International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature

E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592

www.ijalel.aiac.org.au

The Impact of Ideology on Repetition in the Political Discourse of Arab Leaders

Waleed Ali Mohsen Asaad*

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China
Corresponding Author: Waleed Ali Mohsen Asaad, E-mail: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history This paper examines the ideological function of lexical repetition in two Arabic leaders’ speeches.
Received: October 22, 2018 The frequency of repetition in Arabic is explored in terms of its various formalistic approaches.
Accepted: December 27, 2018 However, little or less or no attention has been paid to the relationship between repetition and
Published: January 31, 2019 ideology. This paper argues that repetition is deliberately used to reinforce the leaders’ different
Volume: 8  Issue: 1 political strategies, which have been devised to address various Arabic peoples, groups and
Advance access: December 2018 factions. Repetition in Arabic is always related to stylistic and rhetorical function; however, this
semantic function between and repetition ideology has been insufficiently considered. This study
is new in its nature and topic in that it touches the ideological orientations which were not, in
Conflicts of interest: None some way or another, related to the linguistic/semantic aspects of language. This study employs a
Funding: None qualitative approach in the analysis of the speeches to uncover the rhetorical strategies deployed
and the ideologies underlined. CDA methods are employed to reveal underlying ideologies
and persuasive strategies used in the speeches. The paper also argues that the speaker had used
different discourse registers to address various audiences. The prevalence of lexical repetition
has been deliberately employed in the leader’s speeches to promote their ideological and political
stance. This paper reveals how these politicians purposefully and deliberately use repetition to
persuade their audiences of their political agendas, to transmit their ideologies and stay in power.

Key words: Repetition, Political Speech, Ideology

INTRODUCTION politics are highly interconnected, and power can be seized.

Political discourse is one of the fields that intersect with dis- This can be featured by ingenious use of language. Accord-
course linguistics; however, some linguists relate it with the ing to Beard (2000) language of politics can be a merit that
contextual domain. Generally, it is a type of discourse that characterizes this kind of discourse among others. Through
deals with political matters, actions, beliefs and practices language ideologies can be constructed, that will affect and
of certain political members or groups. It covers different condition the way people think; it also affects and determine
types of genres like; elections, campaigns, speeches, press the way people react. In the same token, Mazrui (1975) de-
conferences, political debate… etc. this paper deals only scribes language as the vehicular expression of politics. In
with one type i.e. political speeches, which is a form of pub- this paper the attention is paid merely to the repetition of the
lic speaking represented by a politician like a president, a lexical words that might be produced due to the ideological
prime minister or one who is in charge of doing so (van Dijk, or political backgrounds with reference to the implied pur-
2007). In the political speeches leaders mostly rely on the poses and function behind such repetitions. Beard (2000:2)
spoken rhetorical words which can help them transmit their contends that it is important to study the language of politics
ideologies and impress their audience and persuade them of because it enables us to “understand how language is used
some points in the sake. Charteris-Black (2005) states that by those who wish to gain power, those who wish to exercise
‘’politics have relied on the spoken word to convince others power and those who wish to keep power.
of the benefits that arise from their leadership’’.
Language is yet the best device for conveying ideas and
Paper Objectives
ideologies particularly in the political speeches. Therefore,
political speeches are composed by a team of professional This paper aims at connecting the ‘repetition device’ as a
speech writers who are educated in the use of persuasive lan- semantic device to the ideology of leader’s speeches. It at-
guage. Hence, political speeches are not necessarily a suc- tempts to address and achieve the following objectives:
cess because of correctness or truth; rather it may be a matter 1. To discover the way repetition, as a rhetorical device in
of providing valid arguments Beard, (2000). Languages and the political speeches, acquires ideological and political
politics cannot be conducted separately. Both language and trends.

Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.1p.224
The Impact of Ideology on Repetition in the Political Discourse of Arab Leaders 225

2. To find out how do leaders use repetition to persuade were collected and downloaded from the internet. Second,
and impress their audiences of their ideological goals? the collected data was transcribed from its oral mode into
3. To illustrate to what extent repetition is deliberately used written form. Third, the Arabic texts were transliterated
to reinforce the leaders’ political strategies and why they using English language symbols. Finally, all the collected
all adopt to use this rhetorical device rather than others. speeches were analyzed in light of the CDA theories and
models mentioned above. The information and data neces-
sary to conduct this paper is derived and collected from var-
Paper Questions
ious books, magazines, articles and internet periodicals as
1. How do CDA approaches help to connect the semantic/ well as TV records.
linguistic repetition with the non-linguistic aspect ‘con-
text’ to detect the ideological notion within the speech?
Literature Review
2. What is the definition and function of the rhetorical de-
vice repetition in Arabic and how do leaders use them to In this part, we are going to demonstrate and review some
achieve their political intentions? significant concepts related to the topic repetition as a rhetor-
3. What are the used repetitive-ideological strategies? And ical devices and the political discourses; as well as what has
how could CDA helps to reveal the ideological notion of been said and discussed by linguists and discourse analysts
the different leaders? with respect of the aforementioned items.

Statement of the Problem CDA and Political Discourse

This study investigates the political speeches of the two major CDA can be seen as a general label for a special approach
Arab leaders in the Middle East during the Arab Spring revolu- to the study of text and talk. Analysts state that it emerges
tion and Lebanese-Israeli conflict. This study is very rare of its from critical linguistics, critical semiotics, and in general
kind, since it is an attempt to investigate the linguistic features of from a socio-politically and oppositional way of investigat-
those Arab leaders’ speeches during that period of time. Many ing language, discourse and communication. Work in CDA
political speeches have been investigated by various researchers is usually characterized by some criteria like issue-oriented
from different political or social perspectives. However, this pa- and rather explicitly critical approach, position or stance of
per deals with the significance of the lexical device ‘’repetition’’ studying text and talk. In order to study social problems ad-
throughout the leaders’ speeches and the relationship between equately CDA is interdisciplinary especially focuses on rela-
such repetition and leaders’ ideologies and purposes. This study tion between discourse and society (social cognition, politics
tries to reveal the features of the language used by these leaders and culture). CDA focuses highly on the text that has politi-
during the period of people’s uprising against their governments cal and social dimensions. Therefore, linguists and analysts
and the Arabic-Israeli war in 2006. differentiate between CDA and critical discourse approach in
the way it examines ideology, power and dominance within
the text, and how it is expressed via language. It is not only
Methodology and Data Analysis a structural study of the text but also a systematic analysis of
This paper analyses two major speeches delivered by dif- it within its socio-political dimensions. In other words, CDA
ferent Arab leaders in the last few years during the wave of has a social aspect which studies the problematic discourses
uprisings and Arabic-Israeli conflict which the region had for society such as political discourses in order to display
witnessed. These major speeches are analyzed for the sake and discover the aspects of power and ideology within the
of identifying mostly repeated lexical words in their speeches discourse. Almost CDA methods are applied on the basis
and identifying the purpose behind such a kind of rhetori- of van Dijk (1988) socio-cognitive approach and less more
cal device ‘repetition’. These repeated words are selected upon Feirclough’s (2001) approach. Hence and from this
deliberately for the purpose of understanding the connection model of Van Dijk we tried to connect the linguistic aspects
between them and the leader’s political ideologies and inten- of text to the context level. i.e. connecting the linguistic co-
tions with which they attempt to persuade their addressees. hesive device ‘repetition’ to the contextual side of leaders’
This study employed a qualitative approach in the speech speeches, their ideologies and social actions.
analysis to reveal the rhetorical strategies deployed and the An adequate account of studies and analysis deals with
ideologies underlined. CDA methods are also employed to CDA and political discourse are two interrelated levels.
display underlying ideologies and persuasive strategies. In Once discourse analysis is taking place, political discours-
brief, this paper seeks to examine the ideological motives es are seen as favorable instances of CDA for linguists and
behind the use of repetition. In doing so, it will draw on Fair- discourse analysts. In considering political discourses one
clough’s (1992) framework in order to explain the relation- should think of some issues which are mainly underlined
ship between repetition and ideology in the leaders’ speeches. by this concept such as power, ideology, conflicts and dom-
ination Feirclough (1992a, van Dijk, 1993). Some linguists
overestimate this term of political discourse to state that
Procedure almost all discourse may be considered political, and then
The procedures of analyzing the collected data are as fol- analyses of discourse are potentially political, therefore, all
lows: first, the two selected speeches of the Arab leaders discourse analysis is political discourse. Critical linguists
226 IJALEL 8(1):224-229

