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Title Exoneration and Nominalization in Power Politics: A Corpus Assisted Discourse Study of US Reports on Afghan War

Author(s) Akif Nawaz Khan

Abstract Title: Exoneration and Nominalization in Power Politics: A Corpus Assisted Discourse Study of US Reports on Afghan War Language is an effective communication tool and is widely used nowadays because of social media by people to put forward ideas in the best possible way. Most of the time, it is used to fabricate facts and distort reality to avoid responsibility and accountability for actions. The present study is an attempt to analyze language used in 04 of the American official documents on Afghan War (2001-2021) both quantitatively and qualitatively. The collected data was first run through Corpus tools: Ant Conc. 4.2.4.0. and UAM Corpus Tool 3.3 to find out the frequency and concordance of Nominalization and Exoneration instances. The found instances were then discussed through Fair clough’s three-dimensional model (1989) to show how the US has positioned itself regarding actions and mistakes in the Afghan war. It’s found that both the linguistic manipulation techniques: Nominalization and Exoneration have been used to avoid taking responsibility and accountability of wrongdoings or mistakes. The technique of Exoneration is used both in the present and past tense to avoid responsibility for actions. Nominalization is more used in the reports than Exoneration. However, Exoneration is in the way of gaining recognition with each passing day. Both the techniques are effectively used in masking the agent. Future research could explore how visual and multimedia elements in official reports, such as images and graphs, interact with linguistic strategies like Nominalization and Exoneration. Additionally, examining these strategies in real-time media, including news broadcasts and social media, could reveal how they adapt across platforms and influence public perception.

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2024-11-14

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