A Critical Discourse Analysis of Rhetorical Appeals in Kurdish Presidential Speeches

Abstract

The study deals with an analysis of the rhetorical appeals used in Kurdish presidential speeches, as rhetoric has always been a significant aspect of political speeches. Rhetoric is the strategic use of language to persuade an audience. Rhetorical appeals are specific rhetorical tools used to enhance the use of language to affect an audience to believe in certain ideas, take specific actions and/or behave in some certain ways. Rhetorical appeals, also known as Aristotelian rhetorical strategies, were first conceptualized by Aristotle and continue to be fundamental in persuasive discourse. This study aims to analyse how these strategies reflect ideas, ideologies and power relations and examine the role of context in their usage in Kurdish presidential speeches. The data of the study is collected from a Kurdish presidential speech delivered by President Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region, in 2019. The study adopted a qualitative research method, using one of the well-known models of Critical Discourse Analysis known as Fairclough’s three-dimensional model to analyse the data. The findings reveal that rhetorical appeals, beyond their persuasive functions, are significant tools to reflect ideas, ideologies, and power relations in political speeches. Additionally, the findings show that these rhetorical appeals are influenced by different contexts of a speech.