Positive Discourse Analysis of Selected American and British Speeches During the Pandemic of Covid-19

Abstract

The present study aims at examining the positive discourse analysis that is used by the American and British doctors during the pandemic of COVID-19. It is achieved through the following two analyses; namely, the linguistic analysis and the ideological one. While the first is accomplished via analysing the four levels: the structural, lexical, rhetorical and pragmatic, the second is accomplished via analysing the revealed positive ideology of the American and the British doctors. The present study finds that the American doctor frequently employs the past simple and the present simple, while the British doctor frequently employs the present simple and then the present progressive at the structural level; verbs are frequently used by the American doctors while nouns are frequently used by the British doctors to trigger a positive presupposition at the lexical level; hyperbole and litotes are both employed by the American and the British doctors at the rhetorical level; nouns and verbs of the lexical level; and the strategy of be optimistic by the American and British doctors at the pragmatic level. It is concluded that the present and past simple tenses, hyperbole and litotes, nouns and verbs and the strategy of be optimistic are the appropriate ones to achieve the positive message in the American and British discourses.