Abstrict

In the context of international conflicts, the influence of language on ideological formation and political discourse cannot be underestimated. This study investigates how language is employed to construct ideological narratives and political implications within a corpus of news discourse focusing on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The primary objective is to uncover linguistic patterns that reveal biases in media representations of the events in Pakistan. Utilizing Baker's (2023) framework and Transitivity analysis (Halliday 1967), this research scrutinizes linguistic elements such as keyness, lexical selection, and clause structures across evolving online news narratives circulated by Dawn newspaper. The findings reveal a tendency for news narratives to obscure Israeli involvement in acts of violence while emphasizing actions attributed to Palestinians, highlighting significant shifts in meaning and usage over time. Approximately 75% of analyzed newspaper articles exhibited linguistic biases that framed the conflict. These findings underscore the need for researchers to address these biases critically and advocate for more balanced and transparent reporting practices.

Keywords

Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis, Israel-Palestine Conflict, Dawn, Pakistani Newspaper, Sketch Engine, Transitivity

Introduction

The Israel-Palestine conflict continues to be one of the most persistent and divisive geopolitical subjects with decades of global attention. In addition to its worldwide implications, Pakistan is particularly affected by this conflict because of its deep political and emotional ties to the Palestinian cause (Malkawi & Fareh, 2023).    In addition to that, Pakistani media, which covers the conflict on a regular basis and shapes public opinion and national discourse, includes widely recognized newspapers such as Dawn. In light of this, it is crucial to investigate the linguistic framing of the conflict in Pakistani media, especially with regard to narrative dynamics and linguistic patterns. The reporting of conflict in newspapers has been critically examined by scholars, revealing the significant role media plays in shaping public discourse and opinion. Research indicates that media outlets often exhibit bias in their coverage, particularly in conflict reporting. For instance, Timotijevic (2022) found that Gulf News exhibits compassionate feelings toward Palestine in its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Dawn newspaper, known for its vast readership and perceived objectivity, is an ideal case study for this analysis. Haider and Hussein (2020) note its significant influence in shaping public discourse on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Therefore, this study will focus on the narrative dynamics within Dawn's reporting, utilizing corpus linguistics and transitivity analysis to uncover how violence and key events are represented in the war. Additionally, the strength of this research is its combined emphasis on corpus linguistics and narrative building (Roy, 2012). It thoroughly explores Dawn's coverage's transitivity patterns, evaluative language, and agency representation, understanding how the conflict is discursively constituted in a South Asian context.

In contrast, Suwarsono also highlights that most newspapers demonstrate authorial bias, particularly favoring one side in the discourse on the Israel-Palestine crisis. Further evidence of media bias is seen in Al-Jazeera's (2021) and other newspapers' portrayals, which tend to favor Palestinian perspectives over Israeli ones. In the study of Kandil (2009) argues that these media outlets reflect public attitudes toward the conflict and actively shape these attitudes through their reporting. This selective emphasis on certain narratives reveals the underlying purpose of news reporting, which often aligns with specific ideological stances. These studies have provided an underpinning background for investing in narrative dynamics through language use in media discourse. 

Despite the information, the media plays a crucial role in supporting particular ideological positions through its discourse. Boquerat (2015) demonstrates that newspapers, as key players in the media landscape, are instrumental in reflecting and reiterating the power dynamics inherent in conflicts like that of Israel-Palestine. Their corpus-based analysis shows how media discourse can propagate ideological instances, further entrenching existing biases. Conversely, some scholars argue that media discourse can be impartial, striving to report without bias or prejudice. Tahir et al. (2021) assert that journalistic practices, given their social implications, help shape our perceptions of social reality, often aiming for objective reporting.

Moreover, language use in media reporting is another critical factor influencing the interpretation of conflict narratives. Hunston (2022) emphasizes the importance of appropriate language use in language studies, especially given technological advancements in wordlist research. However, language scholars debate the effectiveness of using multiple senses and forms in reporting, with some arguing that once a word is learned in one context, its related forms are easily acquired. This debate is particularly relevant in corpus linguistics, where varying research approaches lead to different conclusions about language use in media discourse. Baker (2023) adds that the structure of media texts, including speech style, lexical choices, and interpersonal interactions, plays a significant role in conveying the patterns of written conversation, which can reflect or challenge dominant ideologies. 

