International Journal of Language & Linguistics

The Representation of Meghan Markle in Facebook Posts: A Discourse Historical Approach (DHA)
Iman M. Mahfouz

Abstract
Following the royal wedding of American actress and feminist Meghan Markle to Prince Harry who is sixth in line to the British throne in May 2018, Markle has been going viral on social media. Not only did the wedding spur a wave of mixed reactions, but the new Duchess of Sussex has also become a controversial figure as apparent from participants’ comments which range from admiration and fascination to outright criticism and racism. Drawing upon Wodak’s (2001) Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) as a theoretical framework with specific reference to its application on Computer-mediated Discourse (CMD) as discussed by Reisigl and Wodak (2008), the present study attempts to examine the representation of Markle in Facebook posts following the royal wedding. A manageable sample comprising eighty status posts about Markle was gathered randomly using the Facebook search option. The study aims at examining the linguistic features that contribute to the construction of a positive or negative image of Markle in the selected posts with specific focus on nomination and predication strategies. The findings point out that the two groups, pro- and anti-Markle employed various nomination and predication strategies in the Facebook posts they wrote following the royal wedding to create a positive or negative representation for this public figure respectively.

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