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Bias in Selected Works of El-Messiri and Fukuyama: A Cognitive
Linguistic Study
This thesis is concerned with analysing the language of ‘Bias’ in selected works
of Francis Fukuyama and Abdul-Wahab El-Messiri. Bias is associated with the very
structure of the human mind, which does not record events precisely and accurately,
with no selectivity or creativity, as a machine would do. Bias is organically bound up
with language and is also language-specific. Human language is not an unbiased tool,
unlike the language of algebra and geometry, which can adequately describe the world
of unbiased facts and things, yet fails to express the simplest human feelings.
1- The Definition of Bias:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Bias’ as ‘advocacy of a particular point
of view’. Al-Muʕgam Ɂal-Wāsit, a dictionary published by the Arab Language
Academy, defines Ɂal-taħayyuz as ‘siding one party against another’. It includes the
meaning of adopting some people’s view and rejecting that of others. The present study
defines bias in language as “the impact of adopting a certain conceptual, intellectual,
ideological or cultural paradigm on the speaker’s or writer’s own language.”
2- Forms of Bias:
This study adopts the idea that Bias, whether it is linguistically explicit and
conscious or implicit and unconscious, has two forms. First, there is bias in favor of
what one believes to be the truth. This is commitment. When one is biased towards the
truth, one is enthusiastic and motivated, but is ready to subject himself and his
judgments to the value system and to the truths that exist outside him. Second, there is
bias in favor of falsehood and this can take different forms. Bias toward the ‘Self ‘is one
example. When people make themselves the only acceptable point of reference, the idea
of transcendental truth is dropped, and they cannot be judged from any point external to
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them. This form of bias is associated with bias for power, which means that when one is
victorious, one enforces one’s own will; if one is defeated, one becomes a pragmatist
who accepts the rules of the victorious ‘Other’, without necessarily accepting the
truthfulness of the other’s statements or judgments. (El-Messiri 2006b: 7).
3- Hypotheses:
The study hypothesizes the existence of Bias in the language of Fukuyama and
El-Messiri and seeks to find out the different cognitive, lexico-grammatical, logicosemantic and pragmatic features of the language of Bias in the selected works of the two
writers. The study also hypothesizes that the differences in the socio-cultural,
ideological and epistomological dimensions of the two writers have a great effect on
their language, their epistemological paradigms and perspectives.
4- Rationale of the Study:
The rationale of this study is that both Francis Fukuyama and Abdul-Wahab
El-Messiri are concerned with the humanities, such as history, philosophy and politics.
The central idea in Fukuyama and El-Messiri’s works is the vision of man in the
universe. Both of them believe that the Western cultural paradigm has achieved brilliant
victories in many fields. On one hand, Fukuyama believes that human history has
reached its zenith in modern Western history, that Western sciences are universal, and
that the Western cultural paradigm is valid for all time and place, or at least in modern
times and places .
On the other hand, El-Messiri believes that, by virtue of its simple and
materialist approach to humankind and nature, the Western cultural paradigm has
achieved brilliant victories only on the materialist level. He argues that the Western
Modernism is a ‘value free modernism’. El-Messiri thinks that by the annexation and
conquest of lands, the application of this paradigm initially afforded Western peoples a
high standard of living. The victorious Western cultural project was translated into an
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ever expanding sense of self-confidence on the part of Westners and into their solid
belief that their concept of the world is the highest point of the development that human
race has ever achieved. For this reason, El-Messiri sees that catching up with the West
has become the essence of all revival projects (called Ɂal-nahḑa, or Renaissance) in the
“Third World”, including the Islamic world.
Thus the present study investigates and examines to what extent the differences
in the socio-cultural, ideological, and epistomological paradigms and perspectives of the
two writers have an effect on their language.
5- Aim of the Study:
The aim of this thesis is to detect and study the linguistic features correlated
with ‘Bias’ in the language of Abdul-Wahab El-Messiri and Francis Fukuyama. The
present study provides a linguistic model to analyse the language of Bias at any kind of
discourse. First, it aims at investigating the relationship between language and Bias.
Second, it attempts to investigate the formal features or the lexico-grammatical aspects
correlated with the language of Bias in English and Arabic texts. Third, it attempts to
investigate the logico-semantic and pragmatic features of the language of Bias in the
selected works. Fourth, it seeks to compare and contrast the distinctive linguistic
features used to foreground certain biases in the selected works of El-Messiri and
Fukuyama. The study takes into consideration the differences in the socio-cultural,
ideological and epistomological dimensions between the two writers.
6- Theoretical Framework:
In order to fulfil this aim, the study provides an eclectic model of analysis. It
depends on a general syntactic, cognitive and pragmatic framework that picks out all
relevant features represented in Halliday’s “Systemic Functional Grammar” (SFG),
“Critical Discourse Analysis” (CDA) and “Conceptual Metaphor Theory” (CMT).
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7- Chapter Devision:
The present study consists of five chapters including an introduction, a practical
application and a conclusion followed by the list of works cited.