A Pragma–Stylistic Study of Aggrandizement Discourse in Iranian-American Political Speeches

Abstract

A pragma-stylistic analysis of aggrandizement in Iranian-American political speeches. This paper is a holistic review of the communicative model that considers America-Iran political contention on the common foundation that the language of international relations functions through mechanisms for both power projection and ideological legitimation. In this paper, we establish a multi-dimensional framework to analyze these adversarial discourses systematically and focus on three core levels of language use: discourse level, stylistic level, and pragmatic level. At the level of dissoi logoi, analysis looks at the most significant uses to which repetition and conjunction are put. At the linguistic level, you analyse the linguistic features and the functions of your data (e.g. the speakers involved, their register, Modality). The stylistic dimension examines the aesthetic exercise of power in figures of speech and is context-specific in its use of irony, hyperbole, parallelism, and metaphor. The pragmatic level, at the same time, deals with audience relations through politeness theory, relating to positive and negative strategies. An analysis of the speeches highlights divergent forms of aggressive self-exaltation through a comparison between selected addresses drawn from Barack Obama as president of the USA and Iran's former president, Hassan Rouhani. The analysis shows that while Obama draws on high Modality, parallelism, and positive politeness to encapsulate exceptionalism, Rouhani employs historical metaphor, irony, and negative politeness to preserve national sovereignty and resist Western views. This research reflects on how multilayered options at these three levels are strategically utilized to achieve better positioning of the state globally.

Keywords: Pragma-stylistics, Political Discourse, Aggrandizement, Modality, Figures of Speech, Politeness Theory, Barack Obama, Hassan Rouhani.