Discourse, Discourse Analysis and C.D.A

Structured collections of meaningful texts.

Produced and interpreted by specific people

Institutional and social contexts.

Material accessible to others.

Speech, spoken or written, is manifested

Cognitive processes related to social practices.

Roots in Foucault and other schools of thought

employs the term discourse in a Foucauldian sense

investigated the exercise of social power through discourses.

constituted in the organization and distribution of knowledge

approach is anti-humanist

is based on objects, style, concepts and themes

constructed through dispersion and discontinuity.

''discourse formations''

(what can and should be said)

Sub- related to the "discursive practice".

constitution of meaning and of the subject.

"happy ambiguity" = discourse

It refers to a real representation as well as a social convention.

facilitating and limiting

manifests

the close examination of interpersonal meaning and in its emphasis on the subject position of language users.

active agent as passively conformed,

social identities of the interactants

social relationships

It grants specific social identities and power relations.

textual and contextual characteristics

Interpretation through the dialectical interaction of the keys and the MRs.

MRs serve as interpretative procedures

''intertextual context''

The participants of the discourses operate on the basis of assumptions.

interpretations

common

of the intertextual context

to which series a text belongs

same or different interpretations

constructing an "ideal reader'' through presupposition.

Integration between social institutions in modern capitalist society.

Increasing tendency to the formation of subjects.

Through strategic and manipulative discourses.

Presents the interests of the dominant bloc as the interests of the population as a whole.

Encompasses aspects of life independent of production.

Synthetic personalization

mass communications media

Advertisements

Magazine articles

Brochures

Cover headlines, etc.

Describe activities in the interaction of disciplines

sociolinguistics

psycholinguistics

philosophical linguistics

computational linguistics

Focus on language

The senders construct linguistic messages for the receivers.

Receivers work on the linguistic messages to interpret them.

Semiotic construction: meanings about semiotic systems

Word construction: situated meanings about reality.

Construction of activity: situated meanings about which activity.

Construction of socioculturally situated identities and relations: situated meanings about which identities and relations are relevant to interaction.

Political construction: constructing the nature and relevance of various "social goods''

Connection building: assumptions about how the past and future of an interaction are connected to the present.

Analysts study language in use.

in use

Written texts of all kinds and spoken data.

Dealt with the analysis of single sentences.

Speech act theory and the formulation of conversational maxims.

British discourse analysis influenced by M.A.K.'s functional approach to language.

important in

Britain Sinclair

Coulthard (1975)

Brimingham University

Developed a model

description of teacher-student speech

based

On a hierarchy of discourse units.

Structural-linguistic criteria

Text grammarians perceive texts as linguistic elements.

American discourse analysis,

ethnomethodological tradition

Examines types of speech acts

storytelling

greeting rituals

verbal duels

It is concerned

What people do with language and functions of language.

Some authors mention that is:

John Austin y John Searle

Meaning and action are related to language.

Taxonomy of speech acts according to Searle

Representative (asserting)

Directives (requesting)

Commissives ( promising)

Expressives (thanking)

declarations ( appointing)

Labov y Fanshel

Accurately identify the intended meaning of the speaker's utterance and respond to it accordingly.

Detailed study of meaning in the language

Studies words and the meaning of sentences

It deals with three concepts

Meaning

Context

Communication

Morris

Defines it as

The science of the relation of signs to their interpreters

Identifies three ways of studying signs

Syntax

Study of formal relations of signs to one another

Semantics

Study of how signs are related to the object to which they are applicable

Pragmatics

Study of the relation signs to interpreter

Interactional Sociolinguistics

Gives an approach to discourse that focuses upon situated meaning

It studies the relationship between language and society, in the context of verbal interaction.

states that is

The discourse as a social interaction and negotiation of meaning in the use of language

Speech based on anthropology and linguistics.

For hymes

Analyzes patterns of communication as part of cultural knowledge and behavior

It consists of four elements

linguistic competence

social appropriateness

psycholinguistic limitations

observing actual language use

Sociolinguistic variables that influence language in different contexts.

They are discovered through the systematic investigation of a speech community.

Related with

Social factors

Cultural factors

Contextual factors

For labov

they are alternative ways of saying the same thing.

