Linguistic legitimation strategies employed by members of an Indonesian political party

This study aimed at exploring legitimation strategies used by two members of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (or Partai Solidaritas Indonesia, abbreviated as PSI) in justifying their party leader’s controversial statement on abandonment Sharia Law. To do so, it employed critical discourse analysis (CDA) with Leeuwen’s (2007, 2008) its analytical tool. The data were obtained from separate interviews PSI aired different TV channels. transcribed and translated. From this process, a 1.170-word corpus, which derived, was generated. findings showed that moral evaluation is most dominant strategy, followed rationalization authorization. In evaluation, abstraction occurs often, analogy. rationalization, theoretical more often than instrumental rationalization. Finally, authorization, utilized impersonal authority to reject Law referring academic studies legal documents assess law being negative. Meanwhile, expert build reference experts who support negative effects law. implies power language legitimize activity using linguistics strategies.