Florent MoncombleđŁ Major update to RedditScraper: researchers can now opt to extract comments (and replies) along with posts/articles, and there's a new mode to extract a single post with its thread of comments and replies.
Onslow PolyMuch like Donald, Melania has always struck me as someone incapable of completing a thought.
"He would like to have a country where all of the people can walk down the street and not be harassed or murdered or women raped", [but he is too busy raping them.]
But this is linguistically very complicated.
Can you hear where she trailed off? The place where I inserted a square bracket satirization? That silence is doing heavy lifting.
For those who appreciate my little journey into Systemic Functional Linguistics and discourse analysis, the first part of her statement likely is an example of Velleity: a wish which explicitly does not lead to action. Additionally, it is a third-person report of Trump's supposed desire (a desiderative process).
This creates a fascinating liability shield via projection. Trump never said it; Melania said he desires it.
The speaker is not responsible for the desire, only for the report of the desire. The "He" (Donald Trump/subject) is not responsible either, because he didn't voice it. He can later claim, "I never promised that; that was just someone characterising my feelings."
It is the vast difference between Projection of Locution: "He said he would build it." (Verifiable. Did he say it?)
and;
Projection of Idea: "He would like to build it." (Unverifiable. This is a report of a mental state.)
As you can see, that is some weak gravy. It gets weaker when we look at the Agencyâor lack thereof.
If we map the Transitivity (who is doing what to whom), Trump is merely a reported Senser: the conscious being who "feels" or "wants." But realistically, he isn't even a senser. He's the idea of a senser. He is not an Actor; he is not "doing" anything. Ironically, the phantom criminalsâthe implied harassers and rapists in her sentenceâpossess more grammatical agency than the President. They are the implied Actors causing material change in the world, while he sits passively in a reported Mental Process, hiding behind his wifeâs skirt and shield.
Furthermore, look at the Circumstance of Location: "walk down the street." This phrasing carefully excludes the actual loci of the allegations against Trump (dressing rooms, elevators, airplanes, private clubs). By defining the danger as "street crime," she linguistically insulates him from his own alleged modus operandi.
The real rhetorical sleight of hand happens in the silence at the end. Statements of velleity almost instinctively demand a "but", or some other marker of predicate limitation. By using "would like", she is setting up a Concessive Relationâconceding the ideal worldâwhich structurally demands a counter-move to explain why that world doesn't exist yet.
This is Implicit Counter-Expectancy. The grammar creates a vacuum that the listenerâs brain automatically fills. By eliding the "but..." clause, she ghosts the limitation. It is a truncated concession.
She offers the wish, but hides the reality that prevents it.
"Donald wants a better World, but...".
The reality is that her man is an accused sex offender:
E. Jean Carroll: A department store dressing room (Bergdorf Goodman).
Jessica Leeds: First-class cabin of an airplane.
Rachel Crooks: An elevator in Trump Tower.
Natasha Stoynoff: A private room at Mar-a-Lago.
Summer Zervos: A hotel bungalow.
Alva Johnson: A campaign RV.
Miss USA/Teen USA Contestants: Dressing rooms (backstage).
Kristin Anderson: A nightclub (seated on a couch).
"Jane Doe" (Katie Johnson) Lawsuit: Alleged the assaults occurred at Epsteinâs Manhattan Mansion (9 East 71st Street) and at a private party.
The "Limousine Driver" File (Unsealed 2024/2025): References a victim who stated she was taken to a "fancy hotel or building" (possibly Atlantic City) where the alleged assault by both men occurred.
"The Egyptian Room": Allegations of assaults occurring in private VIP rooms at casinos.
Strictly speaking, none of those places are "on the street".