(Fairclough, 1995b) or critical discourse analysis (vanDujk, s­entences and paragraphs form a cohesive link which as-
1993, Wodak, 1995) connects directly to work on political sists readers to understand the meaning and ideas. Hoey
discourse, not only because the material for analysis is of- defines lexical repetition as happening when ‘two lexical
ten formally political but also, perhaps, because the analysts items share morphemes but are not formally identical (…)
have explicitly made themselves political actors (see van or when they are formally identical but with different gram-
Dijk, this volume). Political discourse has received some matical function. This paper, with its limited scope, mainly
features which might characterize it from other discourses. concerns the reiteration (mostly lexical) repetition in the Ar-
What Atkinson calls the contrastive pair, which uses repeti- abic leaders’ political speeches rather than any other forms
tion in some way or another, and what classical Greek and of reiteration. Johnstone (1991) states that repetition in Ara-
Roman used on rhetoric is one common feature of politi- bic is often considered as part of language structure. Lahlali
cal discourse. In the same token, Fairclough’s (1989) in his (2005) adds that it is a stylistic feature in Arabic language.
view of critical linguistics/discourse, for example, political It is so because of the high frequency of reiterated items in
discourse can be as a form of social practice with a malign one discourse compared with other discourses in other lan-
social purpose. This view has been taken as a criticism of a guages. The multiple occurrences of an idea or a lexical item
political discourse. Political speeches are often accused of (word), according to Reynolds (1995) attract the attention
being like claptrap, in the sense that speakers use such de- and enforce the meaning. In his analysis of lexical strings in
vice of language as a trick to catch applauses and employ English and Arabic, Williams (1989) concluded that Arabic
it for their own advantage. CDA analysts usually focus on uses lexical strings as a cohesive device more than English.
those features to the fabric of discourse to adopt or challenge This conclusion might be considered either in the analysis of
some dominant ideologies where contradicting ideologies political discourses or any other kinds of Arabic spoken or
also coexist. However, they sometimes say that the relation written discourse. Repetition has different uses between Ara-
between ideologies and discourses are not direct, yet it can- bic and English. In Arabic it is considered as a linguistic and
not be discovered and understood quickly. rhetorical feature which is usefully and purposefully used in
Politics cannot be conducted without language. In look- the political discourse in particular. However, in English it is
ing at the analysis of Political discourse, it deals with a unfavorable stance. English grants its speaker more lexical
language which might be described as political language variants than recurrences Alkhafaji (2005), which means that
concerned conceptually with the most moral sense than any- Arabic language employ more reiteration items such as lexi-
thing else, thus it carries information to communicate with cal repetition than English. On the other side, English speak-
audiences, and deals with peoples’ affairs and issues such
ers employ more various lexical devices such as synonyms
as war and peace issues. The political discourse is the kind
and antonyms than Arabic.
which uses the persuasive language, incomprehensible and
Repetition is seen as one of the manipulative and rhe-
emotional words Paul Chilton (2008). Beard (2000) argues
torical tools which Arabic politicians use to deceive their
that the language of politics is a merit that distinguishes itself
audience. Feldman (1998) states that it is a merit in which
from other kinds of discourse. Besides, political language
Arab politicians take use of this linguistic feature to impress
has a number of functions are mirrored in the speech itself.
their people and deliver their ideologies through indirectly.
It disguises, transforms and heightens a particular issue, and
Therefore, it is employed purposefully and functionally in
mainly used to persuade audiences with some ideology or
a political discourse and used differently as a rhetorical de-
idea by employing some techniques such as repetition, ex-
vice in different languages. Furthermore, linguists declare
planation and analysis. Therefore politicians make choices
that repetition in political discourses symbolizes power; it
of different levels of discourse to represent actions in a way
that corresponds with their ideologies. Butt et al. (2004) echoes the sound of political power and aims to gain po-
claims that the very use of language is ideological. Seidel litical strength and domination. To take an example from
(1985) points out that a political speech may constitute a Husni Mubarak’s speech, he overused the lexical items like
genre, a domain, or a field. This genre, in Christina Schaf- “Egypt’’, ‘homeland’, ‘people’, ‘settlement’ ‘peace’...
nner’s view, is one of the complex genres; she relates this etc. aiming at transmitting a message of being powerful and
complexity to the non-linguistic social factors which are ide- yet controlling the scene as well as achieving the protes-
ology and power; some other analysts look at it as a complex tors’ sympathy towards their country and their president.
form because politicians represent the government sound This kind of repetition in the leader’s speech sounds of high
and ideology and it is designed to orient audience to a certain significance for two reasons: first from the linguistic and co-
direction of beliefs, thoughts and ultimately actions. hesive point of view, such recurrences are meaningful since
they attract the audiences’ attention and keep the speaker’s
fluency prominent. Second, these recurrences cooperate in
Function of Repetition in Arabic adding style and rhetoric to the discourse and delivering the
Repetition in any language refers the reoccurrence of some speaker’s political ideologies and ideas implicitly. An ex-
lexical items in the same discourse either for rhetorical pur- ample for the ideological intentions which can sometimes
poses or as cohesive devices which are often functioned as be stated explicitly is the purposeful repetition of some re-
generating lexical cohesion Halliday (1994). For Halliday ligious or political items in Hasan Nasrullah’s speech; such
and Hassan (1976) this kind of devices (repetition) cre- as ‫يا اكرم الناس‬, ‫ يا اطهر الناس‬,‫( يا اشرف الناس‬transaltion: you
ates the cohesion of the text, whereby lexical items across honorable people, you generous people, you immaculate
The Impact of Ideology on Repetition in the Political Discourse of Arab Leaders 227

