Kiến tạo bản sắc thông qua diễn ngôn của một ứng cử viên tổng thống một nghiên cứu trường hợp cụ thể

This study employs critical discourse analysis as an interdisciplinary approach to reality and representation of social actors and language styles are synthesized as an analytical framew

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

MAI VĂN KẾT

THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY OF

A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A CASE STUDY

(KIẾN TẠO BẢN SẮC THÔNG QUA DIỄN NGÔN CỦA MỘT ỨNG CỬ VIÊN TỔNG THỐNG:MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU

TRƯỜNG HỢP CỤ THỂ)

Major master thesis

Major: English linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF RADUATE STUDIES

MAI VĂN KẾT

THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY OF

A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A CASE STUDY

(KIẾN TẠO BẢN SẮC THÔNG QUA DIỄN NGÔN CỦA MỘT ỨNG CỬ VIÊN TỔNG THỐNG:MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU

TRƯỜNG HỢP CỤ THỂ)

Major master thesis

Major: English linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Professor Nguyễn Hoà

HANOI - 2017

i

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby state that I, Mai Van Ket, a student of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, certify with my signature that my thesis entitled „The Discursive Construction of Identity of a Presidential Candidate: A Case Study‟ is entirely the result of my own work I have faithfully and accurately cited all my sources, including books, journals, newspaper articles, generics, doctoral dissertations, and online resources I declare that I understood the concept of plagiarism and I acknowledge that my thesis will be rejected in case of plagiarism

The thesis contains no materials that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma

Supervisor‟s signature Student‟s signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Professor Nguyen Hoa at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for his thoughtful andfruitful series of lectureson discourse analysis, which led and shed light to this present study I gratefully owed him the introduction to Hillary Clinton and the speech, to the issue of identity in sociolinguistics Especially, I wish to thank him for his constant guidance, dedication and professionalism which helped me to complete the final report

of this study project

My sincere gratitudes go to the lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures, suggestions and scientific research, which inspired me to go in the journey of academics I cannot express enough thanksto Doctor Huynh Anh Tuan, Dean ofthe Faculty of Graduate Studies,for providing me with an opportunity to do the project work and providing me with such a nice support and encourgagement, although he had busy schedule managing the corporate affairs

Last but not least, I must express my very profound gratitudes to my family and friends for providng me with unfailing support and comfort throughout my years of study

Thank you!

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ABSTRACT

In the last decades, the focus on identity in social sciences has increased enormously Identity construction appears to be practices that sometimes escape our attention in teaching practices but they exert an enormous influence on education Though much research has been undertaken on identity, there exist gaps that need further theoretical and practical advancements Most importantly, a critical review suggests that there is an absence of identity research in Vietnam In order to address such gaps, the present thesis explores the discursive construction of identity ina presidential campaign speech This study employs critical discourse analysis as an interdisciplinary approach to reality and representation of social actors and language styles are synthesized as an analytical framework The study takes a special interest in the way Hillary Clinton discursively projects and negotiates identity to communicate in her campaign in a discursive process The key findings of the study indicate that collective and personal identity was discursively constructed in the strategic choice of language The results of the study contribute to an understanding of identity construction in political campaign discourses Practical suggestions for successful language communication and further research were also identified

Keywords:personal identity, collective identity, critical discourse

analysis, discursive, interconnectedness, social actors, weapon

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis 6

2.2 Identity 8

2.2.1 Identity 8

2.2.2 Identity Research 9

2.2.3 Identity as a Discursive Work 17

CHAPTER THREE: 22

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 The Context of the Study 22

3.2 The Data 25

3.3 Analytical Framework 26

3.3.1 Representing social actors 29

3.3.2 Modality 36

3.3.3 Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity 38

3.3.4 Analyzing Identity 40

3.4 Discussion of Validity and Reliability 46

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS 48

4.1 Social Group Struggles and Collective Identity 48

4.1.1 Social grouping 48

4.1.2 Exclusion 49

4.1.3 Activation and passivation 51

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4.1.4 Genericization and specification 52

4.1.5 Individualization and assimilation 53

4.1.6 Association and disassociation 53

4.1.7 Determination and indetermination 54

4.1.8 Nominalization and categorization 55

4.1.9 Impersonalization 56

4.2 Language Styles and Personal Identity 57

4.2.1 Role allocation in process types 57

4.2.2 Modality 67

4.2.3 Intertextuality and interdiscursivity 70

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION 74

5.1 Collective Identity 74

5.2 Personal Identity 77

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION 82

6.1 Summary of the Findings 82

6.2 Implications of the Study 85

6.3 Limitations and Further Research 86

REFERENCES 88 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: The data I Appendix 2: Coded data XVI Appendix 3: Impersonalization XXXII

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A framework for critical discourse analysis of communication event

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Figure 2: A working analytical framework 29

Figure 3: The grammar of experience: Types of process in English 31

Figure 4: The representation of social actors: Activation and Passivation 33

Figure 5: Coding as a cyclical act in qualitative inquiry 47

Figure 6: Activation and passivation of social actors 51

Figure 7: Nomination 56

Figure 8: Spatialization 56

Figure 9: Process frequencies with the in-group and out-group representation of social actors 58

Figure 10: Epistemic modalizer „will‟ 67

Figure 11: Epistemic modalizer „would‟ 68

Figure 12: Deontic modalizer „should‟ 69

Figure 13: Deontic modalizer „must‟ 69

Figure 14: Deontic modalizer „have to‟ 69

Figure 15: Discursive construction of identity 80

Figure 16: Interconnectedness of levels of identity analysis 84

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CDA Critical discourse analysis

ISIS Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

LGBT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Language is a primary means through which the social world is constructed

It is here to say that the way we view the world and ourselves is constructed by language use, for that reason language use can be considered as the process of constructing and maintaining relations, values and identities, or participating in social change De Fina(2011) states that human communication mainly aims at exchanging information, getting things done or expressing feelings and emotions or conveying the idea of what kind of people we are or we are not The use of language can reveal the geographical, ethnic social communities we are in, can reveal the images about ourselves and people Therefore, through language use, similarities and differences can be analyzed and categorized De Fina(2011)concludes language and discourse are central to the construction and negotiation of identities