In light of these observations, this study aims to investigate the narrative portrayal of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Dawn newspaper. Using a corpus-based discourse analysis approach, the study provides notable insight into the linguistic and rhetorical devices employed in the conflict's portrayal to analyze how these narratives create, uphold, and potentially subvert dominant ideologies surrounding the conflict. Therefore, the present study not only adds to the increasing corpus of literature on media discourse and the Israel-Palestine conflict but also emphasizes the significance of corpus-based techniques in revealing the intricate, frequently implicit ways language influences our comprehension of global concerns. 

Statement of the Problem

The Israel-Palestine conflict, a long-standing geopolitical issue, has received extensive global media coverage, with newspapers playing a crucial role in shaping public opinion and discourse through their narrative framing. Despite the considerable attention to this conflict, there needs to be more academic research examining how non-Western media, such as Dawn in Pakistan, provides comprehensive reporting on international affairs, such as the Israel-Palestine conflict. Scholars have paid attention to Western media portrayals of the global issue as alarming to lives (Lui, 2024; Kandil, 2009; Lee, 2016; Yousaf, 2023), but there exists a significant gap in understanding how Pakistani media frames this conflict. While corpus-based discourse analysis can uncover subtle linguistic patterns and narrative strategies, substantial research has yet to employ this methodological approach to analyze Dawn's coverage to address this gap; this research seeks to critically analyze the narrative dynamics in Dawn's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict uses a corpus-based approach. 

Research Objectives

? To critically analyze linguistic patterns that are embedded within the narrative constructions of the Israel- Palestine conflict as revealed through corpus-based analysis of textual data.

? To examine the dominant narratives regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict as framed in the Dawn newspaper.

Research Questions 

The following questions guide the research.

? What linguistic patterns are embedded within the narrative constructions of the Israel- Palestine conflict as revealed through corpus-based analysis of textual data?

? What are the dominant narratives regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict as framed in the Dawn newspaper?

Significance of the Study

The way that the Israel-Palestine conflict is portrayed in the Dawn newspaper offers important insights into how language shapes our perceptions of world affairs. By bridging the knowledge gaps between Corpus linguistics and media discourse, the study contributes to identifying the rhetorical strategies, thematic patterns, and transitivity structures that are employed to frame the dispute. This work advances the discipline of linguistics by using corpus-based discourse analysis (CDA) to address a critical and actual events concern. The research demonstrates how corpus linguistics can analyze complex narratives in media texts using cutting-edge computational tools and approaches. The research will shed important light on how political positions, advocacy, and resistance are communicated in Pakistani media through this language analysis. By using this approach, CDA's methodological tool is expanded and illustrates future studies looking at how conflicts are portrayed in the media.

Literature Review

Language is a powerful tool for framing political events and the editors' and journalists' decisions affect how readers see the Israel-Palestine conflict. Still, the battle can shed light on Pakistan's larger sociopolitical position and media environment, exposing the underlying narrative structures and ideologies that influence public discourse. The Guardian, American outlets Fox News and CNN showed a noticeable difference in their negative portrayal of the Palestinian side, the comparative study (Alashqar, 2024) highlights the tendency of American media to adopt the Israeli narrative and concluded that the media also strategically framed the social actors to reinforce the conflict between the conflict's opposing parties through the position of language use constantly keywords such as genocide, ‘food,’ health,’ ‘aid,’ were all demonstrating humanitarian issues. In a similar view, the study of Hajra Chaudhry (2024) introduced the idea that the media attempts to draw the public's attention to specific issues; journalists make the decisions, select the specific subject, and the media reports on what people envision and consider consequently’. However, because of differing ideologies, media outlets employed diverse language to describe the war (Lui, 2024). A horizontal comparison of his study revealed that media outlets construct language differently to demonstrate the conflict in a comprehensive perspective, i.e., ‘Global/World issues’ and ‘Political /international relations’ subjects reported in news media narratives over time. 

