesising, and comparing different approaches to CDA from various domestic and foreign authors Regarding the significance in teaching English as a second language in Vietnam, the application of the examples in the research paper might provide a realistic view of the context and use of many lexical and grammatical elements Finally, I hope that the investigation could provide timely insights into the communicative strategies of influential political figures in the face of international crises Thus, it would partly help those who are subjected to manipulation by fake news to have a more multi-dimensional view.
Scope of the study
The current study employed a CDA framework, with data being the three selected interviews by CNN, NBC News, and MSNBC broadcast in 2022 during the accelerating tension between Ukraine and Russia The academic objectives are to identify Clinton‘s views on the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia
All of Hillary Clinton‘s parts were considered a single discourse, and interviewers
3 were ignored because the study did not highlight the media support for each particular party in the US Clinton‘s views were examined in relation to only Russia, Ukraine, the involvement of NATO, and the responses of the world Other political issues mentioned by the interviewers were excluded from the analysis Moreover, paralinguistic features such as intonation, body language, gestures, facial expressions, tone, and pitch of voice were excluded because the study was conducted under Fairclough‘s three levels of CDA Text structure was also ignored since the author sorted different parts of the interviews into a single discourse.
Aims and objectives of the study
The overarching aim of this study is to find out what ideologies are presented in Hillary Clinton‘s participation in interviews with different media presses about the Ukraine-Russia tension, and how she practises her power over Russia and emphasises her significant influences on the change of political corridors Then, language use is analysed with a view to identifying Hillary‘s communicative strategies in her talks about Putin and his military force, Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians, and her call for support for the Ukrainians The aim is to provide an insight into how words could act as weapons in political discourse, which contributes to the application of CDA in language teaching and learning Specifically, there are three main objectives: (i) Decode the hidden ideologies of Hilary Clinton presented in the interviews; (ii) Identify the intertwined relation between her use of language and her ideology as represented; (iii) Explain how the social contexts at the time could influence the representation of her views.
Research questions
To fulfil these aims, three research questions are posed for exploration:
1 What are Hillary Clinton‘s views embedded in the interviews with the press about the Russia and Ukraine conflict?
2 How are Hillary Clinton‘s views linguistically represented?
3 Why are those views represented the way they were in the interviews?
Design of the thesis
The thesis comprised five chapters:
This part presented the rationale, significance, scope, aims, objectives, research questions, and structure of the thesis
In this chapter, the author gave background information about Hillary Clinton, a brief explanation of political discourse, an overview of CDA, different approaches to CDA, the use of SFG in CDA, and a review of typical studies using CDA
In this part, the research methods, data collection, and analysis procedures of the study were explained
This chapter focused on the analysis of data with the purpose of answering the three research questions in three stages: Description, interpretation, and explanation Chapter 5: Conclusion
This chapter summarised the key findings, identifies some limitations, and suggests some future research topics and implications
LITERATURE REVIEW
Hillary Clinton‘s background
It can be said that Hillary Clinton is a role model for numerous women around the world, being versatile in various aspects Hillary was born into a middle-class family with her father being a Republican, which is one of the most important factors that facilitated her passion for politics Hillary‘s mother had a tough childhood as she was abandoned, inspiring Hillary to constantly fight for the needs of children and families These passions have been evidenced in her speeches regarding women and children around the world
Hillary‘s political life has flourished since her husband, Bill Clinton, was first elected the US 42nd president in 1992 and then reelected in 1996 After her spouse‘s political success, Hillary participated in the US Senate in 2000 Thanks to her efforts in making people's lives better through her policies on healthcare, jobs, and education among others, Hillary won a US Senate seat for the state of New York for the second term in 2006, which gave her a base for her next-two-year presidential election campaign In 2016, which was a year when people around the world were witnessing several interesting debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Numerous linguists spent their time investigating Hillary‘s language use in her presidential campaign discourses For example, Liu and Lei
(2018) focused on thematic terms and concluded that prominent thematic terms used by Hillary Clinton bring a positive and forward-looking vision that boasts
"future,‖ ―hope," "friend," "chance," and "opportunity." These major themes are also mentioned in another study; Kanwal and García (2019) analysed Hillary‘s gender presentation through framing and found that Hillary framed herself as a strong and brave female politician who always fights for the welfare of all groups in
6 society, especially for women and girls, LGBT people, and young people all around the globe and deserves to be the leader of the US because of her qualities
After the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has had some changes in her political path She started writing, and now she has worked as the first female chancellor of Queen‘s University Belfast Nevertheless, Hillary has still participated in many interviews about the tension between Russia and Ukraine, three of which I chose to analyse in my MA thesis.
Overview of the Ukraine-Russia conflict
First, the order of the thesis must be put into consideration There are a couple of reasons why the author used ―the Ukraine-Russia conflict‖ despite ―the Russia- Ukraine conflict‖ is the more common phrasing in current social media In fact, Russia‘s actions are widely seen as the initiating factor in the conflict The naming order reflects this, with Russia being the actor and Ukraine the reactor In addition, Russia has a long history of exerting influence over Ukraine, including the Soviet era Placing Russia first acknowledges this historical context and power dynamic However, the author aimed for strict neutrality and avoiding any assumptions about causality; as a result, the common order has been changed, i.e ―the Ukraine-Russia‖ is preferable
Second, it is necessary to briefly summarise the acceleration of the conflict Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, suspicion remained high Russia steadily increased military forces near Ukraine's borders throughout this period, sparking international concern about a potential invasion, while diplomatic efforts failed to yield solutions This led to a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which marks a dramatic escalation of the long-running conflict.
Discourse and political discourse
Foucault (1972:17) defined a discourse as ―a group of statements insofar as they belong to the same discursive formation.‖ Discourse involves language produced as the result of an act of communication (Richards, 1985) The analysis of discourse is
7 the analysis of language in use In other words, the discourse analyst is committed to an investigation of what that language is used for (Brown et al., 1983) Discourse, in short, could be seen as a chain of sentences with specific links, and through linguistic analysis, those links are studied to interpret the author‘s intentions Each type of discourse possesses its own linguistic features, structures, and purposes
When people think of ‗politics‘, they tend to link it to political parties, governments, and politicians As mentioned in Van Dijk (1997), a political discourse is identified by its actors or authors, who are regularly politicians Simply put, a political discourse is about the text and talk of professional politicians or political institutions, such as presidents and prime ministers and other members of government, parliament, or political parties, both at the local, national, and international levels When it comes to politics, ideologies are generally connected with beliefs about the proper organisation of society and how to achieve and maintain the goals that this entails (Mooney and Evans, 2019)
A political discourse could usually be a manipulative linguistic strategy that serves its author‘s political action The main function of political communication is to influence the addressee in order to attain and retain power The addressee is convinced to ―act‖; that is why political language is rich in rhetorical tools, which makes it a fertile field for linguists.
