Making sense of the language of peace: its meaning in Iraqi war victims' narratives

Positive discourse can empower people to use language that promotes peace in daily communication to avoid conflicts. Language is seen as the influencer and reflector of individual’s self-image and background. Yet, past studies focus more on the language of war or hate speech. In Iraq, polemic language has evidently led to sectarian conflicts and violence. Not much has been explored in making sense of peace utterances, the
linguistic or non-linguistic features. Thus, this qualitative study explores the interpretation of the language of peace through the lens of twenty-five Iraqis who have encountered war in their country. The study seeks to make sense of the language of peace, its meanings and factors that can enhance peace among Iraqis. Through purposive sampling, data collected were observations and narratives from focus group and in-depth interviews. The selected respondents comprise Iraqi visiting lecturers and postgraduate students in a Malaysian public university. Based on the analytical discourse approach, the data reveal several core themes and sub-themes of language of peace. Among these include avoiding crisis, cooperative language, language of affection and sense of security. The associated peace words include being caring, polite and promoting inner peace which are reflected in the factors that can enhance peace in daily communication. The study reveals several implications. It promotes a platform for deliberating peaceful rhetoric in violence-prone areas. It gives educators and decision makers a deeper understanding of language of peace that enables speakers to develop good, meaningful relationships, display politeness and feelings of goodwill. A similar approach can be used to obtain in-depth reflections about such language among other war victims. Further research studies should explore the language of peace roles in deliberating effective strategies to overcome conflicts in today’s digitalised world given that the language of endearment, conviction and hate can be disseminated quickly.