A study of Disclaimer strategy on Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at United Nation General Assembly 2011

ABSTRACT

The ideological practice is clearly exercised through the use of language. Therefore, discourse takes place to discover the production of language. Critically, Critical Discourse Analysis tries to scrutinize the practice of ideological manipulation, power domination, or unequal representation manifested through the use of particular discursive strategy. Thus, I utilized disclaimer as discursive strategy proposed by Teun A. van Dijk to unveil the ideological practice of Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech. More specifically, I concerned on the practice of micro structure of disclaimer strategy used by Benjamin to either portray the ingroup positively or outgroup member negatively.

The objectives of this study are first, to give the theoretical contribution on micro structure and disclaimer strategy of Teun A. van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis paradigm. Second, to give social aware toward the reader or any researcher that basically the utterance is not produced for nothing. It has the purpose of production.

In this study, I used descriptive qualitative method. The data were taken from the related utterances of Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at United Nation general Assembly of disclaimer and micro structure. Then, I classified the micro structure utterances as well as disclaimer and non disclaimer data. Finally, I analyzed the data through the employed theory. To strengthen the finding, I did the investigator triangulation.

The finding of this study depicted that Benjamin utilized micro structure; syntax, semantics, lexicon, and rhetoric within disclaimer strategy to enhance his political intention, to portray the ingourp member positively, to depict the outgroup member negatively, to downgrade his opposition and legitimate his stance. Such micro structures were used together with disclaimer apparent negation, effort, concession, empathy, and transfer.

Accordingly, it is recommended for the following researchers who are interested in van Dijk’s approach, especially on discursive strategy to utilize the related discursive strategy and discourse structure or even combine several discursive strategies with particular discourse structure. Besides, to conduct research on different discursive strategy of micro structure is also worthy.