An overview of CDA
Critical discourse analysis originated from the term ‗critical linguistics‘ that appeared in the late 1970s by a group of linguists from the University of East Anglia (Fowler et al., 1970) There are considerable chronological changes in the ways people have done discourse analysis According to Chomsky (1957), formal aspects of language were analysed much in linguistic research during the period; it was theoretical features that were prioritised, not specific instances of language use
At that time, language was examined with limited attention to issues of social hierarchy and power (Labov, 1972; Hymes, 1972) That is the reason why the idea of interpreting the societal impacts of language created a totally different kind of
8 interest in discourse analysis; it was initially developed by scholars such as Roger Fowler, Teun van Dijk, and Norman Fairclough who were interested in investigating the ways in which power is constructed and reproduced in discourse Fowler et al (1979) contributed significantly to the beginning of CL when they illustrated how tools provided by Chomskyan grammar and Halliday‘s systemic functional grammar could uncover power in texts and reveal the establishment of social hierarchies embedded in language Teun van Dijk (1977, 1981) developed his theory of CDA, which is based on the idea that discourse is a form of social practice that should be analysed in relation to the social and political contexts in which it occurs Hodge and Kress (1988) described language as a form of social practice i.e., language allows certain kinds of practices, ideas, values, and identities to be promoted Fairclough's work on critical discourse analysis in the 1990s helped to consolidate the field and make it more widely known Fairclough
(1989) developed a three-dimensional model of CDA, which includes the analysis of the text itself, the social context in which the text is produced, and the social consequences of the text This model is a far more common theoretical guideline for those who have conducted research in CDA CDA has been under a number of criticisms because conducting a CDA involves only a small number of texts that tend to be chosen by the author‘s interest.
Critical discourse analysis and its fundamental concepts
There are powerful researchers in CDA, namely Foucault, Wodak, Van Dijk, and Fairclough Each researcher had their own ways of defining CDA Fairclough
(1993) defined CDA as a branch of discourse analysis concerned with analysing transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power, and control in language Foucault (1998) stated that CDA looks at the relationship between language and power, saying that language is a tool for exerting power and for building identity According to Van Dijk (1998), CDA is a field that is concerned with studying and analysing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality, and biassed social and political
9 contexts Therefore, I suppose these definitions can be summarised as follows: CDA explains how social relations of power are exercised and negotiated in and through discourse (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997)
CDA involves the two fundamental concepts that every researcher must consider in their studies, including Ideology and Power At first glance, several individuals might misinterpret the former term as ―thought‖ or ―opinion‖ Personally, it can be interpreted that way, but it is not adequate Ideologies are ―partial‖ and ―particular‖ because they vary from one society to another and from one culture to another (Fowler, 1979) Van Dijk (2001) also defined ideologies as the basis of the belief systems of specific groups, where language is a medium for ideological forces Having said that, ideologies are produced and reflected within the discourse with the purpose of constructing texts that constantly and cumulatively ‗impose assumptions‘ upon the interpreter and the text producer, typically without being aware of them (Fairclough, 1992) As a result, invisible ideologies allow powerful groups to use particular values to exercise their power over others, particularly in political and commercial discourse
In addition, since the author used the word ―views‖ in the research questions,
―views‖ and ―ideologies‖ must be distinguished As mentioned, ―ideologies‖ are a more structured set of beliefs and ideals Ideologies are often associated with political or economic systems, and they provide a framework for understanding the world and proposing solutions to problems They tend to be more comprehensive
On the other hand, ―views‖ are more general for an opinion or perspective on something Therefore, ―views‖ were used to describe Hillary‘s general perspectives, which is not based on any political background, while ―ideologies‖ were utilised to explain why those views are presented that way
The later term ―power‖ is closely linked to CDA and ideologies CDA uncovers the power relationship in society through language analysis, in which language conveys ideologies Fairclough and Wodak (1997) viewed language as having two versions of power The first one appears in lexical choices and syntactic structures, while the
10 second one includes power behind discourse, where ―the whole social order of discourse is put together and held together as a hidden effect of power.‖ As aforementioned, political discourse could usually be a manipulative linguistic strategy that serves its author‘s political action, which means there is visibly power behind the discourse When combined with power implanted in language, the politician could exercise power through their language.
Critical discourse analysis and its fundamental tenets
Fairclough and Wodak (1997) summarised the main tenets of CDA as follows: CDA addresses social problems CDA not only concentrates on language and the use of language, but also gives attention to the ―linguistic character of social and cultural processes and structures‖ (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997:271) CDA follows a critical approach to social problems to make explicit power relationships which are frequently hidden Specifically, it intervenes on the side of dominated and oppressed groups and against dominating groups
Power relations are discursive This means that the primary concern of CDA is how power relations are exercised and negotiated in discourse
Discourse constitutes society and culture In other words, language contributes to the reproduction and transformation of society and culture As mentioned in Fairclough and Wodak (1997), ―every instance of language use makes its own contribution to reproducing and transforming society and culture, including relations of power.‖
Discourse does ideological work In other words, ideologies are often hidden through discourse, which requires linguists to analyse not only texts, but also the discursive practice (how the texts are interpreted and received and what social effects they have) (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997)
Discourse is historical Discourses can only be examined and comprehended in relation to their historical context
The link between text and society is mediated CDA is not a deterministic approach, but invokes the idea of mediation (Fairclough, 1993)
Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory CDA goes beyond textual
11 analysis because it typically distinguishes three stages of critical analysis: description, interpretation, and explanation, which are discussed later in this essay Discourse is a form of social action The principal aim of CDA is to uncover opaqueness and power relationships, attempting to make changes in communicative and socio-political practices (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997) When studying the role of discourse in society, CDA focuses on relations of power, dominance, and inequality and the ways these are reproduced or resisted by social group members through text and talk (Van Dijk, 1995: 17-18) Therefore, CDA helps to uncover, reveal, or disclose these social issues.
Different approaches to CDA
With those principles, CDA has been approached in different ways that have a number of characteristics in common They all share the belief that power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse which both reflects and reproduces social relations All three approaches encourage researchers to be critical of their own perspectives and recognise how their research can contribute to social change All the approaches have been applied in analysing the power and dominance in a large variety of written and spoken discourse in various genres, especially political discourse They possess several commonalities in their purposes and methodology, making them feasible to combine in a critical discourse analysis Nevertheless, those approaches still have their own scientific methodology, theoretical influence, and methods of analysis I shed light on the three relevant approaches, namely the Relational-Dialectical Approach by Norman Fairclough, the Socio-Cognitive Approach by van Dijk and the Discourse-Historical Approach by Ruth Wodak Fairclough (2001) considered language as a part of society because there exists a dialectical relationship between language and society Hence, CDA reveals how language is used to construct and maintain power relations between different groups in society, analysing the role of texts in promoting specific ideologies and marginalising others SFG (Systemic functional grammar) is combined in Fairclough‘s approach, in which grammatical choices, vocabulary, and other
12 linguistic features are analysed to uncover the construction of social meaning and power relations Fairclough studied and established a three-dimensional framework that examines language at three levels: text, interpretation, and explanation At the first level, the linguistic features of the text are analysed; then, the processes of production, distribution, and consumption of the text are included; and lastly, the broader social, cultural, and historical context in which the text is produced and interpreted is investigated to deeply reveal power relations, ideologies, and dominant social practices
The second approach was developed by Teun A van Dijk and named the Socio- Cognitive Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) This approach shows how social contexts shape mental models and how mental models shape the interpretation and production of discourse Specifically, van Dijk (2015: 64) said that social interaction, social situations, and social structures can only influence text and talk through people‘s interpretations of such social environments Conversely, discourse can only influence social interaction and social structures through the same cognitive interface of mental models, knowledge, attitudes, and ideologies What is different in van Dijk‘s approach (he even used Critical Discourse Study instead of Critical Discourse Analysis) is the presence of cognitive structures used to interpret the hidden message in discourse More specific for research is the analysis of ideological structures of discourse which are polarisation, pronouns, identification, ideological square, activities, norms and values, and interests Because of limitations on the scale of my study, I only highlighted the first four terms ‗Polarisation‘ embeds ideology differences between a positive representation of the ingroup and a negative representation of the outgroup ‗Pronouns‘ refers to the typical use of the ‗political‘ pronoun by ideological groups ‗Identification‘ denotes the emphasis on identity in many ways ‗Ideological square‘ separates ‗us‘ versus ‗them‘ by emphasising positive self-descriptions and negative other- descriptions ‗Activities‘ i.e., calling for action, are what ‗we‘ do or must do
The third approach is the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), developed by Ruth Wodak Wodak puts emphasis on historical context which interprets how discourse evolves and changes over time and how power relations and dominant ideologies are embedded in and reproduced through discourse ‗Discourse‘ in DHA is ―a cluster of context-dependent semiotic practices that are situated within specific fields of social action; socially constituted and socially constitutive; related to a macro-topic; linked to the argumentation about validity claims such as truth and normative validity involving several social actors who have different points of view‖ (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016: 27) In terms of its general methodology, DHA is three dimensional (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016: 32): (1) identify ―the specific content or topic(s) of a specific discourse,‖ (2) investigate
―discursive strategies,‖ and (3) examine ―the linguistic means (as types) and context-dependent linguistic realisations (as tokens).‖ These features distinguish the DHA from other CDA approaches By focusing on historical context, intertextuality, and the dynamic interplay between different discourses, Wodak's approach offers a nuanced understanding of how language shapes and is shaped by social and historical forces over time
In my MA thesis, I followed the three-dimensional framework of Fairclough (1992), combined with some aspects of van Dijk‘s approaches and analysis tools of Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday Van Dijk‘s ideological square and popularisation, combined with the three metafunctions of meaning by Halliday could be significant help for CDA These metafunctions were further discussed in this section.