Similarly, the study of Bhowmik & Fisher (2023) demonstrates the powerful influence elite counter-discourse has on public perceptions of conflicts and media narratives. It adds important insights into the dynamics of American media coverage, especially regarding how various journalistic stances might influence public opinion and views of current international crises. This study is important for comprehending the intricate details of media framing of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and its broader implications. In addition to that, Malkawi & Fareh's (2023) study work examined the linguistic and rhetorical strategies used in Hanan Ashrawi’s pro-Palestinian speech. It looks at semiotic aspects such as lexico-grammar, semantic, and contextual elements as well as theme patterns. The study emphasizes how nominalization, parallelism, repetition, and metaphors can all strengthen the persuasiveness of advocacy language. The study also indicates a connection between process types and themes, such as Material (US policy) and Mental (hope and resilience), demonstrating the deliberate use of language in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Likewise, the study (Ali, 2023) contently analyzed media coverage of the Israel- Palestine conflict to examine the issue in Pakistani media, I.e., Dawn newspaper and The News”. Thus, the findings suggest that Pakistani newspapers gave accountable coverage to international issues, influencing public discourse in Pakistan.

Furthermore, the comprehensive study of Ukka (2022) extended the discussion and demonstrated that worldwide media conflict stories are positively and significantly impacted by the mediator variable of foreign politics. Furthermore, the results showed that, with 43.4% of the study sample being international media, Al Jazeera was the most often used. As a result, the study concludes that Al Jazeera's online journalism has the power to influence Israel and Palestine's relationship in the present and the future and that international media's online conflict reports are propaganda for foreign policy. The narrative and clause structures have attracted a severe global crisis through significant international concerns and have been documented widely, as the Pakistani print media landscape has continuously advocated multiple projects and conflicts to apprehend the narratives (Haidar & Hussein, 2020). 

Nevertheless, Dawn newspaper stories in Pakistan received prominent coverage demonstrating national and international issues, impacting media attention and audience (Shafiullah & Ali, 2018). However, the political changes that Pakistan has seen have directly impacted the development of the media, although there has always been a blurred line separating the political and media spheres. In some instances, journalism has served as an entryway for a diplomatic or political conflict (Boquerat, 2015). In recent political contexts, the connection between the media narrative of conflicts and influence through lexical patterns contributes to ideological framing (Roy, 2012). Such as the discursive use of conflict terms, for instance, ‘peace,’ ‘victim,’ ‘attack,’ etc., create specific identities that provide preference to prevailing groups, and the discursive depiction of the conflict unconsciously imposes the cultural norms of the prevailing communities (Roy, 2012).

Scholarly investigations have also paid attention to how Australian press coverage affects and reflects public opinion regarding the Israel-Palestine issue. For instance, Han & Rane (2011) revealed that public opinion and the dominant media frames are at odds, with respondents indicating a greater affinity for the Palestinian viewpoint and a preference for methods of resolving conflicts grounded on universal principles and human rights. Thus, the study concluded that how media coverage sometimes fails to represent the nuances of public feeling completely. Similarly, researchers and academics studying media and communication frequently focus only on how the revolution in information technology and communication has affected media coverage and intervention in international conflicts. Nevertheless, few examine how foreign politics affect domestic media coverage of overseas conflicts (Han & Rane, 2011).

Furthermore, other researchers also have applied various linguistics methodologies to analyze media discourse that has often commented on the language employed in the media to depict this significant dispute (e.g., Ackerman, 2001; Fisk, 2001; Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007). Thus, Kandil (2009) revealed that media discourse needs to be uncovered with some of the strategies used by each news outlet to adjust for the conflicting performers' varying positive or negative representations'. The Scholarly literature suggests that several research studies have examined the conflict, particularly with mainstream media, however, there is limited focus on the language patterns employed in the media discourse to depict the influential dispute and its impact on public perception in Pakistan. 