The present study is concerned with the analysis of one of Hillary Clinton‟s speeches in her presidential campaign The choice of Hillary Clinton is due to a number of reasons Firstly, she is a well-known and prominent political figure The

2016 election marked an important historical moment in America when Hillary Clinton was the first woman nominee of a major party to run for president Secondly, she was a presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party and the only candidate from the party who was actively campaigning Thirdly, previous analyses

of her discourse was all conducted for different purposes rather than revealing the discursive construction of her identity as a presidential candidate Scholars either looked into Hillary Clinton‟s speeches and focusing on the construction or performance of her voice, femininity, gender, racism, sexism (Anderson, 2002; Bligh, Merolla, Schroedel, & Gonzalez, 2010; Campbell, 1998; Gervais & Hillard, 2011; Templin, 1999; Uscinski & Goren, 2011)in the light of critical discourse analysis Or scholars focusedon the study of her identity construction from

The primary purpose of the study is to explore the identities Hillary Clinton discursively constructed in one of her speeches to communicate in her campaign, focusing on the tenets of critical discourse analysis to analyze social groups, modality, intertextuality and interdiscursivity embedded in the data It aims to reveal what language strategies Hillary Clinton employed in language It also seeks

to investigate why such identities were constructed

This study contributes to an understanding of the roles and construction of identity in a political discourse in an interdisciplinary approach While a number of studies related to the present research have been undertaken in the past falling into two trends: (1) on social identities such as sexism, racism and nationalism in political contexts or personal identities in others; (2) on social and personal identities in other methods such as narrative, adaption theories, conversational analysis and so forth Arguably, there remains a need to incorporate critical discourse analysis to examine the discursive construction of identity in presidential campaign speech In addition, previous studies on identity usually captured identity

as „being‟ or „having‟ There exists a difference in the present thesis, it is to study identity construction as a discursive process The findings of this study may therefore be of benefit in the field of knowledge as well as in language learning and teaching

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From the general review of the formation and presentation of identities, as well as the trends in identity study, there exist gaps to fulfil: (1) studies at our home country on identity construction in discourse has long been neglected, (2) scholars studying on identity construction as a given product rather than a discursive process; (3) previous studies on the construction of identity in political discourse have not reached a presidential campaign speech; (4) identity was studied in other trends rather than in critical discourse analysis

This present thesis addresses the gaps, three key research questions are thus raised to discover the construction of identity as a discursive work:

(1) What identities does Hillary Clinton discursively construct in her presidential campaign speech?

(2) How are these identities linguistically realized?

(3) Why does she choose to project such identities in her speech?

Given the scope of the study, this present research project focuses on discovering the discursive construction of personal and collective identity in the data In so doing, this study aims at investigating the interconnections between individual and social processes That is to say social processes, ideologies and institutions meet with individual histories, behaviors and needs in the discursive construction of identity This discursive construction takes place in different levels and in different ways Importantly, identities are the result of the negotiations between the interlocutors and the audience over the existence of roles, actions, attitudes and behaviors in certain social contexts It is in this sense, language can be

a strategic device to construct identity to serve different purposes

At another point, identity can be looked upon as a communicative process that happens within a solid social contexts and practices For example, when making myself known in a class I give, I will most likely say „I‟m your teacher‟, while introducing myself at my son‟s school, I will say that I‟m Ken‟s father From here to say, the relationship between identities and contexts and practices goes into the dynamic nature of identity

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At another dimension, when identities are viewed as a socially grounded process involving of the self with the others Individuals and collectivities occupy social and verbal spaces to express and negotiate identities, which defines who we are as who we are similar to or who we are not The construction of „us‟ versus

„them‟ is a central mechanism to express and form political identities (De Fina, 1995; Koller, 2012; van Dijk, 2010; Wilson, 1990)

Identity can be categorized, positioned, localized or indexed in myriad disciplines (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) This process lies in the interaction of presentations, beliefs, ideologies and social relations between the individuals and groups

This thesis consists of six chapters Following this introduction, whichbriefly drew attention to the relationships between language and identity, the interests in Hillary Clinton‟s discourses, and the research problemswere justified to set aims and objectives of the study The research gapswereexplained to be important and significant enough for research A focus for the research questions were subsequently investigated and guidelines for an appropriate methodology were proposed The scope of the study was also set up to narrow down the research problems and to explain the feasibility of the study

Chapter 2 reviews the social context and extant literature and research that motivates and generates the research questions addressed in this thesis This chapter suggests a critique that identifies the arguments and controversies in identity research and other trends to study identityfromdifferent perspectives in recent years

Chapter 3 depicts thesocial background to the study and methodological approaches adopted in the study In order to enrich the data from different perspectives, an interdisciplinary approach was adopted The research instrument as

a presidential campaign speech was discussed It is contented that such discussions are advantageous to interpret the findings at social level Chapter 3 also represents the analytical frameworks providing special focus onvan

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 reviews the extant literature and research that motivates and generates the research questions addressed in this thesis Section 2.1 reviews ctitial discourse analysis, which underpins the research project Section 2.2 reviews the understanding of identity, the trends in identity research and identity as a discursive work

2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis

At first sight, Critical Linguistics was developed by a group of linguists and

literary theorists at the University of East Anglia in the late 1970s(Fowler, Hodge, Kress, & Trew, 1979) This approach was based on Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics Years after years, Critical Linguistics was developed and broadened to what we call Critical Discourse Analysis today(Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) The first concern brought about was the consideration of the role of audiences and their interpretations of discourse compared to that of the discourse analysts The second concern went for the scope of analysis, extending the analysis process to the intertextualanalysis.Fairclough raised the issue of the intertextual analysis of texts:

„the linguistic analysis is very much focused upon clauses, with little attention to higher-level organization properties of who texts‟(Fairclough, 1995b, p 28) However, at that time, Fairclough‟s approach led to a single theoretical framework Instead, van Dijk (2001)viewed CDA as a shared perspective encompassing different approaches rather than as just „one school‟ and CDA cannot be regarded as

a discrete discipline Instead, CDA is now seen as a problem-oriented interdisciplinary research program(Wodak, 2013)

