1. Introduction
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is primarily inspired by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which describes language as ‘social semiotic’. According to Fowler et al. (1979), “language is social act and it is ideologically driven”. van Dijk (1988) also views language as being not only based on linguistic structures but also on a set of ‘complex communicative events’ which are embedded in social context. He introduces the socio-cognitive model of CDA where social and personal cognition mediates between society and discourse. Wodak (1995) understands CDA from a historical perspective, and according to her, “discourse is always historical, that is, it is connected synchronically and diachronically with other communicative events which are happening at the same time or which have happened before” (p. 12). Fairclough’s (1989) sociocultural approach to CDA aims at contributing to the “general raising of consciousness of exploitative social relations, through focusing upon language" (p. 4).
SFL views language as having ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions commonly referred to as metafunctions. The ideational function is further subdivided into the experiential and the logical. The former constructs a version of or gives meaning to our experience while the latter according to Halliday and Hassan (1985 p. 17), defines “the relationship between one process and another, or one participant and another, that share the same position in the text”. The interpersonal function identifies, develops, or sustains social relationships between people and is inclusive of forms of address, speech function, modality, etc. Fairclough (1992a) subdivided the interpersonal function to include identity funct...
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van Dijk. (1988). News as Discourse. New Jersey: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates Publication
van Dijk, T.A. (1998a). Critical discourse analysis. Available: http://www.hum.uva.nl/teun/cda.htm. (1/25/2000)
van Dijk, T.A. (1996). Discourse, Opinions and Ideologies. In Christina Schaffner &
Helen Kelly-Holmes (eds.) Discourse and Ideologies. Clevedon: Multilingual matters Ltd, 1996. 7-37
van Dijk, T.A. (1995). Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis. In Christiina Schaffner and Anita L. Wenden (eds.). Language and Peace. Dartmouth: Aldershot. Pp.17-33
Wodak, Ruth (1995). Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. In Jef
Verschuren, Jan-Ola Ostman, and Jan Blommaert (eds.). Handbook of Pragmatics- Manual. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Pp.204-210.
To examine various discourses, it is crucial that the idea of discourse and the way in which discourses operate is clear. A discourse is a language, or more precisely, a way of representation and expression. These "ways of talking, thinking, or representing a particular subject or topic produce meaningful knowledge about the subject" (Hall 205). Therefore, the importance of discourses lies in this "meaningful knowledge," which reflects a group’s ideolo...
In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people that “have a broadly agreed set of common goals, contain certain mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, have acquired a specific lexis, and have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content discoursal expertise” (Swales #). An example of such a discourse community is the legal profession. The legal profession has the common goal of understanding and applying general principles to particular factual situations. In doing so, lawyers use language, concepts, and methods that are unique to their community. In order to become a recognized member of the legal community, a person must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam thereby demonstrating an in depth knowledge concerning all areas of the law and the specialized rules, methods, and jargon used by lawyers to communicate about legal principles.
3- Herrick, J., (2009). The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
The three Aristotelian appeals include logos, ethos, and pathos. These three appeals were created by Aristotle, and he came up with them in his On Rhetoric. Each commercial made sure to incorporate at least one these appeals with the goal of attracting their targeted audience. In the commercial advertising Shamwow, the demonstrator called “Vince” made sure to incorporate logos into this technique by talking fast and excited. This appeal is successful at times by catching the attention of the viewer by waking up the viewer. In the TD Ameritrade commercial, a well-known actor and activist named Sam Waterston applied ethos by talking confidently and earnestly to the audience. By apply ethos, the audience will feel like they can trust and believe
Discourse communities are groups of people with a unique point of view. There are many discourse communities around your everyday life. These communities are part of the entire human environment. Many discourse communities are distinctly large due to all the societies wanting the same things. My discourse communities are mostly Facebook.
In the article “The Concept of Discourse Community” John Swales touches a few very important main ideas about what discourse community really is, but ultimately Swales does not give a direct definition. I found it to be refreshing that he is able to express his feelings about discourse community and how we are all apart of one in someway it's just a matter of how much effort one puts in as opposed to another with little effort. Swales talks about discourse community and how our world today really is not that good at being a part of them because of other distractions such as technology or other issues like being bad communicators. He discusses the six qualities or characteristics of being apart of a discourse community. You have to be active
Palmer, William. "Rhetorical Analysis." Discovering Arguments: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Writing, and Style. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. 268-69. Print.
CDA looks to disclose the ways discourses are produced and distributed (Halliday, 1985), as well as how they work symbolically to disguise power (Thompson, 1990) and control others
...”, in Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis, edited by Lia Litosseliti and Jane Sunderland, 2002, John Benjamins Publishing Company, UK.
According to Tannen, she refers to the hostility within communication as “The Argument Culture.” It has become a war on words that continues to thrive off of conflict, animosity and tension. Tannen addresses the idea of debate, disputes, attack and criticism as a comprehensive list of words to describe her thesis. Tannen uses rhetorical devices by formulating the main points of her argument. She did this by convincing her readers and incorporating facts and reasons. Tannen states, “In close relationships is it possible to find ways of arguing that result in better understanding and solving problems. But with most
rhetorical theories. The analysis given is in the interests of the reader, so that they might better be
The study of speeches provides speakers a unique platform to convey their contemporary and controversial issues effectively towards the audience, addressing the social and ethical concerns. The underlying connection forged between the text and the speakers gives an insight about humanity to understand their experiences and perception of others, by that this strengthens its textual integrity. Speakers such as Paul Keating “The Redfern Speech,” William Deane “It is still winter at home,” Doris Lessing “On Not Winning the Nobel Prize” and Anwar Sadat “Speech to the Israeli Knesset” all utilizes the combination of rhetoric, language and features to convey an image and a clear message towards the audience. Over the analysis of structural commonalities
Language has played an important role in society. Language allows people to exchange information with one another, to interact and to share ideas. Language also has power to inspire people to action. To understand how language is used to persuade the audience, discourse analysis can be used. Discourse is a language that shows underlying systems of beliefs, values and attitudes. Discourse analysis is the analysis that ‘examines patterns of language and relationship between language, social and cultural contexts’ (Paltridge, 2012). Discourse analysis also looks at linguistic techniques used by a speaker to reach out to the audience.
homogenous model, nor a school or a paradigm, but at most a shared perspective on
Her approach is capable of identifying and describing the underlying mechanisms that contribute to those disorders in discourse which are embedded in a particular context, at a specific moment, and inevitably affect communication. Wodak’s work on the discourse of anti-Semitism in 1990 led to the development of an approach she termed the Discourse-Historical Method. The term historical occupies a unique place in this approach. It denotes an attempt to systematically integrate all available background information in the analysis and interpretation of the many layers of a written or spoken text. As a result, the study of Wodak and her colleagues’ showed that the context of the discourse had a significant impact on the structure, function, and context of the utterances. This method is based on the belief that language “manifests social processes and interaction” and generates those processes as well (Wodak & Ludwig, 1999, p. 12). This method analyses language from a three-fold perspective: first, the assumption that discourse involves power and ideologies. “No interaction exists where power relations do not prevail and where values and norms do not have a relevant role” (p. 12). Secondly, “discourse … is always historical, that is, it is connected synchronically and diachronically with other communicative events which are happening at the same time or which have happened before” (p. 12). The third feature