Theme–Rheme Organization in the Political Tweets of Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian During US–Iran Political Conflicts: An SFL-Based Comparative Study

Abstract

Political communication has been radically changed by the wider use of social media by politicians, providing new opportunities for linguistic analysis. X (previously Twitter) is one of the social media channels that has proved to be significant in the communication of political positions, political ideologies, and reactions to international events by political actors. In this study, the Systemic functional theory known as Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) was used to analyze the Theme–Rheme organization of the political tweets of Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian during heightened US–Iran political conflicts. The study seek to discover the most common types of Themes, to analyze Theme–Rheme structures and thematic progression patterns, and to examine how Theme choices impact ideological representation and political positioning. The study uses a mixed-method research approach, analyzing a purposive sample of 40 tweets, comprising 20 tweets from Donald Trump and 20 from Masoud Pezeshkian. The data set consists of 78 clauses, containing 46 clauses from Trump’s tweets and 32 clauses from Masoud Pezeshkian’s tweets. The analysis was conducted at the topical, textual, and interpersonal Theme level and across the chosen data set. The results show that both leaders have the majority of topical Themes in their tweets. There is, however, substantial variation in their choices of topic and information structures. While Trump's tweets focus on authority, strength and security for the nation, Masoud Pezeshkian's tweets highlight diplomacy, sovereignty, legality and collective responsibility. The findings demonstrate that Theme–Rheme organization functions as a linguistic resource for ideological construction in political discourse.