According to van Dijk(2008), critical discourse analysis is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the

discursive reproduction of power abuse, social inequality and injustice

Fairclough(1995a, p 113)defines CDA as „discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural

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structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony.‟ In sum, CDA aims at analyzing the relationship between discourse and society, text and context, and between language and power

Critical Discourse Analysis is a type of discourse-analytical research that

studies the way ideology, identity and inequality are (re)enacted through texts produced in social and political contexts(van Dijk, 2001) Via CDA, language is a means to construct and sustain ideologies, establish and maintain social identities and equalities(Wodak & Reisigl, 2001) Central to the view of language as a social practice proposed by Fairclough(1989) was the concepts of power and ideology He stated that language is „a site of, and stake in, struggles for power‟(Fairclough,

1989, p.2) It is in this sense, the use of power in language that has been investigated

in different directions West and Zimmerman (1985)first formulate the concept of

participant identities with three types of power: master identities, situated identities,

and discourse identities Master identities conveys permanent factors such as age, sex, and social class Situated identities refer to power related to social settings and discourse identities are the power formed by the verbal activities of the participants

In another sense, power is related to ideology as meaning in the service of power Ideology is a process (that) articulates together particular representations of

reality, and particular constructions of identity, especially of the collective identities

of group and communities(Fairclough & Wodak, 1997) So, in each text, covert and hidden meanings lie in and are manipulated Meanings, ideology, power and identities are in an interrelationship

Last but not least, CDA shed light on the methodological tools on the

analysis of identity van Dijk(1998, p 111) posits that language has to be analyzed

with „other semiotic systems‟, that is discourses where the construction of identity

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is presented, power is abused and relations are revealed Thus, discourse is a place

of identifying and analyzing identity culturally, ethically, religiously and politically through discursive practices Meyer (2001, p 14) notes that approaches to the study

of social transformations „can be understood as a certain set of explicitly or implicitly defined theoretical assumptions which are specifically linked with empirical data, permit specific ways of interpretation and thus reconnect the empirical with the theoretical field.‟ Furthermore, CDA gives tool to the analysis of social context „All discourses are historical and can therefore only be understood with reference to their context … such extralinguistic factors as culture, society, and ideology‟(Meyer, 2001, p 166)

2.2 Identity

2.2.1 Identity

The term identity itself is extremely complicated Many scholars have tried

to give definitions to the term Identity is an ever changing concept and it is constantly being shaped and conditioned by the environment and culture one is born into, which means that identity is not fixed at any time in any circumstances Hall and Gieben(1992, p 274) say that identity is „too complex, too under-developed, and too little understood in contemporary social science to be definitely tested.‟However, identity can be understood as a self-construal device, in which one tries to construe and reflex oneself as well as to discursively construct the self-construal to others Thus, identity sticks to the background, the society and the situations one is in McCarthey and Moje (2002, p 228)assert that „identity matters because whatever shape it is, it is an aspect of how humans make sense of the world and their experiences in it, including their experience with text.‟

Identities often change (Deaux, 2007) It is pivotal to remember that one always goes through constant cultural socialization This socialization process helps

us respond to and cope with various types of stress we encounter It is collective

identity that is shaped in the process Collective identity appears when individuals

feel a sense of belonging to a group where they participate in social activities, it

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internalizes the qualities of „we-ness‟ and being united within the boundaries of shared attributes For example, there is a difference between in individual and collective identities When we talk with a colleague or a family member, we will be negotiating our own identity as individuals (a colleague to a colleague or a family member to a family member), at the same time, we are responsible for the images

we create On the contrary, when we are in a meeting, for example, we might be talking as a group member, such as a political party or a university, at least part of our discursive constructions will promote the identity of the community we are on behalf of

Also in the list of kinds of identities, besides individual and collective

identity, there are social and personal identities Social identities hold large categories of sub-types such as: national or religious identities; race, gender and political affiliation On the other hand, personal identities involve not only sets of membership categories, but also moral and physical personalities that differ one from another and vice versa (strong and decisive, having a vision or right temptation, honest, and so forth) Last but not least, situational identities which can

be seen as a role in a particular context of social interaction but not always such as husband/wife or professor/student or nurse/patient (Zimmerman, 1998)

The construction of identity has become a central concern amongst researchers across a wide range of academic disciplines within the humanities and social sciences Along with that, there has been a number of different, conflicting

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analytic approaches to theorize and analyze identity The most prominent work focuses on a specific identity category such as racism (van Dijk, 1996; Wodak & Reisigl, 2001), gender and sexism (del-Teso-Craviotto, 2006; Machin & Thornborrow, 2003), war and political strategies (Butt, Lukin, & Matthiessen, 2004; Chouliaraki, 2004; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Fairclough, 2000) or national identity (Jones, 1997; Lechner, 2012; Miller, 2005; Smith, 1991), or in some other cases, a broader discussion of how identity is theorized in discourse such as Hatch and Schultz (2002) studied organizational identity, Zembylas (2003) studied on emotions and teacher identity

Scholars have used a variety of analytical methods and theoretical

perspectives to analyze identity, such as Conversation Analysis (Auer, 2013),

Membership Categorization Analysis (Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998), Discursive Psychology (Dixon & Durrheim, 2000; Potter, 2003; Wetherell, 2007), Narrative Analysis (Bamberg, De Fina, & Schiffrin, 2011) and Critical Discourse Analysis Researchers have used different discursive contexts to analyze the processes of identity construction from everyday conversation to institutional talk

The most recent approach used to analyze different identity categories is

Computer-Mediated Communication(Benwell & Stokoe, 2006) In their book,

Benwell and Stokoe use Computer-Mediated Communication to analyze identity communicated in online chatrooms, and bring about the concept of „virtual‟ identity, as defined in opposition to „authentic‟ or „real‟ identity

