The history of ideology and its definition continues to occupy scholars across a range of disciplines. Contrary to the vast volume of earlier work on ideology however, this books provides a challenging new theory of ideology, one that is capable of explaining not only the internal structures of ideologies, but also how ideologies function in society. In formulating theory that is capable of providing the first insights into the internal structures of ideologies while simultaneously explaining how discourse structures may be (...) used in the production and reproduction of ideologies, van Dijk offers a highly important theoretical bridge between the micro and macro structures of society. This book will be essential for all students of discourse studies, communication, social psychology, sociology, and political science. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to describe and understand the language of paramilitary groups in the Northern Irish context, taking statements issued by the Irish Republican Army as an example. In order to do so, we depart from a broad understanding of political discourse. So as to understand how beliefs, actions and the IRA existence are legitimised in those statements, Text-World Theory is combined with critical discourse analysis approaches. Chilton's notion of ‘discourse worlds’ is considered the main legitimising strategy, (...) and these – understood as mental representations – are identified by relying on a micro-analysis of linguistic choices. Thirty-nine IRA statements delivered after the 1998 Agreement have been analysed in order to understand both synchronic responses to given socio-political events and diachronic changes related to the advances of the Northern Irish Peace process. (shrink)

This paper shows how an apparently abstract, ideologically loaded, evaluative rhetoric can be applied, legitimization-wise, to compensate for diminishing effects of fear appeal rhetoric based on material premises. The paper draws on proximization theory, which accounts for the construal of relations between entities within the Discourse Space, esp. the shifts whereby the peripheral elements of the DS get construed as the central ones. Proximization recognizes the fundamental role of spatial cognition in constructing discursive representations of processes, attitudes and values in (...) relation to the deictic center of the speaker. It focuses on spatially and axiologically grounded rhetorical choices, defining their interplay in temporally extensive discourses. Proximization is thus ideally suited to explain complex phenomena of evaluative rhetoric in interventionist macro-discourse, especially the mechanism whereby axiological argument compensates for spatially grounded discourse patterns which over time lose their rhetorical force. The analysis of the US 2003-2004 rhetoric of the Iraq war demonstrates how ‘axiological proximization’ maintains legitimization after other legitimization strategies involving strong fear appeals have become ineffective. Specifically, it reveals how the US redefined the case for the war in ideological terms following loss of the original premise. (shrink)