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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 24:3 (2025) ► pp.390–414

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The power of language

Socio-political fracture in Tunisia’s post-Arab Spring revolution

ORCiD logo with link | Deakin University
Published online: 15 March 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.23092.gab
Abstract
One of the most overlooked areas of study in the post-Arab Spring narrative is the symbiotic relationship between language and politics. Framed by the micro and macro-level approaches to discourse, the paper’s scope is twofold. First, it identifies and discusses how language elements underpin the performative role of language (Austin, John L. 1975 [1962]. How to Do Things With Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and considers Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar work on speech-acts and rhetoric through irony and metaphor. Second, it discusses how the study of language, through power and ideology, provides a candid and deeper understanding of Tunisian politics; an ‘internal’ perspective on how participants in these discourses perceive the Tunisian people, society, culture, and politics, reflecting on a decade since the revolution. The paper hinges on various textual genres, such as televised interviews, debates, and rap songs, sampling some emerging new sociopolitical spaces wherein, through discursive themes, participants address Tunisia’s political and economic grievances since the revolution.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Role of language in political discourse and Arab Spring
    • 1.2Language and music
  • 2.Theoretical approaches to language and politics
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Method of analysis: The discourse historical method (DHA)
      • 3.2.1Discursive strategies
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts
    • 4.2Irony and metaphor
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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