Legitimation strategies and theistic worldview in sociopolitical discourse: A systemic functional critical discourse analysis of Pakistani social media discussions

Abstract

This study employs a systemic functional critical discourse analytical approach to the analysis of integrated theistic worldview of Pakistani social media users. To achieve its end, the study focuses on legitimation strategies, where these strategies serve to construct certain truth claims of the people. So, three thousand comments (comprising 8,401 words and 90,423 words) from online discussion forums of Dawn.com and Zemtv.com were studied and discourse samples were collected for in-depth analysis. The legitimation strategies, it is argued, are condensed and interpersonally charged through certain lexico-grammatical choices which embody people’s integrated theistic worldviews. The identity(ies) and identification claims of Pakistanis are found to be internally cohesive, based on theistic legitimation claims. To represent, legitimize and justify their worldviews, Pakistani social media users recontextualize discourses constructed from various combinations of discursive strategies, supported by references to Islamic scripture and popular narratives. The study is a prelude to a more detailed investigation of discursive strategies which represent (de)legitimized worldview and discourses internalized by Pakistani Muslims. Such studies provide deeper insights into (de)construction of (de)legitimation strategies of a society and facilitate further development of systemic functional critical discourse analytical approaches to text and context relations.