Fairclough‘s three-dimensional framework
In Fairclough (1992), discourse is a three-dimensional concept that involves text, discursive practice, and social practice Corresponding to the three levels of discourse, Fairclough developed three stages of CDA, including description, interpretation, and explanation (Fairclough, 1992), as illustrated in the di agram below
Figure 1 Three stages of CDA (Fairclough, 1992)
In the description stage, linguistic features such as choices in lexical items (wording), grammar (transitivity, passivisation) and text structure would be analysed Fairclough also posed ten questions and their sub-questions in the textual analysis
What experiential values do words have?
What relational values do words have?
What expressive values do words have?
What experiential values do grammatical features have?
What relational values do grammatical features have?
What expressive values do grammatical features have?
How are (simple) sentences linked together?
What interactional conventions are used?
What larger-scale structures does the text have?
This stage is concerned with the formal properties of the text In other words, the relationship between the discourse, its production, and its consumption should be interpreted (Fairclough, 1989) This means discourse is not only regarded as text but also as a discursive practice In addition to analysing linguistic features and text structure, linguists should also take other factors, such as speech act and intertextuality, in their consideration These factors link the text to its context
According to Fairclough (1989: 26), ―explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context, with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation and their social effects.‖
Positioning theory and CDA
Positioning theory is a framework in social psychology that helps us understand how people interact and why they choose specific behaviours in social situations Positioning theory highlights practices that inhibit certain groups of individuals from saying certain things or performing certain sorts of acts or actions in discursive practices (Harré, 2012) Discursive practices position the speaker in certain ways, yet the speaker can still reposition themselves
Social positioning theory emphasises that the relationship between interlocutors in social interactions is constantly constructed and negotiated through language use Therefore, social positioning theory could be employed to examine how the speaker uses language for power assertion In other words, positioning theory is helpful for analysing how power dynamics play out in conversations Both social positioning theory and CDA share the same interest in the relationship between language and social practices They view language as a tool that can be used to construct meaning, negotiate power, and change social structures That is to say, language is not solely analysed in isolation but also in relation to social, cultural, and historical contexts.
Systemic functional grammar (SFG)
SFG was originally developed by Halliday in the early 1960s It is an effective tool in CDA because Halliday (1994) said that the use of process type is a tool to realise
16 the experimental meaning, i.e., process is the representation of reality in the speaker‘s ideology Therefore, SFG has been used as a theoretical framework for a great number of works in language description, discourse analysis, text generation, translation studies, dictionary compilation, and many others (Hoang, 2018)
Three strands of meaning (metafunctions)
According to Hoang (2018), at the linguistic level, a text can be analysed respectively in terms of three metafunctions or strands of meaning through three respective lexicogrammatical structures The first is the ideational metafunction, which comprises the experiential metafunction realised through the transitivity system and the logical metafunction realised through the expansion and projection systems The second is the interpersonal metafunction realised through the mood system The third is the textual metafunction realised through the theme system
Table 1 Metafunctions of meaning (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:61)
Metafunction Definition (kind of meaning)
Experiential construing a model of experience clause as representation segmental
Interpersonal enacting social relationships clause as exchange prosodic
Textual creating relevance to context clause as message culminative
The ideational metafunction is a general social function of language that we use to construe or represent reality in the linguistic system (Hoang, 2018)
The experiential aspect of meaning is examined through the system of transitivity Transitivity refers to the different process types There are three main types of process by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), including material process, mental process, and relational process, and three sub-types, including behavioural process, verbal process and existential process
Material processes (Doing-and-happening) are concerned with our experience of the material world (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:179) Mental processes (Sensing) are concerned with our experience of the world of our own consciousness, comprising ‗perceptive‘, ‗cognitive‘,
‗desiderative‘, and ‗emotive‘ (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:208)
Relational processes (Being and having) serve to characterise and identify (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:210)
Behavioural processes are processes of (typically human) physiological and psychological behaviour, like breathing, coughing, smiling, dreaming, and staring (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:248)
Verbal processes are processes of saying Such clauses are an important resource in various kinds of discourse because they contribute to the creation of narrative by making it possible to set up dialogic passages (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:252)
Existential processes represent that something exists or happens, while
‗existential‘ clauses are not very common in discourse; only 3–4 percent of all clauses are ‗existential‘ (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:256, 257)
Interpersonal metafunction is realised through the mood system While construing, language is always also enacting our personal and social relationships with the other people around us In other words, the clause itself is a proposition, or a proposal, whereby we inform or question, give an order or make an offer, and express our appraisal of and attitude towards whoever we are addressing and what we are talking about (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:29) If ideational metafunction sees language as reflection, interpersonal metafunction sees language as action
Textual metafunction is shown in the theme system There are two functional elements in the theme system: Theme and Rheme The Theme serves as the point of departure of the message, which coincides with the initial element(s) of the clause; the Rheme is the remainder of the message (Hoang, 2018)
Logical meaning is built through the systems of expansion and projection
Language is the expression of certain very general logical relations The logical component defines complex units, for example, the clause complex with two fundamental relationships: expansion and projection Expansion refers to a complex in which the secondary clause expands the primary clause by means of elaboration, extension, and enhancement (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004; Hoang, 2018) Projection refers to a complex in which the secondary clause is projected through the primary clause, which instates it as a locution or an idea (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:377) Expansion relates phenomena as being of the same order of experience, while projection relates phenomena to phenomena of a higher order of experience.