Research Methodology

The study adopted a mixed-method approach to examine the language used in the Dawn newspaper, integrating qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data collection and analysis as Baker (2023) urges the corpus- corpus-based approach allows the researcher to seek textual patterns as constituting intuitions that treat language as self-contained objects. The study transitions from a qualitative, linguistic, and grammatical assessment to a quantitative, statistical analysis. Due to spatial constraints, this study was limited to one news agency; however, the data required to compare the present ideologies would be obtained using the framework stories from a different newspaper.

Theoretical Framework

In this study, we integrate two theoretical frameworks Transitivity (1994) and CDA (1980) to critically examine the role of language in shaping media discourse, focusing on how ideological biases and power relations are constructed and communicated through the language of conflict reporting. Corpus Linguistics studies language use from "real life" communication instances (Baker, 2023, p.1), and has the potential to uncover linguistic patterns, and meaning construction in various genres. Similarly, Stefanowitsch (2020) states that language use in corpus linguistics is authentic and representative of large analysis collection. We view Corpus Linguistics as particularly relevant to media discourses because it offers a notion of authenticity that reflects and constructs reality (Widdowson, 2000). Baker (2023) further defines it as a systematic practice in which various discourses in the media are constructed and challenged through language. We employ this framework to understand how linguistic patterns in media texts, such as those in the Dawn newspaper, uncover ideological biases, particularly concerning conflict reporting (Baker, 2019). Thus, corpus linguistics reflected the nature of text used in Dawn newspaper in a particular time frame regarding the conflict and its impact at large. 

We also draw on Halliday's (1994) framework of Transitivity to examine how language creates meaning by representing events and entities. This framework is instrumental in our linguistic analysis, particularly focusing on the structural grammar and clauses that shape media discourse (Suparto & Bahasa, 2018).  In media narratives, especially in newspapers, we apply Transitivity analysis to explore how language biases are constructed and how they influence event reporting (Lee, 2016). Through this approach, we analyze how clause construction in media texts links ideology and power, particularly in narratives surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Finally, we employ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the ideological concepts and power relations embedded in discourse (Asad et al., 2019). We draw on Foucault’s (1980) notion of ideology, which reveals how individuals resist and negotiate discursive forces, often struggling with self-subjugation (Daldal, 2014). CDA allows us to uncover how language in newspaper texts in Pakistan serves various interests and positions social expressions within the context of media discourse (Asad et al., 2019). By applying CDA, we conduct a textual analysis that views media texts as forms of social interaction, uncovering the narratives surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Thus, the views of Baker (2023) suggest that corpus-based analysis tends to be conceptualized with the direction of social inquiry. Therefore, the study consists of textual analysis related to existing relations taking the text as social interaction through media discourse uncovering the narratives about the Israel- Palestine conflict today. 

Research Design

Textual data was used in the study design for the corpus since it has been demonstrated that there is sufficient text for a study of conversation that is contextually specific (Egbert & Biber, 2020). As a result, the corpus and transitivity analysis were conducted on the fifteen most relevant articles.

Data Collection

A limited sample size (15 articles) was selected for the study based on the relevancy of the top 15 items listed chronologically from the Dawn newspaper's official website, which covered the Israel-Palestine conflict between October 2023 and March 2024. The selection includes a number of article types (such as news stories and opinion columns) to capture a range of viewpoints and language styles.

Data Analysis

In order to examine the language employed in the dawn newspaper stories that identified indicator ideological representation (Albota, 2024), a small corpus of 11,501 words and 15 objects was created. A corpus should be constructed with a specific objective in mind, as stated by Baker et al. (2008; Baker, 2013), or else it will contain language that has been extracted from its context. The aim is to expose the hidden sources of Dawn newspaper stories and coverage regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because of this, the pieces in this corpus were assembled over six months, considering the war, the conditions underlying the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the opinions of the international community regarding its potential aftereffects. Thus, the study used Sketch Engine to evaluate the quantitative data in three areas: Keyness, Concordance lines, and lexical choice. The transitivity model (1994) and CDA (1980) were used to assess the qualitative data. 