Conversation Analysis

by sociologist

He developed the approach

ethnomethodology

Ethnomethodology: the link between what social actors ‘do’ in interaction and what they ‘know’ about interaction.

Analyzes social order and seeks to discover the methods by which members of a society produce a sense of social order (conversation).

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Social Events

• Examining text chains or networks
• Framing within social practices
• Identifying the social even

Genre

• Genre influences
• Mix of genres
• Genre chain

Intertextuality

• Direct and indirect reporting
• Attribution of voices
• Inclusion and exclusion of other texts/voices

Assumptions

• Ideological assumption
• Existential, prepositional, and value assumptions

Semantic/ Grammatical Relations between Sentences and Clause

• Grammatical relations between clauses
• Higher-level semantic relations
• Predominant semantic relations

Exchanges, Speech Functions and Grammatical Mood

•Metaphorical relations
• Types of statements
• Predominant types of exchange and speech function

Discourses

•features characterizing the drawn discourses
• Mixing of discourses
• Discourses drawn upon

Representation of Social Events

• Representation of social events
• Grammatical metaphor
• Representation of processes

Styles

• Features characterizing the drawn styles
• Mixing of styles
• Styles drawn upon

Modality

• Categorical and modalized modalities
• Deontic modalities
• Epistemic modalities

Evaluation

• Influence of Fairclough's model: Mentioning that this research follows the models of Fairclough (1989) more closely for analyzing the corpus data from women's magazines, but acknowledging that C.D.A. is not restricted to any one particular model and encompasses various interrelated aspects
• Values commitment
• Justification of analyses

Discourse Practice

Each of the three dimensions of discourse practice is represented below.

Interdiscursivity

• Identify discourse types and justify interpretations through text analysis.
• Characterize the sample overall in terms of genre and its implications for production, distribution, and consumption.
• Determine if the sample draws upon multiple genres.

Intertextual Chains

The objective here is to specify the distribution of a
(type of) discourse sample by describing the intertextual chains it enters into, that is the series of text types it is transformed into or out of (see Fairclough 1992b: 130-2).

Coherence

The analysis considers the heterogeneity and ambivalence of the text for specific interpreters and the inferential work required.

Conditions of Discourse Practice:

• The aim is to specify the social practices of text production and consumption related to the type of discourse represented by the sample.
• The analysis explores whether the text is produced or consumed individually or collectively, and if there are distinguishable stages of production

Manifest Intertextuality

situated between discourse practice and text, raises questions about the elements involved in producing a text. It focuses on the features that are evident or "manifest" on the surface of the text.

Discourse Representation

• What is represented aspects of context and style, or just ideational meaning?
• Is the represented discourse clearly demarcated? Is it translated into the voice of the representing discourse?
• How is it contextualized in the representing discourse?

Presupposition

• Are they linked to the prior texts of others, or the prior texts of the text producer?
• Are they sincere or manipulative?

Text

Interactional Control

The objective is to describe the larger-scale organizational properties of interactions that contribute to the orderly functioning and control of interactions
• Exploring topic control: Examining how topics are introduced, developed, and established, and whether topic control is symmetrical or asymmetrical.
• Investigating agenda setting: Understanding how agendas are set, policed, and evaluated by participants.

Cohesion

The objective is to show how clauses and sentences are connected together in the text.

Ethos

Ethos involves not just discourse, but the whole body. Any of the analytical categories listed here maybe relevant to ethos (Fairclough 1992b: 166-7).

Grammar

Three dimensions of the grammar of the clause are differentiated here: ‘transitivity’, ‘theme’ and ‘modality’

Wording

The objective is to contrast the ways meanings are worded with the
ways they are worded in other (types of) text and to identify the interpretative perspective that underlies this wording (Fairclough 1992b: 190-4).