Previous studies
There have been numerous critical discourse analysis studies from which researchers could learn Those studies select data from various discourses, especially political speeches, media campaigns, commercial texts and videos, and cultural dialogues One of the most excellent studies from which analysts could learn much was conducted by Forchtner et al (2013) Forchtner, Krzyřzanowski, and Wodak integrated several approaches to reveal the leading narratives and strategies used by right-wing populist parties in political campaigns since 2000 They adapted the discourse-historical approach to analyse the discourse because media talk and election campaigns go hand in hand The findings described the contrast between the in-group and the out-group through the use of negative or positive connotation, generalisation, inclusiveness, and self-positioning Language use has changed in accordance with social changes, which helps the party succeed in outmanoeuvring its political opponents
Kim (2014) combined a corpus-based approach and a critical discourse analysis approach to examine US news stories published in mainstream media in an attempt to identify the way in which North Korea is constructed in three US media outlets, namely CNN, Newsweek, and The New York Times The author desired to decode discursive practices relating to North Korea by analysing collocational patterns
19 specifically relating to North Korea The most significant finding from the data analysis was that US media divide the world into ―specific sets of countries, based on those countries‘ political positions towards the USA.‖ In other words, US media classified countries into certain groups, which could be seen in negative adjective patterns that were found across the entire corpus I appreciated the analysis of language in Kim‘s study, but I did not see any close textual analysis, which is one of the most important levels in CDA
Another example can be seen in the political discourse analysis of power and persuasion in Tony Blair‘s 1977 victory speech by Dimitra (2015) Dimitra integrated Fairclough's three-stage analysis framework and some linguistic tools based on Halliday's and Matthiessen's functional grammatical theory to reveal how power was embedded in language The author analysed a large variety of linguistic features, including repetition, elision, lexical connotations, and two functions of language based on Halliday‘s SFG However, I believe this should not be an excellent example because the author failed to analyse the text at all three levels in Fairclough‘s framework
Overall, most studies combined two or more approaches to CDA By applying different approaches, ideology could be decoded objectively from multi-faceted perspectives At a glance, linguistic and sociological approaches are effectively integrated The approach by Norman Fairclough is mostly employed in these kinds of discourse because it emphasises the relationship between text, discourse practices, social practices, and social structures All CDA studies break down discourses by demystifying ideologies; they all raise questions about how specific discourse properties are deployed to present those views Therefore, researchers attempt to identify who holds the power to convince, influence, or dominate others Nevertheless, regarding the analysis of politicians‘ speeches on the heated dispute between Russia and Ukraine, a few research papers have been published Noticeably, Mahfoud and Khaldaoui (2023) investigated the dominant ideologies and messages communicated through the first speech of the former president Joe
Biden on the conflict Their theoretical framework is built on the ideological square model of van Dijk, which highlights the ―us-them‖ binary Biden positions Russia as an existential threat to all humanity while Biden conveys his ideologies of liberal democratic values The two authors analysed these massages by examining language in both macro and micro levels At macro level, positive versus negative self-representation is presented through polarisation In the meantime, the micro language strategies include actor description, consensus, comparison, evidentiality, values expression, national self-glorification, presupposition, and victimisation/criminalisation Most interestingly, Mahfoud and Khaldaoui in this paper concluded that the ―Russia-phobic‖ representation helps evidence that imposing sanctions on Russia has justification
A critical review of the relevant literature on the Russia-Ukraine conflict through the lens of (CDA) reveals a gap in conducting research Existing papers tend to picture solely how Russians and Ukrainians have been portrayed in different discourses but ignore the position of other parties and the speakers This approach overlooks the position of other relevant actors, including the European Union, NATO, or individual countries, and the role of the speaker themselves in shaping these representations This identified gap has motivated the inclusion of NATO, and the speaker within my MA thesis
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research questions revisited
1 What are Hillary Clinton‘s views embedded in the interviews with the press about the Russia and Ukraine conflict?
2 How are Hillary Clinton‘s views linguistically represented?
3 Why are those views represented the way they were in the interviews?
Methodology
The study mainly employed a qualitative approach to answer the three above research questions Thematic analysis was the dominant method used to answer the first question The thematic analysis was conducted at the latent level i.e., going beyond the semantic content of data (Braun and Clarke, 2006)
Thematic analysis is ―a method of identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns or themes within the data‖ (Braun and Clarke, 2006) Thematic analysis, therefore, was done in ―coding‖ processes in which the researcher assumed certain codes that were relevant to the research context, including Open coding, Axial coding, and Selective coding, which were developed from Grounded Theory by Glaser and Strauss published in 1967 In the initial stage of open coding, data was dissected, which then helped to capture core concepts and ideas This is an inductive analysis that reflects the data itself The next axial coding process analysed the relationships between those concepts to reveal how they were connected and contributed to the deeper understanding of the key ideas conveyed The last selective coding process enabled me to select and integrate categories into major frames, which finally
22 allowed me to answer the research question After the three coding processes, several vivid, compelling extract examples were selected to be finally examined in relation to the research question Key codes of the context related to the dispute between Russia and Ukraine were analysed and illustrated in the following table
Table 2 Open, Axial, and Selective codes in Hillary’s discourse
Open codes Axial codes Selective: themes
The second and third questions were also resolved based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches, with qualitative ones taking dominance The data was examined under Fairclough's three-dimensional framework: description, interpretation, and explanation In the first level, the discourse was considered a text, so lexical and grammatical features were analysed The textual structure was ignored in my analysis because only utterances related to the tension between Russia and Ukraine were sorted into a single discourse In the second level, the social and situational contexts were examined to find out the objectives of the producer, hence identifying the reasons why Hillary uses such lexical and grammatical features In the last level, discourse was considered a social practice, which reveals the interaction between discourse and society
Due to the nature of qualitative research, objectivity is highly vital To reduce subjectivity which is considered a ―cloak‖ (Peshkin, 1988), the author had to
23 continuously practise reflexivity in the whole analysis process to avoid imposing personal beliefs on all stages of research Subjectivity could take place initially in the methodological decisions To minimise it, the author commenced with analysing the data first, then, based on the similar patterns of data to employ appropriate methods Meanwhile, member checking helped harness the trustworthiness of results, increasing credibility (Doyle, 2007) However, including Hillary as a participant in member checking was unfeasible; therefore, peer reviews were employed as substitute methods.
Data analysis procedure
To answer the first research question, I employed a thematic analysis method with an inductive approach which involves examining the data to determine the main themes Hillary‘s ideologies were extracted from a set of qualitative data The discourse was first thoroughly reviewed before individual extracts were analysed Significant words were coded to generate main concepts and finally reveal Hillary‘s main viewpoints
The second research question was tackled by the description level in Fairclough‘s three-dimensional framework combined with Halliday‘s transitivity, mood, and modality systems The analysis consolidated the presentation of all ideologies discussed in the first question
The third question explained the reasons why Hillary presentes such ideologies in the interviews The second and third levels in Fairclough‘s framework were under analysis Specifically, different historical and social contexts were investigated, including the development of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the current Western ideologies about the tension, and the viewpoints of other countries in the situation These contexts could reason why Hillary Clinton expresses the ideologies that were analysed in the first question.
