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URI [dataset] University of Southampton Faculty of Humanities School of Modern Languages and Linguistics Ideological Positioning on the Demise of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in the Anglo and Arab Diplomatic Condolences by Ahmed Mohammedali A.Ameer Abu-Humeid Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2018 University of Southampton Abstract Faculty of Humanities School of Modern Languages and Linguistics Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Ideological Positioning on the Demise of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in the Anglo and Arab Diplomatic Condolences by Ahmed Mohammedali A.Ameer Abu-Humeid This thesis deals with the letters of diplomatic condolences that the Anglo and Arab leaders express on the passing away of the Saudi Monarch Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. This study aims at uncovering what King Abdullah represents to the Anglo and Arab leaders in particular and why those leaders pay attention to that event. I want to find out the embedded and excluded categorizations of the King which give some insights into the ideological positions of Saudi Arabia and its Sovereign. The aim of this thesis is to reveal the perception of King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia by the included and excluded identities and representations of social actors in the Anglo and Arab condolences. Moreover, it intends to set out the performed collective identities together with the linguistic and cultural differences between the condolences of each context. I argue that to have a deep analysis, I adopt a mixture of various theories, namely speech acts, Critical Discourse Analysis, political and diplomatic discourse, ideology, and identity. To achieve my goals, I deploy the following methods: social actor representations, national and religious identities, and Discourse Historical Approach. The findings reveal that the ideologies of the leaders in each context result in the constitution of several identities where the Anglo condolers view King Abdullah as an advocate of peace in the region and partner in the patronage of inter-state relations, while the Arab leaders view him as a pan-Arab leader and a supporter of the Arab unity. Further, the Anglo leaders construct an international collective identity, whereas the Arab leaders perform a regional group identity. Moreover, the consolation in the Anglo data is done through secular discourse by retelling the deceased’s achievements, whereas the Arab data focuses on religious discourse. The results indicate that the identities given to King Abdullah make him an important figure who belongs to both groups. Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ i Table of Tables .............................................................................................................. vii Research Thesis: Declaration of Authorship .................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ xi Definitions and Abbreviations ...................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Rationale of the Study .................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Aims of the Study .......................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Structure of the Thesis.................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 Condolence: Speech Act Theory and Diplomatic Discourse .......................... 9 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Speech Acts Theory and Discourse ............................................................................... 9 2.3 Speech Acts Theory .................................................................................................... 11 2.4 IFIDs and Felicity Conditions ....................................................................................... 13 2.5 Classification of Speech Acts ...................................................................................... 14 2.6 The Speech Act of Condolence ................................................................................... 16 2.7 Discourse .................................................................................................................... 19 2.8 Political Discourse ....................................................................................................... 21 2.9 Diplomatic Discourse .................................................................................................. 24 Genres of Diplomatic Discourse ....................................................................... 27 2.9.1.1 Written Diplomatic Genres ................................................................... 27 2.9.1.2 Written/Spoken Diplomatic Genres ...................................................... 28 2.9.1.3 Justification for Choosing Condolence Genre ....................................... 32 2.10 Codes in Diplomatic Discourse ................................................................................. 34 Types of Codes in Diplomatic Discourse .......................................................... 35 2.10.1.1 Mind the Gap ......................................................................................... 35 i Table of Contents 2.10.1.2 Stories in a Capsule ............................................................................... 36 2.10.1.3 Ambiguities ........................................................................................... 37 2.10.1.4 Indirect Speech Acts and Cultural Differences ..................................... 37 Chapter 3 Theoretical Approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis ............................... 39 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 39 3.2 CDA ............................................................................................................................. 39 3.3 Identity ....................................................................................................................... 42 Group Identity .................................................................................................. 44 National Identity .............................................................................................. 45 Religious Identity ............................................................................................. 48 3.4 Intertextuality ............................................................................................................. 50 3.5 Ideology ...................................................................................................................... 52 3.6 Approaches and Criticism of CDA ............................................................................... 54 Faiclough’s Critical Language Study ................................................................. 54 Van Dijk’s Sociocognitive Approach ................................................................. 55 Wodak’s DHA ................................................................................................... 57 Van Leeuwen’s Framework of Social Actor Representations .......................... 60 3.6.4.1 Recontextualization Principles .............................................................. 62 3.6.4.2 Social Actor Representations ................................................................ 62 Criticism of CDA ............................................................................................... 63 Chapter 4 Methodology ............................................................................................. 65 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 65 4.2 Subjects of the Study .................................................................................................