War, Words, and the Oval Office: A CDA of Strategic Language Use in High-Stakes Political Conflict | [Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences • 2025]

Author(s):

1. Muhammad Javed Ashraf: Department of Political Science, Government College University Faisalabad,,Pakistan

2. Farzanda Aslam: Department of History, Lahore College for Women University Lahore,,Pakistan

3. Azmat Ullah: Department of History, Government College University Faisalabad,,Pakistan

4. Muhammad Asim Khan: Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University Faisalabad,,Pakistan

5. Tanzeela Arshaad: Department of Pakistan studies, Government College University Faisalabad.,,Pakistan

Abstract:

This study conducted political discourse analysis of exchange between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday, 28 January; 2025 at Oval Office. The purpose was to highlight how discourse works to establish power relations, captured narrative of the war, diplomacy, and moral authority framing in the Ukrainian Russian war context. The study was grounded on Chilton’s (1996) Political Discourse Analysis (PDA) of War with an emphasis on three main constituent: deictic framing, metaphors of war and peace, and security framing with moral evaluation. The data was collected from publically available addressed https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/read-full-transcript-of-heated-exchangebetween-trump-zelenskyy-vance-at-oval-office/3496679 in the full transcript of the finalized version, which Anadolu Agency published on Friday, 28 January; 2025. Data analysis was analyzed on a multi-step approach through Chilton’s framework. The results of the study showed that Trump and Vance employed deictic and metaphorical structures to give the additional force of American superiority, delegitimize Zelenskyy’s moral appeals, and portray Ukraine as dependent country. Zelenskyy’s discourse presented Ukrainian agency, resilience and moral legitimacy. This analysis displayed how the language was used to invent political measures, shape relations, and impact perceptions. This study contributes to the critical discourse analysis, and political communication analysis of how language implements processes of ideological negotiation, international diplomacy, and symbolic power. .

Page(s): 87-97

DOI: 10.57239/PJLSS-2025-23.2.007

Published: Journal: Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences, Volume: 23, Issue: 2, Year: 2025

Keywords:

Critical Discourse Analysis CDA Political Discourse Deictic Framing Metaphors of War Security Rhetoric Moral Evaluation Chiltons PDA Model TrumpZelenskyyVance Exchange Language and Power Discourse and Legitimacy

References:

[1] Alina-Elena O. N. E. Ț. .2024 .RHETORIC IN TIMES OF CONFLICT: A STUDY OF FAMOUS WAR-TIME SPEECHES. In International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION, 30 : .

[2] Ashraf M. J.,Naz S.,Ullah A.,Khan M. A. .2024 .Discourse, power, and ideology: Analyzing the 2024 U.S. presidential debate through Fairclough's three-dimensional model. History of Medicine, 10(2) : 1949-1987.

[3] Chilton P. .2004 .Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. , : .

[4] Chilton P.,Schäffner C. .2011 .Discourse and politics. Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction, : 303-330.

[5] Chiluwa I.,Ruzaite J. .2024 .Analysing the language of political conflict: a study of war rhetoric of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. Critical discourse studies, 1 : 17.

[6] Fairclough N. .1992 .Discourse and social change. (No Title). , : .

[7] Fairclough N. .2013 .Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. , : .

[8] . .-war/read-full-transcript-of-heated-exchange-betweentrump-zelenskyy-vance-at-oval-office/3496679. , : .

[9] Khan M. A.,Anwar Mahjabeen D. H. K.,Arshaad T. .2019 .COHESION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A CASE STUDY OF PRESIDENT TRUMP'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. , : .

[10] Lakoff G. .1992 .Metaphor and war. The metaphor system used to justify war in the Gulf. , : .

[11] Lakoff G. .2012 .Metaphor and war: The metaphor system used to justify war in the gulf. Cognitive Semiotics, 4(2) : 5-19.

[12] Lakoff G.,Johnson M. .1980 .The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive science, 4(2) : 195-208.

[13] Mohammadi M.,Javadi J. .2016 .A critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump's language use in US presidential campaign. International journal of applied linguistics and English literature, 6(5) : 1-10.

[14] Prafitri W.,Nasir M. A. A. .2023 .Persuasive Strategies in Donald Trump's Political Speeches. EBONY: Journal of English Language Teaching, 3(1) : 33-44.

[15] Puspita P.,Farauqi A.,Sunarti S. .2018 .Critical Discourse Analysis of Vladimir Putin's Political Speech (. Journal (BIRCIJournal), 5(3) : 19944-19950.

[16] Sharififar M.,Rahimi E. .2015 .Critical discourse analysis of political speeches: A case study of Obama's and Rouhani's speeches at UN. Theory and Practice in Language studies, 5(2) : 343.

[17] Tian L. .2021 .Theory and practice in language studies. , 11(5) : 516-521.

[18] Tian L. .2021 .Theory and practice in language studies. , 11(5) : 516-521.

[19] Turan R. İ.,vance- R. İ. .2025 .read-full-transcript-of-heated-exchange-between-trump-zelenskyy-. , : .

[20] Umaraj K.,Hasan A. M. .2020 .Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's Speech in the USA Election. The Creative Launcher, 5(4) : 1-9.

[21] Van Dijk T. A.,MOARA-Revista Eletrônica do Programa de PósGraduação em Letras ISSN .1995 .Ideological discourse analysis. , (06) : 13-45.

Citations

Downloads

Views