Language ideology of two escapees of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp: A CDA and corpus linguistics in German media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17509/1g9s5e95Keywords:
Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, Critical Discourse Analysis, language ideologyAbstract
The objective of this research is to analyze language ideology in the testimonies of two escapees from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. This study employs a qualitative descriptive approach, oriented towards corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The research data consist of the 26-page reports of Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, which serve as the corpus source. Data collection was carried out to conduct a contrastive analysis of the language used by two escapees and to establish “camp” as a keyword, based on its frequency and occurrences in the corpus. The corpus was analyzed using Fairclough's framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The findings reveal the presence of key terms in the corpus produced by Wetzler and Vrba, categorized into three groups: (1) words related to location, background, and origin, (2) words that introduce the purpose of the concentration camp, and (3) words implying the events that occurred within the camp. Secondly, collocations surrounding the keyword “camp” were identified, including adjectives, verbs, nouns, and adverbs. Thirdly, three ideological language constructions were found in the testimonies: (1) the language ideology of experiencing the similar misery as Jewish prisoners, (2) the language ideology of rebellion against torture, (3) the language ideology of struggling to survive. The implications of this research demonstrate how critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics can be integrated to uncover ideological patterns in media texts through the linguistic features.
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