Diplomatic Framing in Digital Discourse: A Systemic Functional Analysis of US–Iran Official Ceasefire Tweets
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Social media platforms such as Twitter/X and Truth Social have transformed diplomatic communication by enabling political leaders to communicate directly with global audiences.This study examines the intersection of language, technology, and geopolitics through a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) analysis of official social media posts concerning the US-Iran ceasefire.Drawing on Halliday's SFL framework, the study investigates contextual, semantic, and lexicogrammatical patterns employed by three key state actors: the United States, Iran, and Pakistan as mediator.Using a qualitative, descriptive, and analytical approach, it examines three official posts representing contrasting diplomatic positions.The findings reveal that the ceasefire is constructed differently across these texts.Trump employs first-person narration and typographic emphasis to portray the ceasefire as a unilateral achievement.Iran frames it as an act of defensive restraint through nominalization and conditional language, while Sharif presents it as a multilateral accomplishment through compound grammatical actors and politeness strategies.The study highlights how linguistic choices shape competing representations of geopolitical events.It contributes to Applied Linguistics, Media Studies, and International Relations by demonstrating that diplomatic language actively constructs political meanings rather than merely communicating decisions or events to audiences worldwide.
Author: Imran Hussain
Institution: University of Lahore
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225662111