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Critical discourse analysis

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach that examines how language functions as a social practice, emphasizing the relationship between discourse and societal power dynamics. Originating from the work of Norman Fairclough and others, CDA investigates issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, and social inequities in various contexts, including media and politics. It employs multiple research strategies to analyze how discourse shapes and is shaped by social structures, ultimately aiming to reveal and challenge problematic power relations.

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29 views

Critical discourse analysis

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach that examines how language functions as a social practice, emphasizing the relationship between discourse and societal power dynamics. Originating from the work of Norman Fairclough and others, CDA investigates issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, and social inequities in various contexts, including media and politics. It employs multiple research strategies to analyze how discourse shapes and is shaped by social structures, ultimately aiming to reveal and challenge problematic power relations.

Uploaded by

Sal Ma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Critical discourse analysis approach

Since the publication of Norman Fairclough’s Language and Power in 1989, scholars from
diverse backgrounds have gradually gathered around the framework of Critical Discourse
Analysis. Its practitioners share, on a methodological level, an explicit multidisciplinary
focus, mainly bridging the humanities with the social sciences. The roots of Critical Discourse
Analysis can be found in Rhetoric, Text Linguistics, Anthropology, Philosophy, Socio-
Psychology, Cognitive Science, Literary Studies, Applied Linguistics and Pragmatics.
Additionally, leading Critical Discourse Analysis academics seem to specialize in specific
types of discourse, particularly advertisement, media and institutional discourse, including
politics. Often scrutinised topics are social-discursive phenomena such as sexism, racism,
globalisation and, on a more abstract level, ideology. Critical Discourse Analysis should not
be considered as a ‘school’ in the academic sense of the word, but rather a programmatic
approach to language. Critical discourse analysis emerged from 'critical linguistics' developed
at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s, and the terms are now often interchangeable.[3]
[4]
Research in the field of sociolinguistics was paying little attention to social hierarchy and
power.[5] CDA was first developed by the Lancaster school of linguists of which Norman
Fairclough was the most prominent figure. Ruth Wodak has also made a major contribution to
this field of study.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse,


or put simply talk and text, that views language as a form of social practice. Scholars working
in the tradition of CDA generally argue that (non-linguistic) social practice and linguistic
practice constitute one another and focus on investigating how societal power relations are
established and reinforced through language use.[1] In this sense, it differs from discourse
analysis in that it highlights issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, exploitation, and
structural inequities in domains such as education. CDA aims to demystify (problematic)
power relations and representations in the content and manner of language and
communication practices in their contexts of use.

CDA and power:


The origins of Critical Discourse Analysis date back to the Thatcher era in Great Britain,
within the context of the dismantling of the Welfare State, the frontal attack by the state on
the power of workers’ trade unions and the growing colonisation of social life by
commercialisation. Under such circumstances, it was clear that the triumphalist dominant
discourse required the attention of the critical analyst. The following years were characterised
by a wave of racism throughout Europe, institutionally translated in the success of extreme
right parties and the normalisation of part of their discourse, and an overwhelming prevalence
of a globalist discourse smothering democratic debate in the mass media. Focusing “upon a
social wrong, in its semiotic aspect ”, as Fairclough coined it, seemed to have become a
necessity. Within Critical Discourse Analysis there are several research strategies with a very
different theoretical and methodological background. The more prominent ones are Ruth
Wodak’s and Martin Reisigl’s Discourse-Historical Approach, Gerlinde Mautner’s Corpus-
Linguistics Approach, Theo van Leeuwen’s Social Actors Approach, Segfried Jäger’s and
Florentine Maier’s Dispositive Analysis, Teun van Dijk’s Sociocognitive Approach and
Norman Fairclough’s Dialectical-Relational Approach. A common trait among them is the
attention to the dialectic relationship between discourse and social structure. This connection
is linguistically explained by calling upon social theories about power and ideologies, mainly
Michel Foucault’s ‘orders of discourse’ and ‘power/knowledge’, Antonio Gramsci’s concept
of ‘hegemony’ and Louis Althusser’s ‘ideological state apparatuses’. In an explicit attempt to
overcome the risk of ‘structuralist determinism’, Critical Discourse Analysis assumes that
discourse is at the same time socially constructive and a social construct. Often cited authors
to back this claim are Pierre Bourdieu (Language and Symbolic Power), Jürgen Habermas
(Theory of Communicative Action) and Anthony Giddens (“Theory of Structuration”)

CDA investigates how


discourse (language and
various semiotic resources)
contribute to “meaning
structures,” which in turn
construct social, political
and
cultural realities in society.
Viewing discourse as being
both socially constitutive
and socially shaped, CDA
aims to demystify
(problematic) power
relations and
representations in the
content and manner of
language and
communication prac-
tices in their contexts of
use. On the other hand,
social notions such as
collective
identities—group or
national identities—are
inherently (re)produced,
transformed,
and (re)constructed
through discursive
processes where
boundaries of difference,
uniqueness, and
distinctiveness are marked
and represented
CDA investigates how
discourse (language and
various semiotic resources)
contribute to “meaning
structures,” which in turn
construct social, political
and
cultural realities in society.
Viewing discourse as being
both socially constitutive
and socially shaped, CDA
aims to demystify
(problematic) power
relations and
representations in the
content and manner of
language and
communication prac-
tices in their contexts of
use. On the other hand,
social notions such as
collective
identities—group or
national identities—are
inherently (re)produced,
transformed,
and (re)constructed
through discursive
processes where
boundaries of difference,
uniqueness, and
distinctiveness are marked
and represented
CDA investigates how
discourse (language and
various semiotic resources)
contribute to “meaning
structures,” which in turn
construct social, political
and
cultural realities in society.
Viewing discourse as being
both socially constitutive
and socially shaped, CDA
aims to demystify
(problematic) power
relations and
representations in the
content and manner of
language and
communication prac-
tices in their contexts of
use. On the other hand,
social notions such as
collective
identities—group or
national identities—are
inherently (re)produced,
transformed,
and (re)constructed
through discursive
processes where
boundaries of difference,
uniqueness, and
distinctiveness are marked
and represented

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