Analytic framework of the study
The data was analysed under three levels of Fairclough three-dimensional
Vocabulary was investigated according to the three values which are Experiential, Relational, and Expressive Fairclough (2001) illustrates formal features of the three values in the following table:
Table 3 Three dimensions of meaning: Experiential, Relational, and Expressive
Dimensions of meaning Values Effects
The experiential values are realised through the frequency of word occurrences, which can identify the main contents conveyed by the speaker
The relational values are analysed through the choice of wording which depends on and helps establish the social relation between participants
Cognitive frames are important to the construction of expressive values Frames help people understand and interact with the situation because frames shape the way people see the world, control how people act and interact with certain events (Lakoff, 2004) Therefore, frames are important in politics as politicians use different lexical items to describe different parties
Grammar was also examined in terms of four aspects: experiential values, relational values, expressive values, and cohesion The analysis was done as described below
Table 4 Four aspects of grammar
Experiential values Types of processes
Voice (active and passive) Sentences (positive and negative)
Modality (Probability and Usuality) The use of pronouns
Expressive values Modality (Obligation and Inclination)
Discursive practice refers to the production, circulation, and consumption of texts This means that attention was paid to the actual use of language or how texts are made and understood in context (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000)
This political discourse was investigated within the context of its social and situational construction Additionally, the processes of reception, consumption, and distribution were also examined
The third level reveals the interrelation between discourse and social structures This can only be investigated if it is embedded in the current social context That is to say, the Ukraine-Russia dispute should be comprehensively reviewed in terms of not only the progression of it, but also the global and regional responses to it These factors have had a powerful impact on the ways Hillary presentes her ideologies in her talks about the tension recently.
Data collection
There are more than three interviews in which Hillary Clinton participated; however, I only selected 3 interview videos which have the most views and focused on the world's reaction to the political issue between Ukraine and Russia All the interviews were published on the official YouTube channels of CNN, NBC News, and MSNBC throughout 2022 The discourse was formed by compiling only utterances by Hillary Clinton about Russia, Ukraine, and NATO, with a total of
Hear what Hillary Clinton thinks the world should do about Putin
Done on November, 3rd 2022 by CNN
Full Hillary Clinton Interview: ‗We Have To
Double Down On The Pressure‘ On Russia
Done on April, 3rd 2022 by NBC News
Hillary Clinton: It‘s Important For The World
Done on March, 8th 2022 by MSNBC
The data collection procedure was conducted in the following steps:
First, the videos were transcribed automatically by the online transcription assistants of ―TRANSKRIPTOR.‖ Second, the texts transcribed were checked again with the official subtitles in the videos to identify which parts were performed by Hillary Clinton After that, I sorted out only utterances related to the tension between Russia and Ukraine and put them in a single discourse with a total of 2073 words in
97 sentences The final single discourse was then checked again through peer reviews, in which another researcher watched the three videos again to validate if any relevant utterances were removed or changed.
Ensuring credibility of the findings
Peer reviews were employed to validate the findings Assumed ideologies were evaluated by a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam She has completed her master‘s programme in English Linguistics and finished her MA thesis on Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis
Following the initial member-checking process, all three ideologies surprisingly aligned, leading to a final agreement However, there were several differences in the level of description in the data analysis regarding grammatical items Applying Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday, the author and the evaluator shared a significant difference in their way of counting clauses The former one did not include embedded clauses, while the latter preferred those clauses Both had to discuss and finalise the findings by using only clause simplexes, with an ignorance of embedded ones
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Hillary expresses three views in the three interviews
4.1.1 Positive representation of the Ukrainian and negative representation of Putin and the Russian troops
Hillary Clinton paints a picture of Ukrainian resilience against a brutal Russian force Her ideology is clearly expressed in her lexical choices The Ukrainians are brave and fighting for freedom and democracy in a united country, while Putin is a dictator This ideology is coded in the following extracts:
Extract 1: ―So you have to stand up to him He is He's a classic bully Clearly, you have to continue to be assessing what he might do (CNN, 2022).”
The word ―bully‖ portrays Putin as aggressive and unreasonable; that is the reason why
―you‖ have to criticise this pattern of behaviour The use of ―him‖ emphasises Putin as the central threat, conveying certainty and urgency in the need to confront Putin Extract 2: ―But again, it's a constant assessment to be made by not just the United
States military but our allies in NATO as to what can continue to support the Ukrainians in their effort to stave off what are barbaric, bombings, missile strikes on civilian targets by the Russians (CNN, 2022).”
Hillary expresses a strong condemnation of Russian tactics, portraying them as savage and uncivilised The use of negative words, including ―barbaric,‖
―bombings,‖ and ―missile,‖ paints a picture of indiscriminate violence against innocent people In contrast to the ―savage,‖ the bravery of the Ukrainian military was inspiring, which is conveyed in the extract below
Extract 3: ―The level of defence and determination that the Ukrainian people are showing, starting with their President, President Zelensky, going all the way down to, you know, grandmothers and young women taking up arms for the first time to defend their families and their communities is tragic but inspiring (MSNBC, 2022).‖
In the interviews, Hillary always groups Ukrainian people together by using collective terms, signifying national unity in the face of aggression She describes President Zelenskyy as a smart leader who embodies the national spirit during a crisis The determination which started with the president and then went all the way down to grandmothers and young women, highlights the broad participation in resistance, emphasising national unity regardless of age or gender The image of the Ukrainian people is positively portrayed On the contrary, Putin is described as a dictator; this ideology can be seen in the following extract
Extract 4: ―There seems to be quite a high casualty rate among the poor Russians that Putin has literally forced onto the battlefield without equipment or training (CNN, 2022).‖
Ambiguity exists in the utterance The listener might be confused about who the poor Russians are Perhaps this phrase potentially implies an economic disparity The use of the adverb ―literally‖ shows that poor Russians are being compelled to fight under a lack of preparedness The lexical choices portray President Putin as a dictator
4.1.2 A sharp weapon of persuasion: it is right for all people to stand and protect Ukraine people
Hillary Clinton, in three interviews, clearly expresses her belief that the invasion of Russia into Ukraine is unprovoked, convincing the listener to stand towards the Ukraine people and to believe that Putin‘s intention is wrong
―What does the world do about Vladimir Putin?‖
Hillary: ―Well, the short answer is we have to defeat him and that means we have to continue supplying the necessary military equipment to Ukraine We have to continue enforcing sanctions and help those who in our alliance, particularly in Europe, are suffering from the effects of, you know, energy pricing and other challenges to get through the winter And we have to make it very clear to Putin that we stand with the Ukrainian people, they're fighting for freedom and democracy is
29 our fight And we're going to, I hope, you know, wear down Putin and make sure that he has internal dissension to deal with and keep him, you know, constantly trying to undermine We have to undermine his hold on power insofar as that's possible (CNN, 2022).‖
She places a strong emphasis on her determination to protect Ukraine and reject the invasion of Russia In the extract, the modal verb ‗have to‘ is repeated in each utterance, emphasising that defeating Putin and Russian troops is a kind of obligation that all humanity should do The main subject in the interviewer‘s question is ‗the world‘; however, Hillary considers the world as ‗we‘ with the intention of including humanity in one group, shortening the distance between Hillary and other people from all around the world The use of the second pronoun brings a sense of belonging and responsibility, indicating that preventing Putin is the common mission Also, at the beginning of the interview, Hillary successfully guides her audience to understand her political messages Instead of describing the current situation, specifically what governments have responded to the conflict, Hillary foregrounds the need to defeat Putin immediately, with an expectation to firmly identify her political messages without using the pronoun ‗I‘ That is to say, the mission is not hers solely, but humanity‘s
Hillary also expresses her ideology towards the necessity to stop the conflict
