Nationhood and Malaysian identity: a corpus-based approach

Abstract

In this article we make use of the methodology of corpus linguistics to organize and search the several millions of words contained in the published speeches of Tun Dr. Mahathir as prime minister. Our corpus consists of over 2.5 million words of speeches, roughly half in English and half in Malay, with over 900 English speeches and over 800 Malay speeches. This study concentrates on the Malay speeches, and follows up previous work on Dr. Mahathir's English speeches. The approach is entirely data driven. Instead of making a subjective choice of words to investigate, we begin by identifying key words. We then use the ranked list of key words to investigate the immediate context in which those words occur. By concentrating on key words connected to Malaysian identity, we obtain a remarkable insight into how that identity is presented by Dr. Mahathir.