Failing to Prevail: A Discourse Analysis of Attitude in Mubarak’s Speeches During the Arab Spring

Abstract

This paper examines the attitude in President Hosni Mubarak’s speeches during the Arab Spring Uprising in 2011.  The appraisal concept discussed by Martin and White which is based on Halliday’s Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is adopted as a framework for analysis. According to the appraisal framework, tenor (interpersonal metafunction) is divided into subsections including Attitude. To be more specific, Attitude in the appraisal concept is divided into three domains:   affect, judgment and appreciation. Mubarak’s three speeches in 2011 were analysed in terms of the linguistic devices used to reflect these domains, such as pronouns, intensification, reiteration, lexical selection and metaphor. The distribution of the use of each domain and frequencies are examined using charts and diagrams.   Results proved the significant impact of the speeches on the demonstrations. Mubarak’s attitude changed throughout his speeches.  His first speech was unrealistic, whereas the second speech was less emotive and more assertive. His third speech was full of subliminal authoritative messages and lack of sympathy.