DISCOURSE ANALYSIS : A LINGUISTIC STUDY OF THE FRENCH PRESS’S REPRESENTATION OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN TAHITI (2004-2005) - IN LE FIGARO, LE MONDE AND LA LIBERATION. A thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in French in the University of Canterbury by Yoon Ah Choi University of Canterbury 2006 i ABSTRACT French Polynesia went through a political crisis from 2004 to 2005 which constituted an important chapter in the history of this recently upgraded ‘Pays d’Outre-mer’. After the general elections of May 2004 in Tahiti, a series of controversial events unfolded which created polarity among the local people and which destabilised the government. This research aims to study qualitatively how the Tahitian political crisis is constructed by the French press, namely, le Figaro, le Monde and la Libération. Based on the CDA framework and Halliday’s systemic grammar, this research embarks on Foucault’s idea of subjectivity which governs the formation of discourse, by examining the linguistic structure of the clause in the press representations. The analysis reveals that events and people from the crisis can be configured in different ways in the clausal structure, which is, to a certain degree, triggered by the subjectivity of newspapers. La Libération offers a socialist view of the crisis through its discursive constructions which are more inclusive of the local people and by showing Temaru’s rise to power in an optimistic manner. As for the conservative newspaper le Figaro, power hierarchies can be observed in some representations while certain individuals’ responsibilities are hidden in the clausal structure. Even le Monde, which claims to maintain a neutral ground, exposes its intellectual and critical conceits in the construction of clauses which represent Tahiti’s recent political crisis. 1 CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. I TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND................................................................................................................. 7 1.1. France-Tahiti Relationship: The Beginning............................................................................... 8 1.2. Colonisation ............................................................................................................................ 10 1.3. Recent Political History of French Polynesia ......................................................................... 13 1.3.1. Before the French Regime........................................................................................... 14 1.3.2. The French Regime ..................................................................................................... 15 1.4. Development of Political Activities ......................................................................................... 18 1.5. Present Status.......................................................................................................................... 22 1.6. Political Crisis in French Polynesia (2004-2005)................................................................... 23 1.6.1. Tahiti and its Two Leaders.......................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK, METHODOLOGY AND CORPUS ................................... 26 2.1. Theoretical Framework............................................................................................................ 27 2.2. Foucault and Discourse Formation ......................................................................................... 28 2.3. Critical Discourse Analysis...................................................................................................... 30 2.3.1. Fairclough................................................................................................................... 31 2.4. Halliday and Functional Grammar.......................................................................................... 34 2.4.1. Multi-functional Components...................................................................................... 35 2.4.2. Process types and Transitivity..................................................................................... 36 2.4.2.1. Material Process ......................................................................................................39 2.4.2.2. Mental Process......................................................................................................... 43 2.4.2.3. Relational Process....................................................................................................45 2.4.2.4. Verbal Process ......................................................................................................... 47 2.4.4. Participant Types and Functions................................................................................. 49 2.4.5. Circumstances ............................................................................................................. 52 2.5. Syntactic Transformation: Nominalisation .............................................................................. 55 2.6. Corpus: Description and Collection of Data ........................................................................... 60 2.7. Method of Analysis................................................................................................................... 62 2.8. The French Press: Genre and Style.......................................................................................... 65 2 CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................. 68 3.1. Global Analysis of Events........................................................................................................ 68 3.1.1. Event One: Election of Temaru as President of French Polynesia ............................. 69 3.1.2. Event Two: Overthrow of Temaru's Government........................................................ 75 3.1.3. Event Three: People of French Polynesia Protest ...................................................... 81 3.1.3. Event Three (a): The Protest ....................................................................................... 82 3.1.3. Event Three (b): The Socialists ................................................................................... 85 3.1.3. Event Three (c): French Polynesia.............................................................................. 87 3.1.4. Event Four: Temaru Declares a Hunger Strike .......................................................... 90 3.1.5. Event Five: Negotiations in Paris ............................................................................... 93 3.1.5. Event Five (a): Girardin's Role................................................................................... 94 3.1.5. Event Five (b): Flosse's Departure ............................................................................ 98 3.1.6. Event Six: Bi-elections in February........................................................................... 102 3.1.7. Event Seven: Overthrow of Flosse............................................................................. 106 3.1.8. Event Eight: Temaru Becomes Re-elected as President............................................ 110 3.1.9. Conclusion................................................................................................................. 115 3.2. Micro-analysis of Participants.............................................................................................. .121 3.2.1. Representation of Oscar Temaru .............................................................................. 121 3.3.2. Representation of Gaston Flosse .............................................................................. 124 3.3.3. Representation of the French Government ............................................................... 127 3.3.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 131 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 133 APPENDIX I............................................................................................................................................ 138 APPENDIX II .......................................................................................................................................... 139 REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................................... 142 3 INTRODUCTION Since the European discovery of the South Pacific islands, Polynesia was sought after by the major world powers who were attracted to the abundant tropical environment and the beautiful inhabitants of these islands. France was able to claim Tahiti as its territory which was widely known at the time as ‘the Garden of Eden’. In 1843, Tahiti became a French protectorate and by 1880, other areas