Accepted author manuscript, 70.4 KB, Word document
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Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A corpus-driven comparison of English and French Islamist extremist texts
AU - Baker, John Paul
AU - Vessey, Rachelle
PY - 2018/10/29
Y1 - 2018/10/29
N2 - Using corpus linguistics and qualitative, manual discourse analysis, this paper compares English and French extremist texts to determine how messages in different languages draw upon similar and distinct discursive themes and linguistic strategies. Findings show that both corpora focus on religion and rewards (i.e. for faith) and strongly rely on othering strategies. However, the English texts are concerned with world events whereas the French texts focus on issues specific to France. Also, while the English texts use Arabic code-switching as a form of legitimation, the French texts use a formal register and quotation from scripture in discussions of permissions, rights, obligations and laws. Finally, the English texts refer to and justify violence to a greater extent than the French texts. This paper contributes to the field of terrorism studies and the field of corpus linguistics by presenting a new approach to corpus-driven studies of discourse across more than one language.
AB - Using corpus linguistics and qualitative, manual discourse analysis, this paper compares English and French extremist texts to determine how messages in different languages draw upon similar and distinct discursive themes and linguistic strategies. Findings show that both corpora focus on religion and rewards (i.e. for faith) and strongly rely on othering strategies. However, the English texts are concerned with world events whereas the French texts focus on issues specific to France. Also, while the English texts use Arabic code-switching as a form of legitimation, the French texts use a formal register and quotation from scripture in discussions of permissions, rights, obligations and laws. Finally, the English texts refer to and justify violence to a greater extent than the French texts. This paper contributes to the field of terrorism studies and the field of corpus linguistics by presenting a new approach to corpus-driven studies of discourse across more than one language.
KW - English
KW - French
KW - Extremist language
KW - corpus linguistics
KW - corpus assisted discourse analysis
U2 - 10.1075/ijcl.17108.bak
DO - 10.1075/ijcl.17108.bak
M3 - Journal article
VL - 23
SP - 255
EP - 278
JO - International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
JF - International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
SN - 1384-6655
IS - 3
M1 - 1
ER -