Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Ph.D Candidate, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of English and Linguistics,, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran
Abstract
Vehicle inscriptions, as a form of vernacular media, provide a platform for articulating the perspectives, values, and attitudes of marginalized social groups—particularly drivers—who are often excluded from access to official media. This study aims to critically analyze the mechanisms of legitimation and delegitimation embedded in these inscriptions, employing Theo van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework of critical discourse analysis. Methodologically, the study is qualitative and follows a descriptive-analytical approach. The data consist of 4,810 inscriptions collected from three authoritative textual sources: Autol-nameh (Hadian Tabaei Zavareh, 2010), Machine Inscriptions (Parsa, 2011), and Machine Inscriptions: Apotropaic Verses (Hamidi, 2002). The inscriptions were coded and analyzed based on Van Leeuwen’s legitimation strategies, including authorization, moral evaluation, rationalization, and mythopoesis. The findings indicate that vehicle inscriptions legitimize discourses such as religiosity, patriotism, family loyalty, and lawfulness and play a critical role in delegitimizing discourses surrounding economic inequality, institutional inefficiency, gender discrimination, consumerism, and public distrust. The high frequency of strategies like moral evaluation and rationalization reveals that these inscriptions function beyond mere aesthetic expression; they serve as powerful discursive tools for reflecting and contesting dominant ideologies in contemporary Iranian society.
Keywords
- critical discourse analysis
- legitimizing discourse
- delegitimization
- gender inequality
- van Leeuwen
- vehicle inscriptions
Main Subjects
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