Extract 6: ―We've got to continue to keep the pressure on Putin and the Russian troops We cannot in any way pause our efforts to support the Ukrainians (NBC news, 2022).‖
She highlights the continuity of humanity‘s support for the Ukrainians The verb
―continue‖ emphasises the ongoing nature of the support and implies it is not a one- time thing Moreover, ―keeping the pressure‖ is a more forceful way of saying ―put pressure," given that humanity has already put pressure on Putin, and they have to keep doing that The verb ―pause‖ with the negative "cannot" is used to express the urgency and importance of maintaining support Hillary reinforces the absolute nature of not pausing support, convincing the audience to follow her intention She
30 shows her persuasion with a tone of determination and urgency and suggested a collective effort and shared responsibility with the audience
Hillary also codes condemnation of Russia to ―waken‖ the audience She said: Extract 7: ―Waging a war against a smaller state that is totally unprovoked, as we have seen, really tells us everything we need to know about Putin And I'm delighted and relieved that up until now the world has really stood with Ukraine, the imposition of sanctions, the provision of assistance to the Ukrainian people, both to defend themselves but also to receive humanitarian aid in the face of these vicious and brutal onslaughts by the Russian military (MSNBC, 2022).‖
By strongly condemning Russia's aggression and portraying Ukraine as a victim, she could persuade the audience to believe in her advice To emphasise the negativity of Russia's actions, she utilises lexical items with extremely negative connotations, such as ―vicious and brutal onslaughts‖ and ―totally unprovoked.‖ In contrast, she is ―delighted‖ and ―relieved,‖ despite the on-going Russian aggression, because ―the world has really stood with Ukraine.‖ Standing with Ukraine reveals Hillary‘s ideology about internationalism and humanitarianism ―The world‖ standing together suggests a belief in collective action to address international threats that are caused by Putin If the audience supports those great values, they should stand for Ukraine, said Hillary Clinton
Her ideology about internationalism is also revealed in the follow extract:
Linguistic evidence
All three ideologies are linguistically presented In the first step, they are realised through textual features
Underlying social beliefs could be expressed in discourse Word choices can both reflect ideology and have persuasive effects Putin and his army are presented negatively, while Zelenskyy and his citizens are portrayed positively Lexical items were analysed in this part to illustrate those ideologies
The experiential value of vocabulary is realised through the frequency of occurrence of words and phrases in the discourse, as illustrated in the table below
Table 6 Frequency of occurrence of words and phrases in Hillary’s discourse
(6), freedom (5), force (5), sanctions (4), war (4), values (3), effort (3), pressure (3), future (2), power (2), governments (2), danger (2), weapons (2), attention (2), equipment (2), crisis (1), boycott (1), homeland (1), family (1), parents (1), babies (1), women (2), challenge (1), sovereignty (1), problems
(1), assault (1), leader (1), risks (1) humanitarian (3), real (3), important (3), brave (2), inspiring (2), dear (2), unprovoked (2), lethal (2), united (2), delighted (2), brutal (2), sure (1), democratic (1), unjustified
(1), bloodshed (1), weaponry (1), vicious (1), defensive (1), disappointed
(18), have to (10), fighting for (7), continue to (5), the world (5), Ukrainian people (4), to support (4), to defend (3), the Russians (3), with Ukraine (3), support the Ukrainians (3), have to continue (3), at this point
(3), take a stand (2), freedom and democracy
The table revealed that proper nouns take the dominance, proving that the main content in Hillary‘s parts revolves around four groups, including Putin and his military, the Ukrainian people, Europe, and people all around the world These groups keep their eyes on the influence of the war on energy supply, and the final purpose of fighting against Russia is for freedom and democracy In addition, the relatively high occurrence of ―force,‖ ―sanction,‖ and ―war‖ describe the actual response of Europe to the invasion of Russia In terms of adjectives, they mostly portray the characteristics of people and the current situation
The relational values of lexical items were discussed in the following paragraph The lexical items not only highlight the relationship between the three groups: Putin
33 and Russian troops, the Ukrainian people, and NATO The relationship between Russia and Ukraine is described as ―Invaders‖ (force, dangers, weapons, crisis) and
―Defenders‖ (efforts, resilience, homeland, families, parents, babies) Putin is described as ―Danger,‖ and ―Dictator‖ while the Ukrainians are ―brave‖ and
―inspiring.‖ NATO, people around the world, and the Ukrainians are in
―Friendship‖ because they offer ―Assistance‖ and ―Help.‖
The expressive value of words is realised through different frames To form specific frames for the three groups above, descriptive vocabulary is analysed in the following table It gave information about the words used by Hillary to describe President Putin and his army, President Zelenskyy and his citizens, and Hillary and NATO‘s involvement
Table 7 Words to portray President Putin, President Zelenskyy, and NATO
Russian troops President Zelenskyy and his citizens
Hillary and allies (NATO) dictate unacceptable classic bully high casualty rate threat insecurities resentments grievances dictator risks invasion poor russians battlefield barbaric bombings missile strikes bloodshed terror crisis horrific, unjustified, unprovoked assault war crimes waging a war unprovoked enormous danger tanks aircraft advanced weaponry freedom democracy doing well offence efforts brave free democratic nation sovereignty defence and determination tragic but inspiring homeland rights resilience offensive action defeat supply …military equipment enforcing sanction help wear down putin undermine …hold on power give support stave off eyes wide open democracy global stability keep the pressure on efforts lethal aid resupply allow permit total boycott end
34 evil force vicious and brutal onslaughts incredibly brutal strongest
Hillary portrays President Putin as a ―classic bully‖ who starts the war due to his
―insecurities,‖ ―resentments,‖ and ―grievances.‖ In addition, she also describes the situation on the battlefield with a range of negative nouns and adjectives, with the repetition of some such as ―unprovoked‖ and ―brutal.‖ Such things are described to be ―heartbreaking.‖ Therefore, Putin and the Russian troop are positioned in the
―Violence‖ frame, which is formed by a network of nouns and adjectives that embrace negative connotations The invasion of Russia is also positioned in the
―Crisis‖ frame since Hillary uses nouns related to the domain of war (bombings, missile strikes, tanks, and aircraft)
In contrast, President Zelenskyy and his political work are praised Hillary emphasises that the Ukrainian people are fighting for freedom and democracy, fighting for human values Such bravery is said to be ―inspiring‖ and makes her feel
―delighted‖ and ―relieved.‖ The dominant frames here are ―Defence‖ and
―Determination.‖ The involvement of Hillary and NATO is also expressed in her lexical choices that most nouns and verbs convey power and authority ―Wear down,‖ ―undermine,‖ ―stave off,‖ ―allow,‖ and ―permit‖ all display power, showing that Hillary could hold power over Russia
Beard (2000) said pronoun reference plays a pivotal role in putting over a piece of political persuasion As can be seen, most politicians are likely to use lots of first- person pronouns When arguments rely on creating an us/them contrast, third- person pronouns are invaluable (Mooney and Evans, 2019)
A quantitative analysis was performed in order to list the number of pronouns in the first person in the discourse, including ―we‖ and ―I,‖ and pronouns in the second person ―you.‖
Table 8: Frequency of personal pronouns
The use of the plural pronouns ‗we‘ could have a strong effect on the audience because ‗we‘ does not specify who ‗we‘ are in that it may include the audience (inclusive we) or exclude the audience (exclusive we) (Mooney and Evans, 2019)
In the interviews, most of pronouns ―we‖ are used with an inclusive connotation because Hillary desires to show her ideology of unity All the audience watching the interviews are included in the actions needed (―we stand with the Ukrainian people‖) This fosters a sense of unity and shared purpose However, Hillary, in some parts, interestingly creates ambiguity by using the pronoun ―we.‖ For example,
―Well, the short answer is we have to defeat him and that means we have to continue supplying the necessary military equipment to Ukraine (CNN, 2022).‖
The pronoun ―we‖ used in this utterance might be exclusive, which means the audience tends not to be included; nevertheless, the audience still has a sense of belonging and feels a sense of responsibility to some extent, even though they could do nothing much about supplying necessary military equipment The reason is that Hillary smartly repeats the pronoun ―we‖ in the whole answer; as can be seen, there are seven plural pronouns in the first person in only five utterances in the following part
“Well, the short answer is we have to defeat him and that means we have to continue supplying the necessary military equipment to Ukraine We have to continue enforcing sanctions and help those who in our alliance, particularly in Europe, are suffering from the effects of, you know, energy pricing and other challenges to get through the winter And we have to make it very clear to Putin that we stand with the Ukrainian people, they're fighting for freedom and democracy is our fight And we're going to, I hope, you know, wear down Putin and make sure that he has internal dissension to deal with and keep him, you know, constantly
37 trying to undermine We have to undermine his hold on power insofar as that's possible (CNN, 2022).”
