Ideological Implications in Julia Gillard's Speech on Immigration: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The production of  any written or spoken text differs from one person to another as a result of personal motivations, political/social attitudes and ideologies. Each group seeks to express its ideological thoughts to convince others, using different strategies to achieve this aim. Implication is one of the ideological strategies used by Julia  Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia. The present study is an attempt to detect implication in her speech. To accomplish this aim, the paper starts with a theoretical background that explains Critical Discourse Analysis, ideology and sociocognitive approach. It proceeds to analyze Gillard's speech depending on van Dijk's sociocognitive approach. The study concludes that Gillard tends to express her ideology implicitly. It also reveals that implication can be expressed through other ideological strategies mainly that of positive self-/negative other-presentation.