Keyness

Keywords for this study are defined by distribution and frequency, as per Baker's (2023) views, which classify statistical keywords into three categories: proper nouns, identifiable keywords that show the aboutness of a text and are considered to be there, and high-frequency terms that indicate the style, such as however/because. Keyness is determined by contrasting a selected corpus with a reference corpus that occurs more frequently in the text. However, the study's intended objective should be expanded to include phraseology and word clusters. The study focused on the top thirty keywords, also known as the key keywords. These top 30 keywords are broken down into proper nouns and easily identifiable keywords. High-frequency keywords, which comprise the third category, describe the kind of content included in a corpus (Baker & Egbert, 2016), after identifying the exact genre of the writings. Classifying all of the lemmas as a single semantic unit is acceptable, given the example of the first lexeme Rafah. These three terms all represent the same activity, and their meaning is the same regardless of whether the text's emphasis is on any one of them or all three. However, the meaning of each lemma connected to the term "Israeli family" is noticeably different.

Moreover, the study focused on the ideological examination of the text's topics and silent elements. Furthermore, the reader's impression of a subject is shaped by the lexical choices in newspaper articles connected to that theme. Hence, it is important to analyze keywords to comprehend core ideas (Amaireh, 2023). According to the survey, of the top 100 keywords, 50 are proper nouns that appear more frequently than others. Such terms include Gaza (156 times) and Hamas (48 times). This demonstrates that the term Gaza appears more often than Hamas. As Kenny (2001) argues, textual patterns come into focus when language is used appropriately. However, the finding emphasizes any thematic or ideological components that could be present in the text and identifies significant linguistic patterns. 

 

Figure 1

Sketch Engine for Keyword Gaza and Hamas



However, the study of Qawariq (2016) claimed that understanding the important words semantically is a more strategic approach to their analysis. On the other hand, the Dawn newspaper corpus examined the most important terms in relation to addresses of the most frequent words.

 

Figure 2

Using Sketch Engine for N-Grams of Total Frequency 



Interpretations of N-grams, which appeared in 23 items with a total frequency of 169, can be found for the top 100 keywords. 

Figure 2 demonstrates that the terms "Gaza strip," "for Palestine refugees," "people were killed," and similar expressions are most frequently used in relation to this two-sided conflict. 

However, the concordance lines for the six-month period (October 2023–March 2024) show that the term most frequently used in Dawn newspaper articles was "the Gaza strip accused that dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, " which notably reveals the impact of wars on language use in corpus-assisted media discourse. The result addresses the idea that language is endowed with meaning, abstracting text from its context (Baker, 2023).

As a result, the analysis showed that the media discourse narrative within the corpus seemed more Israeli. Even while the number of Palestinian casualties in the conflict increases annually, it is odd that no deaths from the opposing side are conspicuous in the corpus. The analysis urges that close formulation of lexical construction between language and ideology could be particularly associated with the agency viewed as holding powerless identities uncovered in the narratives of media discourse (Baker, 2023). 

 

Figure 3

Left to Right Concordance for the Gaza Strip



Furthermore, the Concordance lines for The Gaza Strip demonstrated the impact of wars on people's lives in Palestine, which poses a severe threat going forward. They were identified in the formation of the next operation, as Fig. 4 demonstrated. The line reflects the response by the territory's health ministry to the problem. However, as the world looked on, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a post-war strategy. Additionally, media narratives decontextualized language, which is why it is only partial reality; therefore, language use in media discourse questions the border notion of authenticity (Widdowson, 2000).

 

Figure 5

Left to Right Concordance for the Gaza Strip



The UN human rights statement that Palestinians are in grave danger reflects the most intense power outages (Lee, 2016).  However, there might be an imbalance in representation because four leaders support Israel (Hajra Chaudhry, 2024). More civilians are murdered and impacted by the Israel-Palestine conflict as a consequence of this corpus-assisted discourse analysis than military personnel (HRW, 2015). According to the chart, there is a greater emphasis on American backing in media discourse when it comes to several Israeli campaign authorities, but just one from the Palestinian side.