The power of persuasion works more effectively with the use of the second-person pronoun ―you‖ because it creates a direct connection with the audience In English,
‗you‘ does not distinguish between the singular and plural second person, allowing the author to use them strategically (Mooney and Evans, 2019) Hillary‘s strategy is exemplified in the following extract:
―And I think if you're fighting not for an ideology, not for a dictator, but you're fighting for your family and your home, you're fighting for your community, you're fighting for what you have grown up in, and you're fighting for your freedom (MSNBC, 2022).‖
The pronoun ―you‖ in this extract is very intentional and creates a specific effect First, ―you‖ directly addresses the listener, creating a sense of intimacy and connection It draws the listener into the scenario and makes them consider the motivations for fighting Second, ―you‖ can represent any soldier fighting for their home and family This broadens the message and makes it relatable to a wider audience By using ―you,‖ Hillary creates a sense of shared experience and understanding It encourages the listener to empathise with soldiers fighting for their way of life It can be used for persuasive purposes, trying to convince the listener that these are noble reasons to fight
The pronoun ―I‖ also plays a pivotal role in building Hillary‘s strong persuasive strategies ―I‖ was used to express herself in the firmest way, portraying herself as a determinative politician Concerning the participation of Russia in the G20 event, said Hillary
―I would not allow Russia back into the organisations that it has been a part of
―I would not permit Russia to attend and if they insisted on literally showing up, I would hope there would be a significant if not total boycott (NBC news, 2022).‖
―I know the administration has been doing that, looking at more deliveries of
38 liquefied natural gas, for instance (NBC news, 2022).‖
CONCLUSION
Summary of the key findings
The study applied the CDA‘s three-dimensional framework suggested by Fairclough (1992) to examine the underlying ideologies of Hillary Clinton about the tension between Russia and Ukraine Hillary is an excellent spokeswoman with smart persuasive strategies In her talks, she expressed ideologies about Putin and Russian troops, Zelenskyy, and his citizens, in addition to profiling herself as a strong but caring female politician
The research illustrated how language is used to successfully persuade people, which can change reality In terms of vocabulary, popularisation is realised through lexical choices Putin and his army are negatively portrayed through a full range of strong and negative lexical items; in contrast, positive nouns, verbs, and adjectives are employed to draw an inspiring portrait of a caring president of Ukraine devoting and understanding his people and a meaningful picture of Ukrainian people fighting for freedom, democracy, and human values regardless of their age and sex Also, Hillary expresses herself as a powerful politician with strong determination and claims the continuous significant support of NATO and the US in the situation Hillary‘s ideologies are also realised through grammatical features She mainly used the first pronouns ―we‖, combined with the second pronouns ―you,‖ successfully
49 creating a sense of shared responsibility that powerfully persuades people to follow her ideologies that the war is unprovoked In addition to ―we‖ and ―you,‖ Hillary profiled her as a wisely decisive politician with the use of ―I.‖ Moreover, the dominance of material processes with active voices makes an enormous contribution to the overall persuasive effect Active voices place an emphasis on the actors who do the action, which continually grabs the audience's attention to the emergence of the action and emphasises their (potential) role in the situation Another persuasive strategy is related to the mood system, with the high frequency of declarative modes that describe actions and create reliability Modality has similar effects on persuasion The last grammatical feature is cohesive relations between sentences This could be one of the smartest strategies that could influence the audience deeply Hillary highlights the need to support the Ukrainian people and protect them against the invasion of Russian troops Interestingly, hyponyms even show an extremely high contrast between Putin and Zelenskyy in the way they practise their political decisions Putin only stands with his troops, while Zelenskyy has a strong connection with all his citizens and respects his citizens in war issues Apart from the lexical and grammatical choices, the social and situational contexts also reveal the objectives that stand behind those choices, which help to construe ideologies With contemporary political situations, Hillary‘s political positions, and her positive images of her in the society, she could build her positive identity and practise persuasive power in the discourse, and in turn, the discourse influences social processes It can be said that words can be weapons in politics War is a domain where we see the political and ideological effects of language The person who can use language wisely and smartly can be the person who holds power over others
Compared to other studies which also focused on discovering how current politician employed their language strategies to convey their views about the political situation between Ukraine and Russia, the findings showed that Hillary Clinton shared the same perspectives with Joe Biden that Russia is an ―invader‖, and Ukraine acts as a ―defender‖ However, Hillary Clinton did convey another message
50 in which she firmly calls for support of all everyone in the world for Ukrainian people.
Implications
Critical language awareness: Learning a new language is not merely understanding the phonological and semantic aspects of the language, but understanding the deeper meaning behind how language is used Grammar and vocabulary reflect social, political, and ideological aspects of communication Being aware of this nature, language learners could become more conscious and analytical users of language, which makes them mindful and effective communicators Since language is an instrument of thought and a tool of power to manipulate or persuade people to follow a course of action, language users should be critical in exploring how contexts influence communication
Implications for Language Education: Teachers can employ CDA in analysing some grammatical structures to reveal the power of those structures and how they can shape and convey the user‘s intention in reality Knowing why one kind of structure should be used in certain situations is necessary However, depending on the level of students, teachers should sort out appropriate material resources For examples:
For beginners, commercial texts such as advertisement videos, slogans, and logos could be utilised because they have a tendency to be concise and short Nevertheless, the meaning is marvellous
For pre-intermediate to intermediate, some movies or songs could be suitable The use of vocabulary in movies and songs is intentional, which can reveal much about the connotation of words, which help students remember the words longer and deeper
For upper-immediate to advanced learners, political or economic texts could be used because they tend to be highly complicated
However, the first step in the application of CDA in teaching should not include
―Critical.‖ Discourse analysis is easier for students to handle It must be said that the development of language capacities is intertwined with the development of
51 critical awareness of language (Fairclough, 2001).