De Fina, Schiffrin, and Bamberg (2006, p 236) commented: „Recent trends

in the study of identity within discourse bring together theorizations on the self, the role of interaction in the creation of personal and social worlds and the contribution

of language to socio-cultural processes.‟ These different trends result in the emergence of a new paradigm that can be characterized as social constructionist and oriented towards practice and interaction (Bamberg et al., 2011; De Fina et al., 2006), social theory (Giddens, 1991), feminist theory about identity (Butler, 2011), symbolic interactionism(Mead, 1934) and ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 2005)

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Social Constructivism, which gives a very basic way of perceiving identity,

holds the assumption that identity is neither a given nor a product (Hall & Du Gay, 1996; Kroskrity, 1993) Rather, identity is a process that takes place in concrete and specific interactional occasions, yields constellations of identities instead of individual, monolithic constructs, and does not simply emanate from the individual, but results from processes of negotiation, and entextualization The processes are social and entails „discursive work‟ (Zimmerman & Wieder, 1970) Social constructivists have conducted a great deal of research on the use of linguistic strategies in discursive work to analyze and construct identities with the combination of different versions of the self Therefore, Kroskrity(1993) stated that there are „repertoires of identities‟ or the majority of scientists are in the agreement

of multiplicity of identity or multiple identities (Davies & Harré, 1990; Duszak,

2002; Geschiere & Meyer, 1998; Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004)

From Critical Discourse Analysis, Hall (1997) shows the discursive

formations emerging different historical periods to form various kinds of identities From the view that discourse creates identities when individuals use discourse to make sense of who they are and individuals subject themselves to its disciplinary effects (Howarth, 2000) Many scholars (Covaleski, Dirsmith, Heian, & Samuel, 1998; Du Gay, 1996) conducted research on power-knowledge relations within discourse in which subjects are positioned and identities are formed and bodies are disciplined Fairclough worked on discourses which are strategically controlled by identifiable actors within a historical and institutional context (Fairclough, 1992b; Reed, 1998) In the same work, Fairclough worked on actors embedded in multiple discourses and that actors can occupy a discursive space to play between or among discourses (Fairclough, 1992b, 1995b; Hardy & Phillips, 2004) He wrote:

Discourse as a political practice establishes, sustains and changes power relations, and the collective entities between which power relations obtain Discourse as an ideological practice constitutes, naturalizes, sustains

De Fina et al (2006) also proposed three perspectives in which identity is

looked at The first domain is the reflection on the nature of the self, the self as an isolated, self-constrained entity, the second includes conceptions on the role of interpersonal communication in the construction, enactment and negotiation of identities The third one is the theorization of the relationships between identity and language

Self and identity are complementary terms which share much in common and

in uncommon James (1890, p 330) warned us that selfhood (including identity) is

„the most puzzling puzzle with which psychology has to deal‟ The central quality that differs the two terms is that the self is a process and organization born of self-reflection whereas identity is a tool in which individuals or groups present and construct themselves to the world (Owens, 2006) Then, Owens (2006, p 206) went

on to define the self as „an organized and interactive system of thoughts, feelings, identities, and motives that (1) is born of self-reflexivity and language, (2) people attribute to themselves, and characterize specific human beings.‟ The questions of the self have gone so far: Who am I? Why am I here? What does my life mean? Where did I come from? etc It is here to say the self allows people to view themselves from an external or internal point of view (Mead, 1934) From Owens‟s (2006, p 206) point of view, identity is subsumed within the broader concept of self Owens (2006, p 207) define identity as: „categories people use to specify who they are and to locate themselves relative to other people.‟ It is here to say identity

is both distinctiveness (I am not like them) and a sameness as others (I am like them) (James, 1890)

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In the interpersonal communication in the construction of identity, Butler

(2011) emphasizes that identity is not something that one „has‟, but more of something that one „does‟ or „performs‟ In this sense, projecting or rejecting an identity is considered as acting and speaking in a way or the other in communicative contexts For example, on June 7, 2008, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC., after one year and seven months actively campaigning, Hillary Clinton read her Concession Speech before her gathered supporters Clinton said:

This is painful and it will be for a long time, but I want you to remember this Our campaign was never about one person or even one election It was about the country we love and about building an America that's hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought, but I still believe in America and I always will

This verbal communication represents identity work Right from the

beginning, she admitted the pain she and her supporters were bearing and it is there for a long time, which denotes her personal identity as „honest‟ and „direct‟ Meanwhile, she was sharing the pain with her supporter, which can be regarded as

„caring‟ Then she went on to say that the campaign was neither for her nor for the presidential election, but for the country In the sense, she is giving hope and unity,

in other words, she is performing a national identity: America as a hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted country In the last line, she used modality „will‟ and process verb „believe‟ to construct herself as a strong woman

The emphasis on identity as „doing‟ rather than „being‟ and the

de-essentialization of the self are central to social constructivism (De Fina et al., 2006) The basic idea lies in this theory is that social reality does not exist as an independent entity but rather a social construction Up to this viewpoint, constructing identities is social and „discursive work‟ (Zimmerman & Wieder, 1970) or a discursive approach (Hall & Du Gay, 1996)

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Previously, identities are agreed upon as social work Meanwhile, people act

and gain most of their knowledge about life and society and then share it back via interactions with others Interaction is the domain of social life is also central to symbolic interactionists such as Mead (1934) and Blumer (1969), sociologist such

as Goffman(1967, 1981) It is true that clothing, demeanor, jewelry can be symbols

of identity However, the single most important system of symbols for expressing and negotiating identities is language (De Fina et al., 2006) In the early stage, Labov(1972) argued that how people pronounced can revealed their class, gender, and age However, recent studies, Coupland(2008) argues the relationship between

language and identity in a more simplistic way, and that a language variety do not

automatically denote identities of the people who speak the language People can change their accents or pick up a language style for myriad reasons which may include projecting or rejecting the identity associated with the group For example, a student from ThanhHoa doing postgraduate in Hanoi may want to speak Hanoi accents to express solidarity or to avoid any discrimination or for another reason But when they come back to ThanhHoa, they may speak ThanhHoa accents right away Another example from Depperman(2007), a group of German adolescents chose a speaking style that is typical of Turkish immigrants as a fun in-group code

