Title: Legitimation Strategies in U.S. Counter-Terrorism Discourse: A Case Study of Country Reports on Terrorism

Abstract: 9•11 terrorist attacks mark the re-emergence of counter-terrorism, and re-emphasis on its study in critical discourse studies. Most of the existing studies discuss the social, cultural and political contexts of legitimation, and the strategies employed. Framed by the Discourse-Cognitive-Society triangle proposed by van Dijk, using the tool of “grammar of legitimation” of van Leeuwen, as well as strategies of “ideological square” of van Dijk, this study analyzes, with the concrete examples from Country Reports on Terrorism, how the legitimation strategies work cognitively on the public and contribute to the social cognition in counter-terrorism discourse construction.

Keywords: Country Reports on Terrorism, legitimation, discourse strategies, counter-terrorism discourse, social cognition

Authors: Jianquan Feng, Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China; Shaojun Ding, College of Arts and Sciences, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China.