Exclusion Of Social Actors In Hassan Rouhani's International Speech (Theo Van Leeuwen's Critical Discourse Analysis)

Applying van Leeuwen’s critical discourse analysis, the objective of the present study was to critically account for the use of linguistics features in excluding social actors involved in Hassan Rouhani’s international speech delivered in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Data sourced from one of Israel official websites (www.timesofisrael.com). The relevant use of the language was noted and identified based on the objective of the study. Data were then analysed through van Leeuwen’s framework ‘Social Actor Analysis’ which was developed using paraphrase technique where the sentences were structurally altered while maintaining their meaning to explain how social actors in the discourse were excluded. In the next stage, the results of the analysis were then presented descriptively. As the result revealed, Rouhani’s linguistic choices underscored the use of passivation, nominalization, and infinitive clause to exclude certain social actors in his speech. Building upon the fact that this analysis sheds light on the exclusion of social actors, it can be concluded that the use of passivation and infinitive clause can be considered as Rouhani's attempt to indirectly present the actors involved without mentioning them in the construction of the sentence, whereas the use of nominalization aims to shift the focus of the audience from the social actors to the social actions.