Fairclough‟s theory has been central to CDA over more than two decades In his

early work: Language and Power (Fairclough, 1989), he called his approach to

language and discourse Critical Language Study He described the aim of this approach

as „a contribution to the general raising of consciousness of exploitative social relations, through focusing upon language‟ (Fairclough, 1989, p 3) This initial objective remains in his later developments, which now become one of the most comprehensive frameworks of CDA (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Fairclough, 1992a, 1995b, 2003) In his work with Chouliaraki (1999, p 6), they formally stated CDA „brings social science and linguistics together within a single theoretical and analytical framework, setting up a dialogue between them.‟ Fowler and some other scholars (Fowler, 2013; Fowler et al., 1979; Hodge & Kress, 1993) noted that the

„part of nature‟ (Chouliaraki&Fairclough, 1999, p 4), which, they claimed, led to transformations in language and discourse They went on to claim that „CDA of a communicative interaction sets out to show that the semiotic and linguistic features

of the interaction are systematically connected with what is going on socially, and what is going on socially is indeed going on partly or wholly semiotically or linguistically Put differently, CDA systematically charts relations of transformation between the symbolic and non-symbolic, between discourse and the non-discursive‟ (Chouliaraki&Fairclough, 1999, p 113)

Back to his early work, Fairclough (1989) proposed three analytical focuses

in analyzing any communicative event They are text, discourse practice and

sociocultural practice

Fairclough (1995b) stated that the analysis of text contains linguistic analysis

in terms of vocabulary, grammar, semantics, the sound system, and cohesion, organization above the sentence level Furthermore, the linguistic analysis involves two properties: lexical-grammatical and semantic He viewed text process from a multifunctional perspective, which he named: presentations, relations and identities

He emphasized that analyzing a sentence in a written text might focus upon how these three aspects are constructed:

- particular presentations and recontextualizations of social practice (ideational function) – perhaps carrying particular ideologies

- particular constructions of writer and reader identities (for example, in terms of what is highlighted – whether status and role aspects of identity, or individual and personality aspects of identity)

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- a particular construction of relationship between writer and reader (as, for instance, formal or informal, close or distant) (Fairclough, 1995b)

The second analytical focus is discourse practice Fairclough (1995b)

posited there are two facets in this dimension: institutional process and discourse

processes as he diagramed in the following figure (Fairclough, 1995b, p 59):

Figure 1: A framework for critical discourse analysis of communication event

Fairclough (1992b, p 3) formally states that „discourses do not just reflect or represent social entities and relations, they construct and constitute them.‟ His approach can depict the discursive structures to show „how discourse is shaped by relations of power and ideologies, and the constructive effects discourse has upon social identities, social relations and systems of knowledge and belief, neither of which is normally apparent to discourse participants‟ (Fairclough, 1992b, p 12) At this meso-level, the analysis should reveal who is involved in practices around the text and in what role as well as in what genre

At the sociocultural practice level, the analysis pertains to what factors

impact on the text and on discourse practice

Although critical discourse analysis is sufficient for this research project, some aspects of explicitly interactional elements like overlap and repair, which can

SOCIALCULTURAL PRACTICE

DISCOURSE PRACTICE

TEXT

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be indexical of identity construction as well, are not taken into account in this thesis, since the speeches were monologic and no real interaction could be discerned, except for the audience‟s applause or laughter Furthermore, elements such as body language, intonation and appropriate pausing are of the utmost importance for the efficiency of the delivery of a speech, but that would demand an entire study in its own right to investigate these rhetorical terms and that would only distract the reader away from the focal point of the study

2.2.3 Identity as a Discursive Work

Focusing on the domain of socialinguistic theories so as to provide a description of identity construction, the term „discursive work‟ was introduced(Zimmerman & Wieder, 1970)

„Discursive strategy‟ means more or less intentional plan of discursive practices, influenced by a habitus and internalized dispositions (Bourdieu, 1977), which were employed to achieve a particular social, political, psychological, or linguistics outcome (Martin & Wodak, 2005, pp 44-45) Strategies in this context are goal-directed behaviors used to leverage knowledge and communicate persuasively (Wodak, 2007) Discursive work is also viewed as „A single reference that gave information about an entity in a textual world thus contributed to a complex of discursive acts that gave off information about „who‟ in the social world was speaking to „whom‟‟ (Schiffrin, 2006, p 124) and „thus joining the reference in the construction of identity is turn-by-turn sequential contingencies and performance styles, both of which create local activity-based identities and indexed broad social identities‟ (Schiffrin, 2006, p 124) It is here to say „individuals have multiple identities‟ (Verschueren, 2008, p 26) because their evolving and contextually bound nature Identities are therefore unstable over time, often influenced by a number of factors including the now and possible persona, a triggering event such as a change in status or aspirations, growth, religious decisions and other life based choices that are undertaken at any point in time (Yurchisin, Watchravesringkan, & McCabe, 2005) Thus, individuals have a

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possibility to adapt to changes in society thereby leading to the „coexistence of different identities‟ (Rimskii, 2011) To conclude this, Kroskrity (1999) considers identity as the „linguistic construction‟ and it is language that identity is constructed and reshaped in as a social product

Identity as a social construction has been examined by several scholars (Bloom, 1993; Booth, 1999; Brubaker & Cooper, 2000; Laitin, 1998) This social theory rests on the fact that in-group associations lead to a feeling of belonging and contribute to the creation of social identity, which means that identity is seen as a socially distinguishing feature that people are proud of Stone and Strauss (2017) hypothesize that the social development of identity is influenced by relevant and chronicled precursors Thus, however there might be singular contrasts, group identity gives people a critical feeling of having a place and representation The social construction of identity is established in sociological theories, for example, symbolic interactionism propounded by researchers, for example, Mead (1934) and Goffman (1959) who state that the way individuals see of themselves or act depends

on group activities, connection and their concomitant interpretations Along these lines, identity is seen as much as an individual's statement of his self-sameness as the inter-process between this individual and an assortment of outer interactions, between inter-personal relationships and communal engagements According to Rimskii (2011, pp 79-80), „Identity is the state of the individual‟s consciousness in which, on the basis of the aggregate set of personal characteristics, one knows oneself, one recognizes the stability of one‟s own personality, one separates oneself from the surrounding reality, and one determines one‟s membership in a particular social group and, conversely, acknowledges the impossibility of belonging to other social groups.‟ This perspective is shared by Yanow who sees identity is a „group‟s collective story, but it also becomes the story of individual members of the group or the story against which they measure their own stories, fitting it or not‟ (Yanow,