­ eople). It is known that Nasrullah’s speech never lacks

p ogies. Again Van Daijk (2006) states that ‘’probably more
to such kind of repeated words or phrases which are ideo- than any other kind of discourse political discourse is em-
logically religious. He repeats not only the phrase format; inently ideological… and if there is one social field that is
he rather repeats the same lexical item several times in one ideological it is that of politics’’. So he affirms the interre-
individual speech to propitiate his audiences and encourag- lation and connection between ideology and political dis-
ing them for more stability and resistance against the Israeli course. Similarly, Van Dijk demonstrates that there is further
insolence. The next part will show more instances of such connection between ideologies and repetition in the critical
recurrences. Brown and Yule (1983) mention that repetition discourse analysis approach.
of some lexical items can be a feature of the spoken dis- In this paper we will extract and discuss some instances
course; it is more common in spoken than written discourse. of speeches produced by the two different political-ideolog-
He adds that not only lexical items repeated though syntac- ical Arabic leaders considering their different ideologies and
tic structures as well. Lahlali (2005) adds that repetition is the way they employ such a rhetorical device ‘’repetition’’ in
a valued feature in Arabic culture and language. It displays their speeches and the purposes behind such strategies. For
the capability to use the language properly and effective- example, Husni Mubarak, the ousted president of Egypt, in
ly. Berque (1978) assures that this feature lies in the heart the year of 2011 during the Arabic uprising repeated some
of Arabic language and discourse, and it cannot be easily lexical items several times in one of his speeches to the pub-
changed or separated from the language itself. lic as follows:
‫وأقول من جديد اني لن اتهاون في أي قرارات تحفظ لكل مصري او‬
Repetition as a Rhetorical Device of an Ideology and ‫مصرية امنهم و امانهم وسوف ادافع عن مصر واستقرارها و امان شعبها‬
Persuasion Strategy ‫فتلك هي المسئولية واألمانة التي اقسمت يمينا امام هللا والوطن بالمحافظة‬
:‫عليها (حسني مبارك‬ (28\1\2011)
Repetition can be defined as ‘multiple instances of an idea
or word, and the greater the number of repetition the more
Translation:
we notice it’ (Reynolds 1995: 185). It is clear that repetition
‘’I say once again that I will not be lenient in taking any
is favoured by political speakers for several purposes like
decision that safeguards to every Egyptians (man and wom-
emphasising the importance of certain ideas of persuad-
an) their security and safety, and I will defend Egypt and its
ing audience to accept certain ideologies or transmit some
stability and the safety of its people. This is the responsibility
messages of threatening or warning which they think might
and honesty that I swear in front of God and the nation to
lead to some expected serious consequences. As we men-
tioned earlier, repetition in Arabic is employed differently keep and maintain’’
from English. Linguists think that this feature is language In the above example, the leader Husni Mubarak had re-
