CONSTRUCTING THE CONFLICT: A COMPARATIVE CORPUS-ASSISTED CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (CA-CDA) OF MEDIA DISCOURSE IN PAK-AFGHAN BORDER CONFLICT OF 2025
Keywords:
Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CA-CDA), Durand Line, Fairclough, Ideology, Legitimization, Pak-Afghan Conflict, Transitivity, Van DijkAbstract
The study conducts a comparative Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis (CA-CDA) of the selected media discourse on Pak-Afghan Border Clashes of 2025. The research investigates how the media of each country linguistically construct the conflict and what are the ideological implications of those constructions by analyzing the specialized corpora, constituting of online news reports and articles from Dawn and TOLOnews for Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively. The study uses Sketch Engine software for quantitative analysis to extract keyword lists for both Pakistani Corpus and Afghan Corpus. The generated keyword lists are used to extract key lemmas based on their statistical salience and discursive frames of securitization, blame, sovereignty, and legitimacy from the corpus. The study examines the collocational and concordance patterns of the selected lemmas. Furthermore, the research uses Fairclough's 3D model of CDA as its interpretative framework along with van Dijk's ideological square. The findings reveal the discursive differences in three areas: the grammar of blame evidenced through transitivity and nominalization, the construction of legitimacy and Illegitimacy done by labeling strategies, and the contestation of sovereignty, which manifest in the nature of border itself. The paper argues that the purpose of these contrasting discourses is not innocent, but rather a manifestation of state propaganda to justify state actions, entrench national identities, and foster conflict by closing common ground. Hence, this research contributes to the growing field of CA-CDA and highlights the mechanisms through which power and ideology is enacted in media discourse.
Downloads
References
Ahmad, B. & Hussain, R. (2025). The representation of the Afghan Taliban government: a critical discourse analysis of Pakistani media reports. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 12(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2025.2580442
Ali, Y., et al. (2020). Evaluation of effectiveness of fence on a country’s border: a case study of Pak-Afghan border fence. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22(4), 769-790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00774-1
Aziz, H., Tari, M., & Iqbal, Z. (2025). Cross-Border Narratives: Pakistan’s image on Afghan Facebook. JRPSS, 12(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.58932/MULA0051
Baker, P. (2023). Using corpora in discourse analysis. BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC.
Batool, S. (2019). Media representations and refugees crisis: Framing of Afghan refugees in mainstream print media of Pakistan. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 3 (1), 461-473.
Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman Inc., New York.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. Longman Publishing.
Fatima, S.S., Khan, K., & Ahsan, M., (2021). The Process of Othering in Pakistani Newspapers. International Research Journal of Education and Innovation, 2(2), 258-266. https://doi.org/10.53575/irjei.27-v2.2(21)258-266
Kaleem, R. (2025). Pakistan Afghanistan Relations: Case Study of Land Border Management in Relation to National Security of Pakistan. Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review. 3(1), 62-80.
Leech, G. (1991). The State of the Art in Corpus Linguistics. In A. Karin, & B. Altenberg (Eds.). English corpus linguistics. Routledge.
Mahmood, K. et al. (2023). Pak-Afghan border and regional stability: A perspective of Pakistan military. NUST Journal of International Peace & Stability. 6(2), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.37540/njips.v6i2.151
Marwan, A., & Naz, M. (2024). Representation of the fall of Kabul in Pakistani and Afghan media. Media, War & Conflict, 00(0), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241237926
McEnery, T., & Gabrielatos, C. (2006). English corpus linguistics. In. B. Aarts and A. McMahon (Eds.), The handbook of English linguistics (pp. 33-71). Blackwell Publishing.
Mushtaq, S., & Baig, F. (2015). Reporting Pak-Afghan Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Pakistani and Afghan Media. JRSP, 52 (2), 33-42.
Partington, A. et al. (2013). Patterns and meanings in discourse. John Benjamins Publishing Company
Salih, M.H., Kunwal, F., & Aziz, M.T. (2025). Framing of the Pakistan–Afghanistan Border Conflict in Pakistani Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis. Sociology and Cultural Research Review, 4(2), 306-316.
Stubbs, M. (1996). Text and corpus analysis. Oxford: Blackwell Publisher Ltd.
Urooj, N., Naeem, W., & Furnaz, R. (2025). Constructing the 'Other' in Times of Crisis: A Critical Discourse Analysis of
Pakistani Media Narratives on the Repatriation of Afghan Refugees (Jan-June 2025), ACADEMIA International Journal for Social Sciences, 4(3), 3671-3688. https://doi.org/10.63056/ACAD.004.03.064
van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical Discourse Analysis. In D. Tannen, H.E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 466-485). Wiley-Blackwell.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Eman Sohail, Mishka Babar Abbasi, Dr. Kaukab Saba (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