2015, p 7) The social construction of identity in this research has to do with is how Hillary Clinton constructs her shared values

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Castells (2011, p 6) states that „identity is the people‟s source of meaning and experience‟ or the way in which an individual or public actors „understand the process of construction of meaning on the basis of a cultural attribute or set of related attributes that is/are given priority over other sources of meaning.‟ McAdams (2003) looks at identity as a self-regulatory mechanism that filters information and manages both internal and external presentations through impression management and behavioral selections Marcia (1980, p 159) defines the term as structural presence of awareness composed of „an internal, self-constructed, dynamic organization of drives, abilities, beliefs, and individual history.‟ Erikson (1980, p 109) perceives „identity…connotes both a persistent sameness within oneself and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others.‟ These speculations of personality lay on the idea that identity is self-attested and driven by recognition of the individual's agency Markus and Nurius (1986), in a sense, posit that identities are created though self-conceptions; that is, how an individual sees or thinks of themselves From all the above points of view,

we see that the idea of a personal life story created by definitions and characterizations is central to understanding of one‟s identity

self-In political contests like Presidential Election 2016, group belongings are both the Democratic and the audience perceptions We can say that an individual's identity and identity construction process are essential in distinguishing Clinton‟s representational space inside the political system While this helps us comprehend

an individual's identity, it is also reflective of the eccentricities in the political or social system in which Clinton as a presidential candidate behaves In this manner, identity enlightens both individual and social traits

From all the literature we have gone into so far, we can see that identities are also fluid, dynamic and constantly changing and prepared to play in the particular environment

All in all, identity plays a central role because it enables an individual cohesion of self even in different situations (Cerulo, 1997; Hogg & Abrams, 1999;

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Rimskii, 2011) But what discursively constructs identity? Castells (2011) views the identity construction as the utilization of „raw materials‟ from (a) history, (b) geography, (c) biology, (d) productive and reproductive institutions, (e) collective memory, (f) personal fantasies, (g) power apparatuses and (h) religious revelations And he also perceives individuals and groups „process all these materials and rearrange their meaning, according to social determinations and cultural projects that are rooted in their social structure and in their space/time framework‟ (Castells,

2011, p 7) Later on, he states that „identity takes place in a space marked by power relations‟ and the construction of identity goes through three structural markers which he names the „forms and origins‟ which include (a) legitimizing identity, (b)

resistance identity, and (c) project identity Legitimizing identity is in connection

with the maintenance of a dominant power in society where the major social group wants to preserve its primacy over others and thus deciding which individual is in or

out of the mainstream Resistance identity is „generated by those actors that are in

positions/conditions devalued and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination…‟ (Castells, 2011, p 8) This helps to remains the positions on issues in political

contest Lastly, project identity refers to when individual and social actors redefine

their identity and „by so doing seek the transformation of the overall social structure‟ (Castells, 2011, p 8) Project identity therefore involves the individual and the collective and builds up a decisive and strong identity

Identity is a focal personality to the field of politics Identity forms the basis

of identification between candidates and their constituents Candidates seek to maximize their voter appeal on the basis of in-groups and out-groups while voters either seek to identify with a specific cause or candidate (Callero, 1985; McDermott, 1998) The implicit in these relationships is a shared sense or political activity and alliances with the quid pro quo goal of candidates getting elected and citizens ensuring that someone who identifies with them on different levels gains power (Cerulo, 1997; Plutzer & Zipp, 1996) In this sense, identity provides a means of understanding and shaping a presidential candidate as well as audience

1996, p 118)

As going so far, we see that there is not a single definition of identity Identity

is about belonging, about what you share with the others and what differentiates you from them In its basic form, identity gives us a sense of personal location, the stable core to our individuality

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CHAPTER THREE:

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, section 3.1 looks into the social context that synthesizes background and contextual information of the study Section 3.2presents the data

of the present research project Section 3.3 describes the analytical framework of the study This section first discusses the representation of social actors, modality and intertextuality to reveal the language resourses deployed in the data Section 3.4 discusses ways in which the validity and reliability of the findings were achieved

3.1 The Context of the Study

Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947 to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham, the parents with two brothers, Hugh and Tony Hillary lived up her childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois happily and in a disciplined way She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society Blumenthal (2016) reminds us that she carries a Bible wherever she goes and seeks solace in it

in times of stress Her mother once said „Hillary always valued herself highly I liked that about her.‟ Hillary was voted „most likely succeed‟ among her classmates

In another book, „Hillary Rodham Clinton: On the Couch,‟ Bond (2015) tells us that Hillary was nicknamed as Owl Face on account of her enormous thick glasses by her high school mates As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, she was endowed with excellence and school government On graduation day, she said „The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.‟

The young Hillary stayed in place, roughly unchanged from her birth in 1947

up until Bill Clinton lost his job as governor of Arkansas in 1981 (Wakefield, 2016) Until then, Hillary had no idea of what a wife should be She still kept her maiden name and refused any kind of makeover „I think she thought make-up superficial,‟ her mother said (Blumenthal, 2016) Because of Bill Clinton‟s defeat, she dyed her hair, ditched the glasses and became a Clinton She wrote: „I failed to

In the book The First Ladies of the United States of America by Black

(2013), He wrote that Hillary served as Arkansas‟s First Lady for 12 years; balancing family with Bill Clinton, married in 1975, and their daughter, Chelsea, born in 1980; balancing law at the Legal Services Corporation, the Rose Law Firm; and balancing public service

