The study examined rhetorical appeals in Mahathir Mohamad’s speeches delivered during his come back as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia. The specific aspects investigated were: (1) the extent to which the logos, pathos and ethos appeals were used; (2) the use of the active and passive voice in attribution of responsibility; and (3) the use of personal pronouns in the appeals. Six of Mahathir Mohamad’s political speeches in Malay language delivered in 2018-2020 with a word-count of 13,000 words were analysed using Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs. The results show that Mahathir Mohamad relied on logos (56.17%) and pathos (39.63%) but not ethos (4.20%). Mahathir Mohamad came across as a political leader who relied on argumentation and the positioning of himself as a spokesperson for the ruling coalition and the government, reflected in “kita” (we-inclusive) accounting for 50.26% of personal pronouns used. However, in the context of a distressing situation, he resorted to the pathos appeal and the frequent use of “I” to show personal interpretations. The passive voice and circumstantial referents were strategically used in disparaging remarks without identifying the doer. The study indicated that seasoned political leaders have a stable rhetorical style with flexibility to suit situations and audiences.

Kajian ini meneliti aspek kesantunan bahasa dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban di daerah Kuching dan Samarahan, khususnya dalam penggunaan bahasa halus atau eufemisme. Objektif khusus kajian adalah untuk meneliti bentuk eufemisme yang wujud dan digunakan dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban, dan juga melihat sejauh mana eufemisme tersebut digunakan dalam kedua-dua masyarakat tersebut. Data kajian diperoleh menerusi kaedah soal selidik, melibatkan responden seramai 50 orang bagi setiap kaum. Soalan dirangka mengikut beberapa domain daripada pengkategorian eufemisme oleh Allan dan Burridge (1991), iaitu hal kewanitaan dan kelelakian, kemarahan/makian/kebencian, penyakit, kematian, dan ketakutan berunsurkan haiwan serta makhluk halus. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan penggunaan bahasa halus secara sederhana adalah tinggi, iaitu bagi golongan penutur berusia 40 tahun ke bawah, melibatkan kedua-dua masyarakat. Penutur juga didapati memahami perkataan dan ujaran bahasa halus walaupun ia tidak bersifat langsung. Kajian ini juga dapat memperjelas bentuk bahasa halus yang wujud dan tahap penggunaannya dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban, selain memaparkan latar budaya masyarakat penutur yang kaya dengan kehalusan bahasanya.

This paper seeks to explore the musical journey of a symbolic ritual among the Ibans in Sarawak Borneo Malaysia known as Timang Tuah as an effort to preserve and spread awareness to the global community of its existence. Adapting the qualitative approach in collecting and processing the data, this paper aims to describe the processes involved in the ritual and investigate the relevance of the ritual among the current Iban community in Sarawak. Semi structured interviews and passive observations were carried out to record the whole process of the ritual and additionally questionnaires were distributed to investigate its resonance among the audience. Findings have shown that the ritual is done according to specific purposes which includes appeasing spirits during harvest and ushering in luck. The melody of how the songs are carried out also depends on the range and the skills inherited by the lemambang. It was also revealed that the younger generation are not aware of this ritual thus signaling the needs of preservation efforts by the authority involved.

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Reporting verbs are important in news articles on controversial events or issues because of the need to present one’s position on the topic or at least indicate the attitudes of the sources cited in the articles. The The study investigated the usage of reporting verbs in MH370 and MH17 airplane catastrophe in Malaysian English online newspapers. The aspects analysed were the reporting verbs for speaker stance and writer stance. A total of 80 news articles on MH370 and MH17 airplane catastrophes taken from two online English-language Malaysian newspapers, New Straits Time and The Star, were analysed using Thomson and Ye’s (1991) framework on reporting verbs. The analysis identified 931 instances of RVs: 764 instances for speaker stance, and 167 instances for writer stance. On the speaker stance, about 90% of the articles on MH370 and MH17 were reported positively, and the various sources of information were stated clearly. Negative and neutral speaker stances were infrequent. As for writer stance, the overall results showed a balanced use of counter-factive and non-factive reporting of the writer stance (42.51% and 47.90% out of 167 instances). The two newspapers were similar in their use of verbs for reporting the writer stance in MH370 articles in that over half of the writer stances were non-factive, and about 25% were counter-factive. In their coverage on the MH17 catastrophe, The Star maintained the same pattern of balance between non-factive and counter-factive writer stances but New Straits Time leaned towards a counter-factive writer stance, suggesting more critical reporting. The study showed that the articles on airplane catastrophes leaned towards safe reporting focussed on the available details of the incident.