Understanding The Effect Of Anaphoric Expressions In Some Selected Iraqi Socio-Political Discourse On Social Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

In the philosophy of persuasive language, reference is a widely accepted global semantic notion that argues the relationship between a statement and its referent for meanings. This is to recognize and understand things in discourse, especially for persuasive ends in public discourse. The aim of this work then is to present a critical analysis to the effect of anaphoric expressions in some selected Iraqi socio-political discourse delivered on social media. The study highlights the effect of referential strategies on media discourse delivered during the time of COVIDE 19. The analysis limits itself to 20 videos, which are randomly selected from various YouTube channels. For doing so, the study incorporates some of the widely applied CDA analytical categories used in the DHA (Discourse-Historical Approach), including referential strategies (Resigil & Wodak, 2001). This is to account for how the use of referential strategies / expressions can be used for persuasive ends, especially in /out group. The analysis of the selected data demonstrates that: social media in general and YouTube in particular have an exceptional and powerful impact on in/out group. Thereof, personal references are the most predominated cohesive device that employed in the selected data by which the speaker represents membership in the semantic categories of in-group and out group. Statistically, the analysis found that personal references are the highest percentage of the investigated data, while the demonstrative and comparative once are not utilized.