Investigating prescriptions of positive behavior in power-conso¬lidation national anthems

Abstract

National anthems are deeply intertwined with struggles for state power and play important socio-political roles within modern nation-states (HOBSBAWM, 1989, 1992; SMITH, 1991). The main objective of this paper is to carry out a genre analysis of the element Prescription of Positive Behavior found in the generic structure of 18 power-consolidation national anthems under the perspective of Hasan’s genre theory (1989, 1996). The analysis has revealed that the main semantic attributes of the element Prescription of Positive Behavior are ‘demand’ and ‘reference to service of the class positive behavior’. The analysis has also shown that the authors of the national anthems use a wide range of lexicogrammatical resources to realize the commands found the in the prescribed behaviors.