Discourses of Displacement: A Comparative Corpus-Driven Discourse Analysis of Britain's House of Commons Debates on the Displaced Populations of Syria and Ukraine
Torppa, Sonja (2023)
Torppa, Sonja
2023
Englannin kielen ja kirjallisuuden maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in English Language and Literature
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-25
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305065358
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305065358
Tiivistelmä
This paper uses a combined methodology of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to analyze and compare the linguistic representations of displaced populations of Syria and Ukraine in the debates of the British House of Commons. The Syrian and Ukrainian conflicts resulted in various parliamentary debates, which discussed those displaced populations without their presence or input. Therefore, the critical examination of the language used to represent them is crucial in identifying potentially othering discourses about vulnerable populations and in investigating the relationship between language and political power.
To investigate the representational patterns, keyword lists and their respective collocates from both corpora were extracted and thematically coded into topoi, analyzed and compared with corpus analysis and additionally examined using a critical discourse analysis framework to look for emergent ideological discourses. The analysis showed clear differences in representations between displaced Syrians and Ukrainians, as well as in the ways Britain represents itself in the two contexts. The study concluded that a Eurocentric view of displacement emerged from the debate data, which represented Syrians most often through the status of refugees, victimhood and mass but Ukrainians primarily through nationality, similar values and bravery, with the UK positioning itself as politically more passive in the Syria context but considerably more active in the Ukraine context.
To investigate the representational patterns, keyword lists and their respective collocates from both corpora were extracted and thematically coded into topoi, analyzed and compared with corpus analysis and additionally examined using a critical discourse analysis framework to look for emergent ideological discourses. The analysis showed clear differences in representations between displaced Syrians and Ukrainians, as well as in the ways Britain represents itself in the two contexts. The study concluded that a Eurocentric view of displacement emerged from the debate data, which represented Syrians most often through the status of refugees, victimhood and mass but Ukrainians primarily through nationality, similar values and bravery, with the UK positioning itself as politically more passive in the Syria context but considerably more active in the Ukraine context.