International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Discursive Violence in Obama’s Legitimization of Military Intervention in Syria: a CDA Perspective
Dr. Farah Tekaya

Abstract
The topic that is being addressed throughout the present study lies in the issue of violence. In fact, it can be perceived of as an umbrella term that encompasses in turn different related concepts. Its manifestations can then comprise the physical, the psychological, the political, as well as the rhetorical ones. In this respect, this paper limits its scope of analysis to the reproduction of violence in political discourse that can in turn legitimate its use. Hence, two speeches on behalf of the American President, Barack Obama, form the corpus under study. As for Van Dijk’s (2005) critical discourse analysis approach, it constitutes the chosen framework that provides a lens through which the idea of violence would be made explicit. Moreover, such an investigation allows concluding that such instances of political speeches can provide the American President with a soft weapon to justify a rather bloody condemned act. Furthermore, the violent can take two different forms, namely political and psychological. The first being obvious and instrumental is justified by a rather invisible symbolic second one.

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