The Struggle this Time is the Struggle for Our Independence: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Historic 7th March Speech

Shakila Nur

Abstract


Political speeches are not mere linguistic texts encoded in verbal or written form. They also carry covert ideologies which are embedded in a country’s social, political and cultural context. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) can be used to investigate such interaction between discourse (speech/text), its covert ideology and the context. This paper sets out to analyse the historic 7th March, 1971 speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which has lately been recognised by UNESCO as part of the world’s documentary heritage. Based on the work of Fairclough (1989, 1992, 2001) and Halliday (1978, 1994), a shared, discursive analytical framework within the CDA paradigm was employed to carry out the investigation. The analysis of 94 clauses identified a mutual existence of multiple linguistic and ideological patterns and strategies including the personal pronouns, mood blocks, modality and tense, the reference of the then-socio-political situation as well as the depiction of power relations between the speaker and the audiences. These strategies were intertwined in a wholesome way, thus revealing the ingenuity of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s leadership and his rhetoric skill. The study, by analysing the selected speech, attempts to fill the gap in CDA-based linguistic studies of political texts in the Bangladeshi context. The author believes that this attempt, in tandem, will act as a motivation and centre of attention for further scholarly endeavor in this field.

Keywords


Bangladesh, CDA, Discourse, PD, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, SFL

Full Text:

PDF

References


Banu, R. (2002). Diglossia and triglossia: The Bangladesh language scenario. In F. Alam & F. Azim (Eds.), Politics and Culture: Essays in honour of Serajul Islam Choudhury (pp. 303-321). Dhaka: Department of English, University of Dhaka.

Batstone, R. (1995). Grammar in discourse: Attitude and deniability. Principle & practice in applied linguistics, 197-213.

Bayram, F. (2010). Ideology and political discourse: a critical discourse analysis of Erdogan's political speech. Annual Review of Education, Communication & Language Sciences, 7, pp. 23-40.

Bell, D. V. (1975). Power, influence, and authority: An essay in political linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bell, D. V. (1988). Political linguistics and international negotiation. Negotiation Journal, 4(3), 233-246.

Breeze, R. (2011). Critical discourse analysis and its critics. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 21(4), 493-525.

Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cook, G (1992) Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Downing, A., & Locke, P. (2006). English grammar: A university course. New York: Routledge.

Dunmire, P. L. (2012). Political discourse analysis: Exploring the language of politics and the politics of language. Language and Linguistics Compass, 6(11), 735-751.

Fairclough, N. L. (1985). Critical and descriptive goals in discourse analysis. Journal of pragmatics, 9(6), 739-763.

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Fairclough, N. (1993). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity press.

Fairclough, N (1995). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. London and New York: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1996). Rhetoric and Critical Discourse Analysis: A Reply to Titus Ensink and Christoph Sauer. Current Issues in Language and Society, 3(3), pp.286-289.

Fairclough, N. (2001a). Language and Power. 2nd Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.

Fairclough, N. (2001b). Critical Discourse Analysis as a Method in Social Scientific Research. In R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 121-138). London: Sage.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. New York: Routledge.

Fairclough, N., & Graham, P. (2002). Marx as Critical Discourse Analyst: the Genesis of a Critical Method and its Relevance to the Critique of Global Capital. Estdios de Sociolinguistica, 3 (1), 185-229.

Fairclough, N. & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Vol. 2, (pp. 258-284). London: Sage.

Fowler, R., Hodge, B., Kress, G., & Trew, T. (1979). Language and Control. London: Routledge.

Gorsevski, E. W. (2012). Peaceful persuasion: The geopolitics of nonviolent rhetoric. New York: SUNY Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotics. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2nd Edition. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. A. K. (2001). Literacy and Linguistics: Relationships between Spoken and Written Language. In Burns, A. and Coffin, C. (eds.) Analysing English in a Global Context, (pp. 181-193). London: Routledge.

Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An Introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

Jacob, F. (2014). We shall fight on the beaches: the speeches that inspired history. Michael o’Mara Books.

Kamalu, I. & Tamunobelema, I. (2013). Linguistic Expression of Religious Identity and Ideology in Selected Postcolonial Nigerian Literature. Canadian Social Science, 9(4), 78-84.

Lakoff, G. (2004). Don’t think of an elephant! Know your values and frame the debate. the essential guide for progressives, including post-election updates. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green.

Lakoff, G., & Chilton, P. (2005). Foreign policy by metaphor. In Language & Peace (pp. 61-84). London: Routledge.

Luke, A. (2002). Beyond science and ideology critique: Developments in critical discourse analysis. Annual review of applied linguistics, 22(1), 96-110.

Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (3 ed.). London: Sage.

Mehan, H., Nathanson, C. E., & Skelly, J. M. (1990). Nuclear discourse in the 1980s: The unravelling conventions of the cold war. Discourse & Society, 1(2), 133-165.

Ministry of Information (2012). Bangabandhur vashon. The Department of Films and Publications: Government of Bangladesh.

Nur, S. (2015). Analysis of interpersonal metafunction in public speeches: A case study of Nelson Mandela’s presidential inauguration speech. The International Journal of Social Sciences, 30(1), 52-63.

Paul, C., & Schäffner, C. (2002). Introduction: Themes and principles in the analysis of political discourse. In Paul, C., & Schäffner, C. (eds) Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse, pp. 1-41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Pelinka, A. (2007). Language as a political category: The viewpoint of political science. Journal of Language and Politics, 6(1), 129-143.

Rymes, B. (2008). Classroom discourse analysis: A tool for critical reflection. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton press.

Sauer, C. (1996). Echoes from abroad, speeches for the domestic audience: Queen Beatrix’ address to the Israeli parliament. Current Issues in Language and Society, 3(3), pp. 233-267.

Schäffner, C. (1996). Political speeches and discourse analysis. Current issues in language & society, 3(3), 201-204.

Shapiro, M. J. (1988). The politics of representation: Writing practices in biography, photography, and policy analysis. USA: University of Wisconsin Press.

Thompson, H.-R. (2007). Bangladesh. In A. Simpson (Ed.), Language and national identity in Asia. (pp. 33-54). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Titscher, S., Meyer, M., Wodak, R., & Vetter, E. (2000). Methods of text and discourse analysis: In search of meaning. London: Sage.

van Dijk, T. A. (1985). Semantic discourse analysis. Handbook of discourse analysis, 2, 103-136.

Van Dijk, T. A. (1990). Discourse & Society: a new journal for a new research focus. Discourse & Society, 1(1), 5-16.

van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse & Society, (4) 2, 249–283.

van Dijk, T. A. (1995). What is Political Discourse Analysis?. In J. Blommaert & C. Bulcaen (eds). Political Linguistics. (pp. 11-52) Amsterdan: Benjamins.

van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical Discourse Analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. (pp.352-371). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc.

Wetherell, M., Talor, S., & Yates, S. J. (Eds.). (2001). Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis. London: Sage.

Wilson, J. (2001). Political Discourse. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (eds.), The

Handbook of Discourse Analysis. (pp. 398-416). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc.

Wodak, R & Meyer, M (2001). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.

UNESCO (2017). Memory of the World. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-4/the-historic-7th-march-speech-of-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujibur-rahman/




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.10n.2p.107

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.