A Critical Discourse Analysis of Transitivity in English and Arabic Sarcastic Poetry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/qh5f6e62Keywords:
Ahmed Matar , critical discourse analysis, Darren Oxton, sarcastic poetry, transitivityAbstract
This paper discusses the critical discourse analysis of transitivity in English and Arabic sarcastic poetry. In sarcastic poetry, the poet portrays the common people and the political class as two distinct classes. As such, the poet shows how they are generally viewed as opposing parties. This paper aims at investigating the possible implications of sarcasm as a critical tool that is utilized for political critique in English and Arabic poetry. It also highlights the poets’ attitudes towards the ruling class and the potential ideological stance that is reflected in their usage of grammatical patterns of transitivity. To achieve the objectives of this paper, two political poems, one in English and one in Arabic, are analyzed in light of Fairclough's (1992) three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. This paper concluded that both poems are somewhat close in results and it found that Darren Oxton used ten verb processes, including three material processes, three mental processes and four relational processes, while Ahmed Matar used twelve verb processes, including six material processes, three relational processes, two event processes and one mental process.
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