Doing battle with a noun: notes on the grammar of terror

Studies from a range of disciplinary perspectives have highlighted how the public rhetoric of the Bush administration has shaped the representation of the conflict which has followed 9/11. However, the literature in this area raises but does not itself address the question of how the administrations use of terror, terrorism and terrorist(s) contributes to this representation. This paper addresses the question by providing a preliminary analysis of how these terms participate in the grammar of twelve of George W. Bushs speeches since 9/11. Drawing on Systemic Functional Grammar, the analysis suggests that terror has become interchangeable with terrorism and terrorist(s), resulting in the personification of terror as an abstract agent. The implications of this construction are explored in relation to the literature on the rhetoric associated with the war on terror. Copyright 2007 Jonathan Crichton. No part of this article may be reproduced by any means without the written consent of the publisher.