dependent in the sense that while Arabic language sounds peated the words “‫ األمانة‬,‫ امانهم‬,‫‘‘امنهم‬. These three lexical
to prefer recurrences, English usually prefers lexical vari- items are used to refer to one semantic meaning i.e. ‘safety’ or
ation (Al-Khafaji 2005). One can notice that the frequent ‘security’. This kind of recursion is used as a warning code to
recurrences of some lexical items in any leader’s speech those who are thinking to unsettle the country by creating up-
rise from his hidden ideologies and political ideas that he is risings and bringing more crises. We could notice that Husni
trying to deliver and convince others with. Al-Khafaji adds Mubarak had a military background and his political ideology
that repetition can have didactic, playful, emotional, artistic, might be implied into the military one rather than any other
textual and rhetorical functions. It is obvious here that rep- ideologies. Therefore, we could find such an example rep-
etition can be described as a persuasive strategy or persua- resents the speaker’s hidden political military ideology. This
sive linguistic device usually used to convince audience and point can be seen more clearly in the repetition of the word,
make the speech favourable in some contexts if employed ‫ تكليف‬,‫ تكليفات‬,‫( كلفت‬meaning: put onus and responsibility) these
efficiently. items represent a powerful fragment which might reflect the
The research also deals with ideology since it is the hid- disguised military ideology. Meanwhile, most military leaders
den part as van Dijk (2008) explains. The politicians often do not like to expose their military background when they be-
use a manipulative and indirect language to deliver their come on the top regime of the country, even though, it appears
ideologies. Ideologies are usually referred to socially-shared clearly through their speeches and interviews.
mental representations of a social group and the basic so- Another example from Husni Mubarak’s speech:
cial cognitive basis for the identity of a group. Ideologies ‫ا اتمسك بذات القدر بالحفاظ على امن مصر واستقراراها و عدم االنجراف‬
used to control the other groups’ social representations such .. ‫بها و بشعبها الى منزلقات خطيرة تهدد النظام العام والسالم الجتماعي‬
as knowledge, attitudes and social practices as well as dis- ‫وعلينا ان نحاذر بمايحيط من امثلة عديدة انزلقت بالشعوب الى الفوضى‬
course. Therefore, examining ‘repetition’ in the political :‫مبارك‬
 ‫واالنتكاس (حسني‬ 28\1\2011)
discourse is the powerful way to uncover the disguised ide-
ologies. One of the significant linguistic devices that Arab Translation
politicians often use is ‘linguistic repetition’. They utilize it ‘’I am committed to maintain the security and the stability
to ensure in one way the transference of their ideological of Egypt and not to jeopardize the nation and its people to dan-
notions, or to, in another way, affect their Arab audiences gerous slope which may threaten the public security and social
through the language which can be seen as a social practice stability… we must be alert of the several examples around us
manipulate to express the speakers’ own beliefs and ideol- which slipped the people into chaos and retrogradation’’.
228 IJALEL 8(1):224-229

