CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE By SOFIA TSAIRIDOU A Thesis submitted to the School of English Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Linguistics MA in LINGUISTICS Thesis Supervisor: ANASTASIOS TSANGALIDIS Thessaloniki FEBRUARY 2020 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE Contents Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................3 Abstract..............................................................................................................................4 Introduction.......................................................................................................................5 1. Critical Discourse Analysis.........................................................................................10 1.1 Methods used in CDA...........................................................................................14 1.2 Political Discourse Analysis.................................................................................17 2. Historical Background.................................................................................................20 3. Methodology................................................................................................................22 3.1 Contents and Topics..............................................................................................23 3.2 Strategies...............................................................................................................24 3.3 Linguistic Means and Forms of Realization.........................................................24 4. Kiriakos Mitsotakis’ Parliamental Speech Analysis....................................................26 4.1 New Democracy’s ideology..................................................................................26 4.2 Presupposition.......................................................................................................26 4.3 Lexicalization/Signification..................................................................................34 5. Alexis Tsipras’ Parliament Speech Analysis................................................................39 5.1 SYRIZA’s ideology...............................................................................................39 5.2 Presupposition.......................................................................................................39 5.3 Lexicalization/ Signification.................................................................................47 6. Discussion....................................................................................................................53 References.......................................................................................................................57 Ελληνόγλωσση Βιβλιογραφία.........................................................................................60 APPENDIX.....................................................................................................................61 2 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Anastasios Tsangalidis from the English Language and Literature Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for his invaluable help during the writing of this dissertation. He was always willing to advise and guide me answering all my questions and encouraging me. He was very supportive which I truly appreciate. Ι am also grateful to the other two members of the examination committee, Dr Anastasia Stamou and Dr Valandis Bardzokas, for their valuable contribution. Also, I am truly grateful for my family and friends for their support, patience and love. This thesis would not have existed without them. 3 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE Abstract Critical discourse analysis has known a lot of recognition recently in the linguistic community. It deals with the critical examination of every kind of discourse, written or spoken. There is no particular framework. Instead, there are three main approaches, the socio-cultural approach by Fairclough, the socio-cognitive approach by Van Dijk and the discourse-historical approach by Wodak. The main aim of these three approaches is the same since the goal of CDA is to find social inequalities and examine the ways these are shown in discourse. This thesis focuses on political discourse and regards the issue of the Prespes agreement in the Greek Parliament. The Prespes agreement refers to the name of what is now called North Macedonia. This had been a long-lasting issue between the two countries since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Since then, it had brought turbulence and uproars between the two countries because both had wanted to protect their identity and history. This dispute over the name of Macedonia ended in 2018 with the signing of the official name of North Macedonia. However, there were many that disagreed with this decision in both countries. In this thesis, the parliamentary speeches of the two main political leaders in Greece, Kiriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy) and Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA) were examined in the debate regarding the agreement. Wodak’s and Van Dijk’s approaches were used for the analysis. The focus was on the way presupposition, lexicalization and signification constructed the idea of the nation and whether there were any differences between the two politicians as well as the ideologies they represent. The results showed that the positive Self-presentation and the negative Other-presentation were prevalent in both speeches. However, there were major differences on the meanings that they assigned to the name of Macedonia and the lexical units they used to refer to North Macedonians which revealed their ideology and their notion of nation. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, political discourse, North Macedonia, Self-presentation, Other-presentation, national identity, Tsipras, Mitsotakis 4 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE Introduction The interest in critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) has been increased impressively among researchers in recent years. It is widespread in various areas of study such as anthropology, politics, sociology, education and media among others. The main aim of CDA is to point, observe and explain how social phenomena such as inequality and dominance are enacted, confirmed, legitimated, challenged or reproduced in discourse structures (Van Dijk, 2015). It is also important to point out that these social phenomena which are found in discourse structures, are not simply described, but they are carefully explained critically. As Fairclough (2013) stated, there is the need to examine the conditions under which the interactions take place as well as the distribution and exercise of power in social formations. Moreover, ideology is a key factor in CDA since “ideologies are a significant element of processes through which relations of power are established, maintained, enacted and transformed” (Fairclough, 2013, p. 26). The discourse structures can be in written, spoken and/or visual form and, as it has already been mentioned, CDA is applied to different disciplines and fields of study. Thus, the focus of the present thesis is on political discourse and, in particular, political speeches. The concepts of nation and national identity are explored in the political discourse analysis. Hall (1994) highlighted that nations are seen as political constructs as well as reflections of a country’s culture (as cited in De Cillia, Reisigl & Wodak, 1999). Therefore, the interest of this analysis is to examine how the concept of national identity constructs political discourse and how national identity is constructed by the political discourse (De Cillia, Reisigl & Wodak, 1999). To be more specific, this thesis discusses the case of the Prespes 5 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE PRESPES AGREEMENT IN GREECE Agreement that was signed on 17th June 2018 between Greece and its neighbouring country North Macedonia (which is the acquired name after the agreement). After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, there has been a dispute over the name of the region because each country demanded the protection of their rights regarding history and national identity. Since then – and even now after the signing of the Prespes Agreement – it is an issue of particular significance since it has caused a political upheaval between the two countries, among the political parties and the citizens of each country. Here, although the chronicle is presented for both countries, the focus is on the spoken discourse of the political space in Greece. The issue of naming the region after the breakup of Yugoslavia has drawn a lot of attention from different perspectives such as political, sociological and historical. Yet, since our main interest is in discourse, this is the perspective we choose to examine in this thesis. Previous research focused on how the naming of Greece’s neighbouring country has been presented in Greek media discourse throughout the years. In particular, Panagiotopoulou (1996) examined the way the ‘Macedonian’ issue was presented in Greek newspapers and the way the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ were constructed in a different historical period of the same political space. According