As the nation‟s First Lady, Hillary kept on balancing public service with her family life She actively joined public service in 1993 when Bill Clinton, the president, asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform working health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness of health issues

On November, 2000, Hillary was elected United States Senator from New York, the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York (Black, 2013)

Hillary served as the 67th United States Secretary under President Barack Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, she is also the only former First Lady of the United States to serve as a member of the United States Cabinet As secretary,

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she travelled to and worked with countries from Asia, Africa, Europe to South America Clinton attended various meetings and summits from international organizations including the NATO, the UN and cross countries meetings

In 2010, Clinton gained a good relationship with Obama administration and himself Obama was in turn accommodating to her political viewpoints and at some points, he adopted some of Clinton‟s more hawkish approaches (Mark & Helene, 2010) At the end of 2012 Clinton was her tenth win consecutively and sixteenth overall in Gallup‟s most admired man and woman poll as the woman around the world they most admired Also in 2012, a poll was taken in Iowa, the first state in the nomination process showed that Clinton would have 58 percent support to be the Democratic nominee in the 2016 presidential election (Burns, 2012) However,

at the end of the year, Clinton was diagnosed with a stomach virus and became dehydrated, then fainted suffering from a mild concussion, which prevented her from trips, meetings and work She was also met with huge criticism from the Congress, mostly due to the Benghazi matter The illness put an end to her traveling job as a secretary She was marked with 112 countries visited, nearly one million-mile-air travel

In his early famous book: Language and Power, Fairclough (1989, p 82) has stated that „it will generally make sense to investigate language practices by reference to specific social institutions.‟ That is the why an analysis of the social context of the study is needed The United States presidential election 2016 was the fifty-eighth quadrennial American presidential election A series of presidential primary elections and caucuses took place between February and June 2016 to find out the nominees of two main parties The nominating process was indirect election, where voters cast ballots for their representatives to a political party‟s nominating convention, who in turn vote their party‟s presidential nominee

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was served in the US Senate and was the First Lady of the United States, became the first woman to formally launch a major candidacy for the presidency She announced to run for the Oval

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Office on April 12, 2015 via a video message In the run for nomination, she faced challenges from Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was the second major candidate when he formally announced on April 30, 2015 Until March 2016, Hillary Clinton won 504 pledged delegates while Bernie Sander won

340 delegates In May, 2016, Bernie Sander won Indiana, West Virginia, Oregon on all 5 campaign states

3.2 The Data

The data consist of a single case, Hillary Clinton's speech in San Diego on Thursday, 2 June 2016, which lived up to its billing as a spirited frontal assault on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump The speech marked a milestone in her campaign The speech lasts 37 minutes 40 seconds and consists of 4150 words The speech is also regarded as a turning point and a key to her run for the presidency The speech named „Hillary Clinton Destroys Trump, Defends American Values‟ on YouTube (at https://youtu.be/CQt4KxUmnzw) uploaded by Hillary Clinton Speeches and Events Channel on June 3, 2016 is chosen to analyze

The US presidential election runs in two phases: The Party Presidential

primaries and the general election In the run for the Party‟s nomination, the candidate to be selected has to win a majority of all delegate votes at the Party National Convention The delegates are the people who determine whom to be the nominee If Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders wants to earn the nomination of the Democratic Party, he or she need to win 2,117 votes at the Democratic National Convention, or a same majority pledged delegates before the Convention to secure his or her nomination

At the time of the data collection, Hillary Clinton was against two rivals:

Bernie Sanders for the first phase of becoming the Democratic Presidential nominee, and Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive presidential nominee

In another line, at the Republican primaries, From August 2015, Donald Trump had a clear sign of leading poll from RealClearPolitics and he started to campaigned against Hillary Clinton Between March and May 2016, there were

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only three candidates left actively campaigning in the race in GOP primaries However, Donald Trump had a decisive win in Indiana on May 3, 2016, securing his nomination and he was declared the presumptive Republican nominee after the two other candidates suspended or dropped out of the race(Kaplan, 2016) As can

be seen in the following diagram

According to RealClearPolitics Poll in the following diagram in six months from January to June 2016 Hillary Clinton met her hard time in May when the poll went down to go in parallel with Donald Trump However, at the end of May and the beginning of June, there was a rise in the poll for Hillary Clinton and a go-down for Donald Trump It is here to say that Hillary Clinton‟s speech at the beginning of June was a key point in her campaign

Political speeches in general are rich materials to explore, especially electoral speeches are an interesting site to analyze identity formation When there are always struggles of power so as to convey specific ideas and interests, to manifest a political will and transform it into social action When „any political action is prepared, accompanied, controlled and influenced by language‟(Schaffner,

1996, p 201)

3.3 Analytical Framework

This section presents a working framework to analyze identity in discourse The first subsection discusses the representation of social actors (van Leeuwen, 1996) The second subsection describe modality in discourse, which mainly focuses

on Fairclough‟s (1992b, 2003) parameters of analyzing modality The third subsection present the parameter to analyze intertextuality and interdiscursivity The Final subsection explains the framework to analyzing identity as a discursive work Many scholars have emphasized the complexity of identity analysis under different methods as stated in Chapter 2 – scope of the study Thispresent thesis employs critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989, 1992b, 1999, 2003) to see how Hillary presents herself and constructs her identity However, a basic reason is that „complex new problems such as identity research, racism research, and so on, require more than the expertise of an individual discipline‟(Weiss & Wodak, 2007,

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p 18), or Ochs already indicated that when stating „the relation between language and social identity is predominantly a sociolinguistically distant one‟(Ochs, 1993, p 288) Thus, it is needed to integrate different elements into the analysis to reveal the construction of identity socially and linguistically In this sense, De Fina(2003)discerns three levels: macro-level refers to the use of specific words or expressions The meso-level refers to textual logical and argumentative relationships both explicit and implicit The macro-level refers to the devices and strategies used by narrators to index their stances and attitudes both towards their own texts and their interlocutors