 

Figure 6

Concordance associated with the word Violence 



However, four instances of word attack in the corpus heightened tensions throughout the area and led to the conclusion that terminology associated with attacks is used to handle disputes. The term attacking or attacked in the newspapers appeared many times; therefore, the concordance associated with the word results in a serious issue that is gaining attention worldwide and losing many lives. Thus, language and ideology represented in newspaper narratives examine practical consequences that lose not only their communicative context but also linguistic pattern practices; as a result, language structure demonstrates the density of conflict worldwide (Stefanowitsch, 2020). 

The results also showed that, in terms of national importance and conflict location, Palestinians are by far the most prominent, if not the only, group of people involved in wars. Therefore, it is more important for the Palestinian side to lead. However, The Israeli side's higher frequency and terminology selection can be seen as making it substantially more important to this conflict. This might be the case considering the concepts of superlative and negative news values because readers prefer to read dramatic and poignant news.

Figure 7

Concordance associated with the word Attack



Lexical Choices

Lexical choices, according to Fairclough (2002), are visible in news discourse because they represent the connections between words and the external elements that are present below the surface of the text. This was accomplished by searching for collocations between terms in a corpus of Dawn articles. For the data analysis, the main keywords chosen for the study were the Israel-Palestine conflict, attack, and strike. Nonetheless, every word shares some degree of co-occurrence with another word (Baker, 2023) and can help identify any underlying notions at the word or multi-word level. Only the top 20 most frequent collocates and clusters are considered for analysis to keep the size reasonable. Based on an analysis of the two most significant keywords, Israeli and Palestinian, the study found that the groups engaged in combat were carried out through collocational patterns. 

 

Figure 8

The Lemma for Frequent Words in Dawn Newspaper 



Collocation

Collocation is the phrase used to explain when two or more words are selected or regularly occur together (Hoey, 2005; Sinclair, 1991). The Israel-Palestine conflict and political representation may be evident in a chosen corpus's weak and strong collocates. Collocations in the study allowed the theme codes to identify psychological notions (Baker, 2023). In a particular way, the analysis looked at basic psychological ideas associated with the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Regarding the areas on both sides of the conflict, the study looked at the top three locations from Israel and Palestine from the keyword list and then calculated their top 20 collocates made by the Dawn newspaper corpus. The major Israeli places, for example, are lexically defined as Israel, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv, while the West Bank, Gaza, and Hebron comprise the Palestinian territories. The terms "Israel" evoke associations with security, unity, peace, justice, international relations, and attack. Thus, it concluded that lexical choice in media discourse extensively covered the conflict more in situations with ideological conflicts (Yousaf, 2023). 

 

Figure 9

The Collocations from the newspaper 



However, The Israeli prime minister is associated with the terms "White" and "House," whereas the president of Palestine is not. This could also be attributed to the firm relationship between Israel and the United States. In addition to reflecting the strategic partnership between the United States and Israel, this collocation upholds Israel's standing as a major actor on the international scene, frequently in line with Western goals. On the other hand, when compared to Israel, the terms "kill," "attack," "violence," "shot," and "occupation" are generally more strongly associated with Palestine, focusing on the turmoil and aggression that surrounds the Palestinian people. The way in which these collocations are employed could affect the perception of Palestinians as either perpetrators or victims of violence, contingent on the larger context. By highlighting conflict and resistance, this pattern may help to maintain a particular perception of Palestine in the international media.

