A Linguistic Study of Persecution in the Language of the Iranian Newspapers After Mahsa Amini's Crisis

الملخص

The present study is devoted to the investigation of persecution in the language of the Iranian newspapers after Mahsa Amini’s crisis from the linguistic point of view. The objectives of the study is that it aims at identifying the pragmatic, semiotic and rhetorical devices that are utilised by the editors and which show their persecution of the protests. The study is qualitative in nature and it is based on an eclectic model that includes Barthes’s (1968) theory of semiotics, Leech’s (1969) theory of rhetorical devices and Grice’s (1975) theory of implicatures. Two reports from two Iranian newspapers, namely; the Kayhan international and the Tehran times, have been selected as samples of the current study, one report for each newspaper. After analysing the selected data, it has been found that the selected reports contain some forms of persecution which are expressed via different types of linguistic devices including; conversational implicature, denotative and connotative meanings, and rhetorical devices such as; metaphor, allegory, personification, symbolism and hyperbole. These linguistic devices have proved that the editors reject the protestors’ demonstrations and deny their freedom of asking for their demands publically. Thus, the editors’ language presents their persecution of the protestors and their rightful demands.