Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

An interdisciplinary analysis of attitudes and values in the ‘Water and Nationalization’ and ‘Fair Distribution of Water’ Acts from the perspective of appraisal theory

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

Mohsen Nobakht

Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Department of Language Studies, Research and Development Institute of Humanities “SAMT”, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22035/isih.2026.5614.5207
Abstract
Water laws in Iran reflect dominant attitudes and ideologies of each historical period. Despite previous legal and historical research, a gap exists in systematic linguistic and discourse analysis of these texts. This study compares the "Water Nationalization Act" (1968) and the "Fair Water Distribution Act" (1982) using Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) to reveal their attitudinal and legitimation strategy differences. The corpus comprises both laws: the 1968 Act with 342 clauses and the 1982 Act with 217 clauses. Coding was based on three components: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Reliability was 92% through recoding. Data were analyzed using a mixed quantitative-qualitative method. Both laws are state-centered, but legitimation strategies differ. The 1968 Act features negative emotions (unhappiness: 3.5%, insecurity: 3.2%) and administrative judgments, indicating coercive control. The 1982 Act shows increased positive emotions (security: 6.9%, desire: 6.4%) and socio-moral judgments. However, monoglossia rose from 4.1% to 9.2%, showing participation is defined under state supervision. Graduation components also increased, suggesting centralized management. The 1968 Act employs national ownership and coercive control, while the 1982 Act employs social justice and controlled participation for legitimation. The distinction between "institutional participation" and "discursive heteroglossia" reveals that increased participatory institutions do not necessarily mean discursive openness. Future research should extend this framework to other natural resource laws.

Keywords

appraisal theory
discourse analysis
Water Nationalization Act
Fair Water Distribution Act
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 06 January 2026
  • Revise Date 22 May 2026
  • Accept Date 31 May 2026

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