In contrast, Israel's ties to Stab, Wound, and Clash depict Israel as responding to attack rather than starting it, suggesting a narrative of confrontation and defense. These collocations imply a story that stresses Israel's participation in violent interactions, although frequently in a conflictual rather than an occupational setting. Thus, these collocational patterns emphasize how language shapes people's perceptions of the Israel-Palestine conflict and can have a big impact on how the public understands the conflict by highlighting some aspects of it and downplaying others through corpus-based study (Baker & Egbert, 2020) 

Transitivity 

Transitivity is found in the Ideational meta-function in the study, where the speaker is regarded as an observer (Halliday, 1994).  The Dawn newspaper covers events regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict as spectators, trying to tell their readers a story. Their choice of what to include or leave out of each clause can reveal their opinions on the subject. Understandably, attempts could be made to reduce some parties' involvement and increase those of others, given the keywords' associations with death and destruction, particularly if one supports a specific side in the conflict. Thus, it uncovers the discursive meaning practices in media discourse that influence real-life situations differently and interest that identifies power relations (Halliday, 1968). 

 

Table 1

Transitivity with the Word Violence

Process: Kill
	Goal	Actor	Agent	Agent (LE)
Israel	26	23	21(46%)	2
Palestine	45	20	8(25%)	3
Israel & Palestine	4	-	5(100%)	-
Other	7	-	-	-

 

The most significant Violence term Kill is found in the corpus. All verb tenses that contain the word "kill" are examined. The extract is left out when a lemma stands in for a noun. After being designated as an Israeli or Palestinian entity, the Goal, Actor, and Agent are measured. The verb "kill" was present in 82 concordance lines in all. Of these, twenty-six stated that Israel was the objective, that is, that an Israeli was being slain. 45 Palestinian goals are being killed. When the Actor and Agent statistics are added up, Israel is shown to be accountable for 45 deaths and Palestine for 31.

In summary, this indicates that 54% of Israel's and 75% of Palestine's acts were stated openly in the newspaper stories. This outcome undoubtedly conceals a greater percentage of Israel's causal killings than those brought about by Palestine. Thus, it concluded that the transitivity framework could potentially help to evaluate and create linguistic biases in media narratives, especially in newspapers, and their function in event reporting (Lee, 2016).




Table 2

Transitivity with Word Attack

Process: Attack
	Goal	Actor	Agent
Israel	10	-	-
Palestine	-	11	-
Israel & Palestine	-	-	-
Other	1	-	-

 

The verb "attack" only occurs in relation to the Palestinian targeting of Americans and Israelis in the context of the situation. Each of the eleven attacks carried out by Palestinians is specifically named as the Actor in the clause context. Because of this outcome, Dawn newspaper decided to identify the aggressor as a Palestinian each time, making sure that the public knew who was behind the attacks. However, the newspaper narratives urge us to understand the influence of language biases that constrain how ideological power relations can be perceived (Halliday, 1994). Thus, context is a social angle that affects language (Asad et al., 2019).




Table 3

Transitivity with Word shoot

Process: Shoot
	Goal	Actor	Agent	Agent (LE)
Israel	3	16	15(46%)	1
Palestine	31	3	-	-
Israel & Palestine	-	-	-	-
Other	1	-	-	-

 

The transitivity of the sentences that contain the verb "shoot" is investigated, showing that only 60% of injuries inflicted by Israel are openly indicated, compared to all Palestinian activities. When the word "arrest" is included, the newspaper reporting 67% of the time hides the culpability of the Jewish state. These analyses accentuated the violence and inequality.

Finding and Discussion:

Findings

An analysis of Dawn's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict uncovered significant linguistic patterns. The keyness analysis identifies a distinctive collection of keywords focused on violence, peace, negotiations, and international responses, aligning with Lui's corpus-based critical discourse analysis (2024). However, the findings urge that media outlets often prioritize these themes in conflict reporting. Unlike the comprehensive study of Amaireh (2023), which highlighted a compassionate portrayal of Palestine in Gulf News, Dawn’s coverage shows a more ideological approach, sometimes emphasizing Israeli perspectives through selective lexical choices. This indicates a variation in how Al Jazeera (2021) media outlets frame similar geopolitical conflicts, challenging the notion of a homogenous portrayal across most Gulf news. Nonetheless, the linguistic decisions add to the greater discourse, influencing public opinion and perhaps even foreign policy discussions. On the other hand, the lexical pattern highlights how Israel is portrayed in Western media, in particular, as a vital participant supported by strong states across the globe. Moreover, the findings of the corpus analysis highlighted the terms that are thought to be the most important in the corpus and also demonstrated the selection of articles that hold news value for Dawn newspaper readers. Hence, by examining the clausal composition of the sentences that contain the most important keyword verbs, the primary conclusions of the transitivity analysis demonstrated that Israel and Palestine are treated differently in corpus-assisted conversation (Egbert & Biber, 2020)

