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Abstract
This study investigates the linguistic construction of victimhood in BBC’s coverage of the Palestine–Israel conflict during the twoyears period following October 7, 2023. The analysis is grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), focusing on lexical semantics and discursive strategies that shape narratives of victimhood. Word choices and phrases are examined to reveal how connotation and lexical choice contribute as narrative strategy to build public’s perception, specifically representation of victims and perpetrators. Wodak’s discursive strategies— nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivization, dan intensification/mitigation are applied to interpret how actors are named, attributed, and positioned within conflict narratives. Findings highlight recurring linguistic patterns that emphasize suffering and legitimacy for the actions by particular party, while obscuring agency or responsibility. By situating lexical analysis within CDA, this study demonstrates how victimhood is discursively constructed through language, offering insights into how victimhood framing shapes global perceptions of Palestine-Israel conflict.
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