In above examples, we could recognize the existing of You are all welcome – from the Palestinian refugee
such a political ideology behind this recurrence of some camps in Lebanon; you are all welcome – from Syria, Iran,
words. This leader has a famous military and political back- Kuwait, Bahrain, and every country that came to us to cele-
ground which is reflected through his choice of terms and brate and rejoice (Speech: 22 September 2006).
repeating them continuously throughout his speech. Husni ‫من الجنوب المقاوم المقاتل إلى البقاع الصامد إلى الشمال الوفي إلى الجبل‬
Mubarak’s speech lasted for 10 minutes only, meanwhile our ‫ (…) واوالئك الذين‬،‫األبي إلى بيروت العروبة إلى ضاحية العزة والكرامة‬
critical discourse analysis reveals that the speaker tended to ‫استقبلوهم واحتضنوهم واكرموهم من صيدا الى جبل لبنان الشمالي الى جبل‬
use this strategy in order to convince his audience and per- ‫ سيكون هذا االنتصار حافزا‬،‫لبنان الجنوبي الى بيروت الى الشمال الى البقاع‬
suade them of his beliefs and expected them to translate his ‫العادة لبنان اجمل مما كان‬
speech into social actions. In this respect we could see Van (You are all welcome) from the fighting and resisting
Dijk and Feirclough argue that language is a representation south, to the steadfast Beqaa, to the loyal north, to the proud
of the social actions, whereby Van Dijk discusses two con- mountain, to the Beirut of Arabism, to the [southern] suburb
cepts: manipulation and persuasion which are one of the cru- of loftiness and dignity.  (…) And those who received them,
cial aspects of CDA approach. In the persuasion aspect Dijk embraced them and honored them, from Sayda to the north
considers the legitimate mind control, whereas manipulation of Jabal Lubnan, to the south of Jabal Lubnan, to Beirut,
aims at persuasion and dominating group interest. El Musta- to the north, to the Beqaa, this victory will be an incentive
fa Lahlali (2011) in his investigation on repetition in the to rebuild Lebanon and make it more beautiful than it was.
speeches of two Arabic leaders found that they used this (Speech: 29 July 2006).
technique to address the unrest demonstrators and convince Here the word ‘prepositions’‫( من‬from) and ‫( الى‬to) were
them to stop it, so they would let those presidents live polit- repeated many times in one single short text. This recursion
ically longer. In the same speech of Husni Mubarak in 2011, refers to the rhetorical and stylistic way of delivering speech-
he intended to repeat lots of words such as the SULTAH ‫سلطة‬ es. Arabs consider this kind of speakers as an eloquent
(sovereignty, authority), ZURUF ASIBA ‫( ظروف عصيبة‬hard (Paligh ‫)بليغ‬. It is clear that the political and religious inten-
circumstances), ALHEWAR‫( الحوار‬dialogue), ALFOUDHA tions are available in those leaders’ choices of some lexical
‫( الفوضى‬the mess), ALDUSTOOR ‫( الدستور‬the constitution), items. One strategy, those leaders adopt in their frequent re-
ALWATAN ‫( الوطن‬the homeland), MISR ‫( مصر‬Egypt), AL- iteration of ideas and lexical words, is that they need their
SHA’AB ‫( الشعب‬people), DA’WAH ‫( دعوة‬call, invitation) and
audience to pay much attention to them; and represent the
many other repetitions. Analysts usually state that repeating
current events and actions in a way that matches their ideol-
such words in one speech results from some hidden fears,
ogies and political intentions.
ideologies or purposes such as the word WATAN‫( الوطن‬home-