Metaphor

The objective is to analyze and characterize the metaphors employed in the discourse sample, comparing them to metaphors used elsewhere to convey similar meanings. The analysis aims to determine the factors, such as cultural or ideological influences, that shape the selection of metaphors

Social Practice

Ideological and Political Effects of Discourse

Orders of Discourse

Social Matrix of Discourse

Fairclough (1989)

Critical linguistic work

Variety of textual examples

Analyzed to illustrate the field

Aims and methods

Relation to power and ideology developed

Disclosing the discursive nature

Contemporary social and cultural change

Language of the mass media

Scrutinized as a site of power

Of struggle

Site where language is apparently transparent

Discourse

Social Practice

Part of society

Somehow external

Conditioned process,

(non-linguistic)

Approach

Fulfill the objectives

Research project

Fairclough’s models

Three - Dimensional Model

(text, discursive practice, social practice)

Three dimensions

Stages

Description:

Stage which is concerned with formal properties of the text.

Features of vocabulary

Grammar

Punctuation

Turn-taking

Types of speech act and the directness or indirectness of their expression

descriptive framework

Ten main questions

(and some sub-questions)

asked of a text

find the set of textual features

most significant for critical analysis:

A. Vocabulary

B. Grammar

C. Textual structures

The significance and interest of each of these questions are explained by Fairclough (2001c:94-l 16) in details.

Interpretation:

Concerned with the relationship between text and interaction.

Text and social structure

Indirect, mediated one.

Discourse

Textual features

Produced and interpreted

Become real

Socially operative

Embedded

Social interaction

Background of commonsense assumptions

(Part of members resources)

Point of view

Formal features

Activate elements

Members resources

Dialectical interplay

Generate interpretations

Situational context

Questions which relate to four main dimensions of situation:

1. What is going on?

2. Who is involved?

3. In what relations?

4. What is the role of language?

1. Context:

What interpretation(s) are participants giving to the situational and intertextual contexts?

2. Discourse type(s):

What discourse type(s) are being drawn upon (hence what rules, systems or principles of phonology

3. Difference and change:

Are answers to questions 1 and 2 different for different participants? And do they change during the course of the interaction?

Explanation:

Concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context.

Portray discourse

Part of a social process

Social practice

Showing how

Social structures

Reproductive effects

Structures, sustaining them or changing

Social determinations

Members resources

Struggles

(Ideally, naturalized)

Societal level

Institutional level

Situational level

Determinants

Effects

Stages

Three questions

1. Social determinants:

What power relations at situational, institutional and societal levels help shape this discourse?

2. Ideologies:

What elements of members’ resources which are drawn upon have an ideological character?

3. Effects:

How is this discourse positioned in relation to struggles at the situational, institutional and societal level?

The model of C.D.A.

lie in classical rhetoric

text linguistics and sociolinguistics

Sociological variables

The notions of power

Ideology

Hierarchy

Gender together

Critical theory of language

Social practice.

Specific historical contexts

How is the text positioned or what is its positioning?

Whose interests are served by this positioning?

Whose interests are negated?

What are the consequences of this positioning?

Studies from three overlapping intellectual traditions

"Treat social practices in terms of their implications for things like status, solidarity, distribution of social goods, and power”.

Treated equally

Analyses of language are inherently critical

Explores the social interaction which is manifested in linguistic forms

Effected by and effects the discursive practices

Social institutions and social structures

discourse affect ideologies

Responsible for power relations

Social power

Societal issues

Abuse

Dominance and inequality are enacted

Reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context, van Dijk (2003)

Critical theory

“the words of white men engaged in conversations with themselves” (Yancy, 1998)

Critical race theory

Post-structuralism

Post-modernism

Neo-colonial studies

Queer theory and so on

Is not a unified set of perspectives

Transforms:

Economy

Education,

Race

Reproduce

Class

Sexual orientation construct

Gender

Transform social systems

Religion

Power and justice ways

Post-structuralism

intellectual movement with which Michel Foucault

Rejection of the structuralist movement

Earlier 20th century

Across disciplines

Economy (Marx)

Language (Saussure)

Psychology (Freud)

Anthropology specifically

Culture and kinship relations (Levi-Strauss)

Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-80):

1. Critical discourse analysis addresses social problems.

2. Power relations are discursive.

3. Discourse constitutes society and culture.

4. Discourse does ideological work.

5. Discourse is historical.

6. The link between text and society is mediated.

7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory.

8. Discourse is a form of social action