Rhetoric of discourse : a critical discourse analysis of Tony Blair’s speech about Iraq War 2003

Abstract EN

The present study aims to investigate critically Tony Blair’s speech about the Iraq War 2003 with special attention to argumentation (practical reasoning).

He addressed this speech to the nation as he gave the order to the British forces into action in Iraq on Thursday 20 March 2003.The study also aims to establish a unified analysis of political discourse through taking goals to be imagined as states of affairs represented in circumstantial premises striped by a value premise.

The goals of such a study are twofold: first, to gain a better understanding of political discourse, Blair’s discourse as an example here from an argumentative point of view; second, to demonstrate, as held by modality of his speech, that he intends to persuade the British society, UN and all those who stand against invading Iraq.

It is the first time a political discourse studied from the perspective of both CDA and practical reasoning