#DiscourseAnalysis #SFL #Linguistics #Rhetoric #Trump #Melania #Politics
DiscourseNetYou still have a chance to submit an Abstract for our 2026 Congress with ALED in #Puebla, #Mexico, until February 1., 2026.
https://discourseanalysis.net/en/ALED-DN2026 #DiscourseAnalysis #DiscourseStudies #CDA
đŁ RedditScraper, already a browser plugin, now also lives as a web app to help you build corpora of Reddit posts for discourse analysis.
anekantaLetters of Blood and Fire: âTerrorismâ, Dispossession, and the Distorted Mirrorings of Domination
https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/2025/12/28/letters-of-blood-and-fire-terrorism-dispossession-and-the-distorted-mirrorings-of-domination/
Beyond labels: examining violence, power, and domination
#StateTerrorism,#PoliticalEconomy,#StructuralDomination,#AntiImperialism,#CapitalistViolence,#DecolonialThought,#CriticalTheory,#SovereignPower,#DiscourseAnalysis,#Resistance,#Alleged_Dawood_Mirchi_Rkw_Dhfl_BjP_Collusion,#Seize_Cronies_Fairplay_for_DHFL_Victims,
https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/2025/12/28/letters-of-blood-and-fire-terrorism-dispossession-and-the-distorted-mirrorings-of-domination/
Beyond labels: examining violence, power, and domination
#StateTerrorism,#PoliticalEconomy,#StructuralDomination,#AntiImperialism,#CapitalistViolence,#DecolonialThought,#CriticalTheory,#SovereignPower,#DiscourseAnalysis,#Resistance,#Alleged_Dawood_Mirchi_Rkw_Dhfl_BjP_Collusion,#Seize_Cronies_Fairplay_for_DHFL_Victims,
âHow to use critical discourse analysis in your researchâ
In-person #workshop for PhD students & early career researchers
15 & 16 January 2026, Sheffield, UK
With:
Professor Tom Bartlett, University of Glasgow | Dr Michael Farrelly, Discourse Academy | Dr Michael Kranert, University of Southampton | Dr Jane Mulderrig, University of Sheffield
For more information see: https://discourseanalysis.net/en/how-use-critical-discourse-analysis-your-research #CDA #DiscourseAnalysis #Discourse #DiscourseStudies
Miguel Afonso CaetanoCreating certainty where there is none: Artificial intelligence as political concept
CristĂłbal Garibay-Petersen Marta Lorimer, and Bayar Menzat
(Big Data & Society)
"Recent developments in research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) have prompted a growing politicisation of AI. In this paper, we critically analyse how AI is being construed in public discourse and with what political implications. Approaching AI as a mobilising political concept, and focusing on the public pronouncements made by influential tech commentators, we identify and subject to technical and critical scrutiny four key themes in contemporary discourses on AI. First, we show how AI discourses endorse anthropological commitments that create false equivalences between human and artificial intelligence, and suggest that all are equally affected by AI. Second, we demonstrate that AI discourses unproblematically indulge in agential constructs, which ascribe agency to AI while obfuscating the role of humans in its development. Third, we explain how the economic assumptions made by these discourses support specific political interests. Finally, we show that discourses on AI endorse a set of temporal assumptions that reduce the space for democratic intervention. We conclude that AI is becoming more than what its âtechnicalâ specifications would warrant; however, this is happening in a way that limits the space for democratic engagement with, and control of, the technology itself."
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517251396079
Canadian Association For Food StudiesAre you exploring Alternative Food Networks? You should check out the work of Dr. Alissa Overend!
Alissa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at MacEwan University. Their 2021 book Shifting Food Facts (Routledge Press) examined the shifting food truths of contemporary dietary discourse and was featured in a webinar on CAFS YT: âThe Many Truths of Food and Nutrition.â Their current work explores alternative food networks in Alberta.
Alissa currently serves on the Canadian Associate for Food Studies Board in the role of Membership Engagement.
#MeetTheBoard #AlternativeFoodNetworks #FoodStudies #CriticalFoodStudies #DietaryDiscourse #CAFS #Sociology #SocialTheory #IntersectionalFeminism #MediaAnalysis #DiscourseAnalysis
Meet the CAFS Board with Dr. Alissa Overend!
Check out the new paper in our Collaborative Working Paper Series:
Thomas Huygens examines the conceptual uses of imaginary temporality by Xi Jinpingâs thought to legitimise the CCPâs actions and positions.
You can find this and other working papers from our #DNCWPS here: https://discourseanalysis.net/dncwps
#PoliticalImaginaries #China #DiscourseAnalysis #DiscourseStudies #Castoriadis #propaganda #XiJinping #CCP
đŁ After an initial hiccup đ it really IS out!
New to #CorpusTools, TruthScraper is a browser extension that lets you build a corpus of posts from Truth Social.
More info & download links đ https://fmoncomble.github.io/truthscraper/
Bug reports and feature requests welcome!