At micro-level, subsection 1 starts from the structural analysis of texts, exploring the internal structure and the signals that the construction of identity lies

in At this level, this present study attempts the representation of social actors to reveal the social group struggles The reason is that when deploying CDA as a guideline, van Dijk(1997) concludes that discourse constructs identities by defining groups, their interests, their position within society and their relationship to other groups These groups try to manage discourse to their advantages(Hardy & Phillips, 2004; Mumby & Clair, 1997; Tajfel, 1974) Inclusive language can also increase the personal identity within a certain group(Abrams, Randsley de Moura, Marques, & Hutchison, 2008; Hornsey, Blackwood, & O‟brien, 2005) Identities are results of social, complex and contradictory interplay of discourses(Garsten & Grey, 1997; Hardy, Lawrence, & Grant, 2005) by the representation of actors(Koller, 2012; Mumby & Clair, 1997; van Leeuwen, 1996), or by similarity language as a shared interest in social processes of power, hierarchy building exclusion and subordination … as a discursive aspects of societal disparities and inequalities(Benwell & Stokoe, 2006; Meyer, 2001; Seyranian, 2014) In this subsection, transitivity is also presented as a part of representation of social actors

It is here to reveal what process types ascribe to social actors In so doing, identity

is realized in the association of certain actions to social groups or the particular attitudes, expectations as well as obligations, which are ascribed to social actors (Halliday, Matthiessen, & Matthiessen, 2014)

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At micro-level, subsection 2 moves forward to describe modality to reveal the qualities, norms, values or truths that are ascribed to social actors or social groups Such an analysis helps to reveal Hillary Clinton‟s construction of her identities in the relation between text and social practice

Subsection 3 describesintertextuality and interdiscursivity, to see how Hillary,

in her discourses, performs on the basis of assumptions about which previous discourses the current oneis connected to, as well as what genres practiced in her speech

At meso-level, subsection 4 discusses the discursive construction of identity

in discourse focusing on Bucholtz and Hall‟s (2005) and De Fina‟s (2011) works on identity analysis

Micro-levelmakes allowances for the analysis of the social context as a social practice in her speech Through the study of language usage we can explore how people make emotional and identity-related claims about themselves and what they are achieving as they do so (Barker & Galasiski, 2003, pp 21-22).Crotty(1998)states that reality only comes to revelation via social processes of meaning-making It is in this sense to say that identity lies in social and historical context and in a given community Mumby and Stohl(1991) add that any version of reality may serve political aims of

specific groups and to some extent, it is the interests that determine how people describe

the world In other words, Gergen(2015, p 21)goes on to say „if you can detect my personal interests, you throw my authority into disrepute.‟

The framework outlined in this section can be integrated into the following figure interlinked with each research question:

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Figure 2: A working analytical framework

3.3.1.Representing social actors

First and foremost, Hall thinks of representation as the making of meaning from different orders of things:

„The process by which members of a culture use signifying systems to produce meaning … Objects, people, events in the world do not have in themselves any fixed, final or true meaning It is us, in society, within human cultures, who make things mean, who signify Meanings, consequently will always change, from one culture or period to another Representation involves making meaning by forging links between three different orders of things: what we might broadly call the world of things, people, events and experience; the conceptual world – the mental concepts we carry in our heads; and the signs arranged into languages (and other modes), which stand for or communicate these concepts.‟ (Hall, 1997, p 61)

Baker(2014, p 73) regards representation as „the creation of a mental image

of something using signifying practices and symbolic systems‟ Meanwhile, van

RQ2: How are identities linguistically realized?

RQ1: What identities does Hillary Clinton discursively construct?

RQ3: Why does she choose to project different identities?

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Dijk (2005) takes representation as the mechanism to control symbolic elites or reproduce prevalent ideologies in society

At the heart of this research, van Leeuwen (1996, p 32) asserts that „agency,

as a sociological concept, is of major and classic importance in Critical Discourse

Analysis: in which contexts are which social actors represented as „agents‟ He

goes on to say that participants or social actors are represented in a discursive practice In this sense, social actors can be analyzed „within their concordance-based collocation environments, with a special analytic focus on their „contested representations‟ in a given discourse‟ (Salama, 2012, p 15)

3.3.1.1 Exclusion and inclusion

The representation of social actors is what groups and individuals are referred

to and how van Leeuwen (1996, p 38) himself refers this to as „exclusion‟ and that

„exclusion as rightly been an important aspect of Critical Discourse Analysis.‟ He adds „representations include or exclude social actors to suit their interests and purposes in relation to the readers for whom they are intended.‟ This study fits perfectly in van Leeuwen‟s framework of social actors representation to analyze, at the text level, the lexical and grammatical choices Hillary Clinton made in her campaign speech to represent herself in a certain way Suppressed exclusion can be recognized through passive agent deletion, non-finite clauses, nominalizations and process nouns, meanwhile, backgrounding can be recognized by ellipses in non-finite clauses or in paratactic clauses For example,serious cases of child abuse in Vietnam werereported in 2017 This example tells us something were reported, but not who reported it This is a case of passive agent deletion

3.3.1.2 Role allocation and transitivity

What roles are social actors allocated to? The roles which social actors play

in representations or in an aspect of representation have been a significant part under research of many critical linguists(Fairclough, 1989, 2003; Fowler, 2013; Hodge & Kress, 1993; Koller, 2012; van Dijk, 2015): in which actor is represented

as „agent‟ in response to a certain action van Leeuwen (1996, p 43) himself

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comments that „representations can reallocate roles, rearrange the social relations between the participants.‟ It is in this sense, social actors can be analyzed in which institutional and social contexts to see what or whose interests are served and what purposes are achieved by them (van Leeuwen, 1996) Further discussing on role allocation, Koller (2012) and Fairclough (2003) employ process types to analyze particular actions, norms and values that social actors are ascribed to In so doing, the systemic functional framework (Halliday et al., 2014) is employed to see how particular domains of experience are constructed in discourse This framework is displayed in the following figure (Halliday et al., 2014, p 172):

Figure 3: The grammar of experience: Types of processes in English

In this framework, the material process describes concrete and tangible actions This process expresses the notion that the social actor „does‟ something (e.g She resigned) The mental process accounts for the act of sensing or