Russian –Ukrainian Call to Arms Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Convinced people to sacrifice their lives or the lives of others in warfare for the greater good or some noble cause is hard task. This study was design to examine the Russia-Ukraine war discourses presented by Vladimir Putin (Russian President). In the present study, the analysis has conducted both the linguistic and the rhetorical strategies of Putin’s political discourse that reflects power and domination in war discourse. Hence, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was conducted as a methodological and procedures tool to investigate. Practically, What are the linguistic and rhetorical strategies employed by the examined speakers, and How do these linguistic strategies reflect power and ideology to mobilize and legitimize the policy of sacrificing the lives of people and the lives of others in the context of war?  The study revealed the power of language in political speeches in different narratives of the war. This research reveals that in order to elicit the emotions of the public, reflect the beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies of power, word choice, grammatical constructions, and rhetorical devices were used.