Journal of Basra researches for Human Sciences

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), An amalgam of approaches, is the study of discourse as social practices that aims to open up the complexity and dichotomies within a text. CDA is not an absolute means of criticism but a multidisciplinary approach that studies text and talk. In the current study, Robert Ferrigno’s Sins of the Assassin is analysed through Norman Fairclough’s model of discourse analysis, where the relationships between language, identity and ideology are investigated. The three-dimensional discourse analysis method intends to analyse the language used in Sins of the Assassin, ‘beyond the sentence’ level, so as to reveal the religiously different ideologies, which the characters represent, and to show how their identities are consequently formed.

The conception of discourse has motivated a variety of research perspectives in multiple disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, and linguistics. Political discourse analysis has recently become the interest of numerous theorists and philosophers due to the close relationship between language, as a multiple means of communication and politics. This study will investigate the pragmatic connections between propositions or between the propositions of some Arabic news texts. Moreover, this study identifies each discourse connector or marker in a particular news item and examines the aim behind using each one of them depending on Hyland's classification of interactive and interactional met discourse categories. These expressions are considered significant components in the text production and perception as well as they can occur initially, medially, or finally.

This study examines the notions of face, facework and politeness according to Brown & Levinson’s (1978, 1987) Politeness theory. The researcher explores politeness as presented in the fictional dialogue of Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies”. The steps of the scholar Susanne E. Hoebe (2001) in determining the variables of Brown & Levinson’s formula are followed to identify, classify and analyse the politeness strategies for doing face threatening acts (FTAs) in the fictional dialogue amongst the three main characters in the novel. This study examines every single utterance produced by the three influential characters during their dialogues to discover if Brown & Levinson’s Politeness theory is applicable to the fictional dialogue in literary works and to come out with new interpretations to the novel through the exploration of the features of the characters predicted via their utterances.
The data is analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis would be character-based. So, if we take one character, let us say ‘Ralph’, all his utterances in his dialogues with Piggy are analysed separately from those with Jack. This is for us to be able to know the politeness strategies used by each of them, to grasp the nature of the relationship between each character and the other and to determine the main variables of Brown & Levinson’s formula in their politeness theory which are; Weightiness of face-threatening acts (Wx) (Politeness), Power (P), Distance (D) and the Ranking of imposition (Rx). (S) refers to speaker and (H) refers to hearer.
Wx = D (S, H) + P (H, S) + Rx
In this excerpt one chapter is chosen to be analysed in terms of Brown & Levinson’s politeness theory, which is Chapter Four: Painted Faces and Long Hair.

One of the processes of language evolution is the formation of neologisms. Neologisms in English are not made up haphazardly. As new words, their syllable structure should be determined by Sonority Theory. This paper is an attempt to provide a phonological investigation of neologisms in terms of sonority theory in English children's literature which one day they might be widely used as normal words in the language.

The current study aims to focus on the effect of teaching language functions on promoting learners' motivation and fluency; it measures the achievement in language functions for the third year students at Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Basra. The theoretical part of the study tackles the main areas of the study such as discussing language functions, the origin of language functions, ways of teaching language functions, the notional functional syllabus and the communicative language learning. The study alsodiscussesthe motivation as a vital component in the pedagogical process, the types of motivation, theories and the ways of developing motivation. In addition, the research tackles fluency in teaching, the theories of fluency and the different techniques for promoting fluency. The practical part of the study is mainly concerned with the questionnaire and the two tests – spoken test and written test- and the conclusions aimed at by the researcher.

This research focuses on Sam Shepard's True West from the perspective of preference organization. It explores the conversational sequences of characters in a variety of situations and encounters, and to show how these characters organize their responses to actions of various sorts. The conflicts in this play are shown by identifying and interpreting these responses, which are mostly dispreferred second parts. The antagonistic qualities of Lee and Austin are made explicit via applying the preference structure analysis to their interactions. The dispreferred responses, which outnumber the preferred ones in this play, provide clues to the characters' violent behaviour and intellectual aspects.

The study of literary discourse with respect to its linguistic assimilation can help in the understanding of literature. While pursuing literary analysis, the workings of the language are often ignored due to which certain significant points go amiss. Thus, it is imperative to conduct a linguistic analysis to gain complete comprehension of the literature being studied. Resonating with this thought, the present study aims at analysing Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, essentially in the context of hedging. This paper includes a qualitative analysis of hedging which is conducted with the help of the tool called Wordsmith Version7. It investigates the usage of hedges in the noveland further illustrates how hedges can be used in the text, not just for politeness and respect, but to show caution and also to intentionally create an enigma of vagueness that obscures the facts and leads to misinterpretation of the text.

The present study is an application of Lakoff and Johnson's Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) to the analysis of two political speeches. The theory proved successful in highlighting important aspects of the relationship between language and human cognition, basically by stating that linguistic expressions which are seen to be metaphorical in nature are no more than reflections of 'an underlying conceptual association'. In this respect, the present paper attempts to apply the theoretical framework provided by Lakoff and Johnson CMT to two inaugural speeches by two Republicans to reveal any similarities between them in terms of the use of conceptual metaphors