‫ ونحن سننتصر‬،‫ايها اللبنانيون المهم اليوم ان نصمد لننتصر ان شاء هللا‬
land, country) in a sign to the audience that he (the leader)
‫ ما اقرأ وما اسمعه منذ ايام في مسألة االنتصار وتوظيف االنتصار‬.‫ان شاء هللا‬
represents this country and what they are calling to and
‫واهداء االنتصار اريد ان اعلق عليه‬.
demonstrating for is against the fare of this country whatever
Dear Lebanese people, if we persevere today we will be
legitimate calls they raise. He tried to affect the audiences’
victorious. We will, God willing, be victorious. I would like
sympathy by repeating words like ‘Egypt‫’مصر‬, ‘the mess
to comment on what I read and what I hear in recent days on
‫ ’ الفوضى‬and’ calling ‫’دعوة‬. His undeclared purpose was to put
the question of victory, how to utilise victory and to whom
an end to these protests and to mute the voices calling him to
oust. Besides his linguistic and rhetorical styles of speech that victory would be dedicated. (Speech: 29 July 2006)
delivery, Husni Mubarak also employed lots of gestures and Again, Nasrullah reiterated the lexical word ‫ االنتصار‬,‫ننتصر‬
bodily expressions to achieve his purposes and transmit his several times for the purpose of encouraging his audience to
ideology even though time was too late for that. be enthusiastic for more sacrifices and victories. Such (rhe-
Similarly, Hasan Nasrullah’s speech was full of these torical) lexical items like ‘victory’ are said to be of military
rhetorical and cohesive devices which he usually uses in al- ideologies, thus used in the war times to promote soldiers
most all his speeches on public. Let us look at these extracts and stimulate them to win the battles. The repetition of the
and discuss them in more details. lexical phrase ‫( ان شاءهللاا‬God willing) is used in reference to
‫لتقتل من تشاء وتأسر من تشاء وتقصف كيفما تشاء وتسلب أرضنا ومياهنا‬ the role of Hizbullah’s resistance in inflicting ‘defeat’ on the
(…) so [Israel] can kill whomever it wants, capture Israeli army. The speaker repeatedly attributes the causes of
whomever it wants, bomb as it wants, and plunder our land ‘victory’ to divine support and assistance: ‘support, help and
and waters. (Speech: 22 September 2006). victory from God’. By repeating the above lexical phrase,
He repeated the word ‘wants’ three times in one short the speaker seeks to link his religious belief to the outcome
discourse (text) to draw the impression on audiences that of the conflict, suggesting that a strong faith guaranteed a
they (addressees) have the right to raise their guns and de- victory over the ‘enemy’.
fend their lands. Repeating such words in such a manner re- ‫ وأنكم شعب شجاع‬،‫ وأنكم شعب وفي‬،‫ وانكم شعب أبي‬،‫أنكم شعب عظيم‬
flects the speaker’s religious ideology rather than political You are a great people, and you are a proud people, and
since these words are mostly taken out from the religious you are a loyal people and you are a courageous people.
scripts and Nasrullah is famous for being not only a political (Speech: 22 September 2006).
leader, but a religious one as well. In above example, the word people” ‫ ’’شعب‬was repeated
‫ أهالً بكم جميعا ً من سوريا من‬،‫من مخيمات الالجئين الفلسطينيين في لبنان‬ four times in four very subsequent phrases. It indicates that
ً‫إيران من الكويت من البحرين من كل بلد جاءنا محتفيا ً محتفال‬. such a repetition of lexical items not only creates a cohesive
The Impact of Ideology on Repetition in the Political Discourse of Arab Leaders 229

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