The research also shows that the activities of Israel and Palestine are represented by the deliberate use of grammatical structures. The passive voice is commonly used to describe Israel's actions, frequently leaving out the agent in charge of them. By concealing Israel's direct participation in some events, this grammatical choice can indirectly minimize accountability and lessen the reader's perception of the significance of these actions. By contrast, the newspaper usually uses an active voice while covering Palestinian operations, identifying the country as the agent in a straightforward and explicit manner. The clausal design emphasizes the Palestinian involvement and responsibility in the conflict by ensuring that their acts are publicly linked to the nation. A narrative that presents Palestinians as the more visible and responsible sides in the conflict and frequently emphasizes their involvement in violent or aggressive actions may benefit from such linguistic manipulations. Thus, the results highlighted the significance of closely analyzing media discourse's form and content since language devices like corpus usage can greatly impact how conflict narratives are constructed. This analysis shows how these decisions contribute to a larger discourse that complicates the assumption that media narratives inherently provide counter-narratives to hegemonic discourses.

Overall, the findings uncover linguistic patterns, themes, and rhetorical strategies to reveal the narrative dynamics of the Israel- Palestine conflict (Alashqar, 2024; Ali, 2023; Boquerat, 2015). The study highlights how narrative structures are constructed through language that shapes public discourse on the conflict. Hence, the findings of the study identify a critical gap between media discourse and public perceptions, particularly about the narrative dynamics and linguistic patterns. Therefore, the research suggests that media ethics are crucial in either promoting positive or negative narratives through language's function in identifying and resolving conflicts.

Conclusion

The narrative dynamics of the Dawn newspaper's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict from October 2023 to March 2024 were examined in this corpus-based discourse analysis. The study aimed to identify the ideological perspectives and language patterns embedded in the newspaper's reporting using an analysis of a corpus of 11,501 words. The results revealed important details about Dawn's framing of the conflict and its potential implications for discourse and public opinion. The number of Israeli deaths is normally mentioned in the narrative, even though the number of Palestinian casualties is estimated to be about 200, including 28 Israelis. Instead of emphasizing the negative effects of military activities on local populations, the Dawn newspaper's corpus has chosen to focus its reporting on the military operations in the area rather than the detrimental effects these operations have on local civilians. 

However, the study emphasizes how language plays a significant role in constructing conflict and peace narratives. It demands a more conscientious and impartial approach to media coverage, one that recognizes the ability of words to either promote understanding or prolong the divide. The study's conclusions add to the larger conversation on media ethics and language's function in resolving disputes by emphasizing the value of corpus-based research in revealing the underlying dynamics of media representations. Furthermore, the use of silence and omission in corpus-assisted speech is one of the main concerns in the study, especially when it comes to issues like peacekeeping and ceasefire initiatives. The study also demonstrates how a distorted narrative is created when important forms remain uncovered and when agents are purposefully hidden in words pertaining to Israeli operations fostering communication and comprehension. This conclusion, hence, emphasizes the need for a more critical engagement with media discourse and highlights the necessity of integrity and transparency in reporting, particularly on matters as significant and complicated as the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Future Research Recommendations

Building on the results of this study, future research might clarify the intricate relationship between language, media, and public perception in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Given the growing significance of visual elements in online news, future research should use multimodal analysis to look at how photos, videos, and other non-textual aspects fit into the overall story. This may offer a more comprehensive comprehension of how media representations are portrayed.

References