Propaganda as expressed through nouns

Abstract

Previous studies have often used a critical discourse approach to analyse propaganda texts. Although the social function of language in propaganda texts is well recognised and researched, the systematic aspect of the language used to fulfil this function seems less well understood. To draw more general conclusions about the way in which nouns are used to express propaganda, systemic functional linguistics was used to analyse texts identified as propaganda. This study is a qualitative study, although a quantitative presentation of the data is also provided. The texts used in the study thematically pertains to former South African president, Jacob Zuma, and are a combination of texts thematically focusing on two controversial South African cases, namely Nkandla and state capture. During Zuma’s term, he was implied in both of these cases. The events enjoyed large-scale media attention and many texts were generated, some of which were pro-Zuma and some of which were against Zuma. Some of the salient findings include: the propaganda text group contains more subjective nouns than the non-propaganda text group. This high number of evaluative terms can be understood with the interpersonal metafunction in mind. For propagandists to attain their aims, they have to invite the receiver of the communication to join their perspective. These nouns are often used in collocations and can be used to create a specific discourse in a society. It is well known that nouns are used for different propaganda techniques, especially for dysphemism, but they can also be used
for a specific type of dysphemism, namely self-dysphemism.