Euphemism in Translation: A Socio-cognitive Critical Analysis of the US War on Terror Discourse and its Translation in Arabic Media

Abstract

As surveyed through the thesis' chapters, the study manages to answer the research questions posed at the outset, through the analysis of a multitude of linguistic tools that has often been at the disposal of the two US administrations in question. The main purpose for the utilization of such tools is, in both cases, exporting an alternative worldview to the audience, be it Arab/Muslim or American, to vindicate the image of the US. There have been minor changes in the detailed structures of the frames used for that purpose as they evolve from one administration to the other, yet the macro-structures remain more or less the same, testifying to the fact that the US policies remain the same though the guise might differ for the purposes of making them more palatable to the audience. The Socio-cognitive framework, under the umbrella of Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a model for the analysis of the discourse of the two US administrations in question, exposing their explicit, as well as implicit, ideology. The framework at hand depends on the notion that discourse, society and cognition are all inter-related, and none of them can be tackled in isolation from the other two. The Socio-cognitive framework serves to highlight the instances of positive-self presentation and negative other-presentation, in addition to other important elements such as context, intentions and mental models.