A Critical Discourse Analysis of Colloquial Words in Opinion Articles
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Abstract
This study explores the marked use of colloquial words in Iraqi opinion articles whose language is Standard Arabic. It examines the attitudinal potential of colloquial words in newspaper opinion articles. The objective is to discover how colloquial words implicate attitudinal meanings, and how they are motivated by ideological ends. Accordingly, the main question this study raises is: Why do writers of Iraqi opinion articles use colloquial words? To achieve the goals of the study, the researcher adopts an eclectic model that consists of concepts from Martin and White’s (2005) appraisal theory, van Dijk’s (2006 & 2011) socio-cognitive approach, and Machin and Mayr (2012). After applying a qualitative method of analysis, the study finds that the colloquial words are motivated by the strategic ideology of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. It also finds that those informal words connote authorial attitudes, and are strategically employed in texts which abound in ironic expressions
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