Limitations and suggestions for future research
This study has some limitations First, the findings were limited to a relatively small sample size of only three interviews This might restrict the generalisability of the findings to a broader population, and further research with a larger and more diverse group of participants is recommended and may result in a full range of perspectives Second, as an outsider, my understanding of US politics is quite modest, and the tensions between Russia and Ukraine that have changed overtime, therefore could affect my explanations of Hillary‘s views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Perhaps, for better analysis, more data should be collected to ensure the reliability of the findings Nevertheless, those limitations could turn into valuable suggestions for future research Researchers could use DHA to investigate the changes in discourse in relation to the changes of society MCDA (Multimodal critical discourse analysis) is also a creative approach for those who desire to analyse not only the linguistic features but also non-linguistic features
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APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 Interview 1: Hear what Hillary Clinton thinks the world should do about Putin
Interviewer: You're now months into this war No sign of ending Vladimir Putin isn't backing down I'll ask you what I asked the ambassador to the United Nations yesterday What does the world do about Vladimir Putin?
Hillary Clinton: Well, the short answer is we have to defeat him and that means we have to continue supplying the necessary military equipment to Ukraine We have to continue enforcing sanctions and help those who in our alliance, particularly in Europe, are suffering from the effects of, you know, energy pricing and other challenges to get through the winter And we have to make it very clear to Putin that we stand with the Ukrainian people, they're fighting for freedom and democracy is our fight And we're going to, I hope, you know, wear down Putin and make sure that he has internal dissension to deal with and keep him, you know, constantly trying to undermine We have to undermine his hold on power insofar as that's possible
Interviewer: Secretary Clinton, you know Putin very well I mean back from when you were Secretary of State, the reset of relations with Russia And then, you know,
I think a lot of people don't realize that you wrote this confidential memo at the end of your time as Secretary of State telling the White House, don't flatter him with high level attention, decline his invitation for a presidential summit, don't appear too eager to work together You seem to have a really good sense of his mindset Do you have a concern that officials seem more concerned about now than they were months ago, that he would use nuclear weapons?
Hillary Clinton: I, uh, I don't believe that at this point, I think you always have to be assessing the risks and trying to determine what messages should be sent to Putin
He understands, you know, force He understands pushback He will go as far as he is permitted to go I think he frankly, I believe if Trump had been reelected, He
II expected Trump to pull us out of NATO so that his invasion of Ukraine would have proceeded much more smoothly So you have to stand up to him He is He's a classic bully Clearly, you have to continue to be assessing what he might do But at this point, I, I am, you know, not yet convinced that he will do that
Interviewer: And you talked about making sure that the United States is continuing to supply Ukraine with what it needs to to wage this battle, this invasion, one thing that the White House has held off on They have obviously given billions of dollars in weapons and support to Ukraine The longer range missiles, the fighter jets, these things that President Zelinsky has asked for, is that something that you think that the Pentagon should be willing to give to Ukraine?
Hillary Clinton: Well, at this point the Ukrainians are really doing well with what we have given them They are on the offense and are regaining territory that had been seized by Russian troops There seems to be quite a high casualty rate among the poor Russians that Putin has literally forced onto the battlefield without equipment or training So I think right now the Ukrainians are are more than holding their own But again, it's a constant assessment to be made by not just the United States military but our allies in NATO as to what can continue to support the Ukrainians in their effort to stave off what are barbaric, bombings, missile strikes on civilian targets by the Russians So again, you know it It's one of those issues that anybody says, you know, that there's an easy answer or there's only one answer, you know, probably is not immersed in the complexity of of what's going on But right now the Ukrainians are doing well with what they've been given
Interview 2: We Have To Double Down On The Pressure’ On Russia (NCB News, Apr, 2022)
Intervier: Welcome back Hillary Clinton has a lot to say about Vladimir Putin As Secretary of State, she famously called for a reset in US Russian relations But Putin was having none of it And by the time Clinton left office in 2013, Putin repeatedly attacked her in very personal terms That animosity may have played a role in
Russia's efforts to help Donald Trump in his 2016 campaign against Clinton Perhaps he feared she'd have a much tougher policy against him Hillary Clinton joins me now Madam Secretary, welcome back to Meet the Press
Hillary: Thanks very much, Chuck Good to be with you
Interview: I wanna pick up on I know you were listening to the interview with Masha Gessen I wanna pick up on Masha's last point there, which seemed to imply that no matter when we've confronted Putin and I could go back really all the way to when he came into power We've all it seems as if we've always come up a bit short We've drawn a line not quite as far as others would like to draw you whether it was you you've made points of this about Syria Perhaps we should have drawn a thicker line on what happened in Crimea Why is that and are you concerned we're we're we're maybe holding back now a little too much
Hillary: Well, no Now I think we are really looking at this with our eyes wide open and seeing very clearly the threat that he poses, not just to Ukraine, as we can watch every night on our news, but really to Europe, to democracy and the global stability that we thought we were building in the last 20 years So Chuck, I I really agree with both what Secretary Blinken said that you know, we've got to continue to keep the pressure on Putin and the Russian troops We cannot in any way pause our efforts to support the Ukrainians And I agree with Masha that we have to double down There is more that can be done to increase pressure and stress, additional sanctions, more in the way of lethal aid And now that there has been a pushback, thanks to the brave Ukrainian Military offensive action There is time to resupply the Ukrainians so that they can continue to defend their country
Interview: You heard Secretary Lincoln essentially say, Look, sanctions relief could happen It all depends on the behavior of Russia Can we really live in a world where Putin's let back into the new world order?
Hillary: Well, that's not what I heard him say What I heard him say was that really we are going to support the Ukrainians, the people and the government of Ukraine as they try to figure out what for them is the best way forward And that, I think, is
IV exactly the right position for the United States, Europe and the West and other countries to take Your second part of that question, though, is a really important one I would not allow Russia back into the organizations that it has been a part of, I think there is an upcoming G20 event later in the year I would not permit Russia to attend and if they insisted on literally showing up, I would hope there would be a significant if not total boycott The only way that we're going to end the bloodshed and the terror that we're seeing unleashed in Ukraine and protect Europe and democracy is to do everything we can to impose even greater costs on Putin There are more banks that can be sanctioned and taken out of the so-called swift relationship There is an increasing call for doing more on gas and oil Now, obviously some of our strongest allies in Europe are desperately trying to get out from under their dependence upon Russian energy We need to expedite and I know the administration has been doing that, looking at more deliveries of liquefied natural gas, for instance So I think now is the time to double down on the pressure And I agree completely with Masha Let's not fantasize about what comes next in Russia Let's focus on what we're doing right now to help protect and defend the Ukrainian people's right to be a free democratic nation and protect their sovereignty Interview: Let me ask, let me talk about the energy and gas front a minute here One of the easiest ways perhaps to relieve some of the pressure on, Look, it's not just this country that's experiencing rising energy prices, it's all of Europe It's really a lot of the world if a country that we provide an extraordinary amount of defensive weaponry to an extraordinary amount of support to And I'm Speaking of Saudi Arabia, who could essentially turn the dial tomorrow if they wanted to We know this with OPEC nations They're choosing to essentially be on the side of Putin on this one Should there be some consequences to this in our relationship going for Hillary: Well, I'm disappointed by that decision because I think it's a very short term one that is not in anybody's interest, including theirs So I would certainly do whatever I could that was available to me to try to be more persuasive, if you will And parents are still consequences But our real well, I think you have to do carrot