Critical Discourse Analysis - Ruth Wodak

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Some important concepts and considerations

RUTH WODAKDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR

OF DISCOURSE STUDIESLANCASTER UNIVERSITY

http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/Ruth-Wodak/

WHY DISCOURSE ANALYSIS?

Qualitative Methods and/or Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciencesy

l d iDevelopments and synergies

An interest in the properties of naturally occurring language use by real language users (instead of a study g g y g g ( yof abstract language systems and invented examples)

A focus on larger units than isolated words and sentences, and hence, new basic units of analysis: texts, discourses, conversations, speech acts, or communicative

t events.

The extension of linguistics beyond sentence grammartowards a study of action and interactiontowards a study of action and interaction.

(Wodak 2008, van Dijk 2007)

Ruth Wodak, ACCEPT - CDA Course 2010

Developments and synergies

The extension to non-verbal (semiotic, multimodal, visual) aspects of interaction and communication: gestures, images, film, the internet, and multimedia

A focus on dynamic (socio)-cognitive or interactional A focus on dynamic (socio) cognitive or interactionalmoves and strategies

The study of the functions of (social, cultural, glocal, d i i ) f l and cognitive) contexts of language use

Analysis manifold phenomena of text grammar and language use: coherence, cohesion, macrostructures, g g , , ,speech acts, turn-taking, signs, politeness, argumentation, rhetoric, and so forth.


CHALLENGES QUALITATIVE METHODS AND CHALLENGES: QUALITATIVE METHODS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS I

Dealing with interviews of all kinds Dealing with focus group discussions Dealing with focus group discussions Dealing with policy papers Dealing with media (visual,

broadcasts, press, Internet, blogs, , p , , g ,youtube)

Dealing with records minutes etc Dealing with records, minutes, etc. when doing ethnography


CHALLENGES II

DISCOURSE EMPTY SIGNIFIER INTEGRATION OF CONTRADICTORY

EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHESEPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHES NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE SALIENCE

OF GENRE AND RELATED INHERENT OF GENRE AND RELATED INHERENT CHARACTERISTICS

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN DISCOURSE AND TEXTDISCOURSE AND TEXT

ANALYSING DISCOURSE ANALYSING TEXTANALYSING TEXT

CHERRY PICKING


Functions of text material Functions of text material (Titscher et al. 2000, 32)

as Text (1.)

The Text of Features of theGroups Investigated

R t ti

Groups Investigated(2.1.)

as Representation

f F t f thof Features of theSituations Investigated

(2.2.)Ruth Wodak, ACCEPT - CDA

Course 2010

( )

DEFINING DISCOURSE?

Discourse, Genre, Text, Context

FOR EXAMPLE. A SPECIFIC DISCOURSE (Racist, Sexist, national,

liberal, conservative, historical,) DISCOURSE OF (Discourse of the EU, Discourse of ( ,

an organisation, of men or women, of Hillary Clinton, .)

X + DISCOURSE (security discourse, l b li ti di )globalisation discourse)

DISCOURSE ABOUT (unemployment, racism, enlargement)

MODE + DISCOURSE ( is al disco se itten MODE + DISCOURSE (visual discourse, written discourse, spoken discourse)

DISCOURSE as lieu de mmoire, as building, as language as imagelanguage, as image.

Different language-specific meanings (spoken language, structures of knowledge)


Pragmatismus(Dewey)

Pragmatism(Dewey)

Phnomenologie(Husserl)

Phenomenology(Husserl) LudwigWittgenstein

LudwigWittgenstein

PhnomenologischeSoziologie (Schtz,

Thomas)

PhenomenologicalSociology (Schtz,

Thomas)

Georg SimmelGeorg Simmel

S b li

TechnologischesKommunikations-

modell(Shannon/Weaver)

TechnologicalCommunication

Model(Shannon/Weaver)

Theorie d.Massen-

kommunikation(Lasswell)

Theory of Mass

Communication(Lasswell)

InhaltsanalyseContent analysis Sprechakttheorie (Austin,Searle, Wunderlich)

Speech Act Theory(A tiSearle, Wunderlich)

SymbolischerInteraktionismus(Mead, Blumer)

SymbolicInteractionism(Mead, Blumer) Ethnomethodologie

(Garfinkel, Cicourel)Ethnomethodology(Garfinkel, Cicourel)

(Lasswell)

Grounded Theory(Glaser / Strauss)

Grounded Theory(Glaser / Strauss) Membership

CategorizationDevice (Sacks)

MembershipCategorizationDevice (Sacks)

Konversationsanalyse(Sacks, Schegloff,

Jefferson)

Conversation analysis(Sacks, Schegloff,

Jefferson)

Semiotik(Morris)

Semiotics(Morris)

Social Anthropology(Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard, Malinowski)

Social Anthropology(Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-

Pritchard, Malinowski)

Ethnography ofCommunication

(Hymes)

Ethnography ofCommunication

(Hymes)

Diff th ti hDistinction Theory

Funktionale Pragmatik(Ehlich / Rehbein)

Functional Pragmatics(Ehlich / Rehbein)

SystemischeSystemic

Organonmodellder Sprache

(Bhler)

Organon modelof Language

(Bhler)Cultural Anthropology

(Boas, Benedict)Cultural Anthropology

(Boas, Benedict)

ObjektiveHermeneutik(Oevermann)

ObjectiveHermeneutics

(Oevermann)

DifferenztheoretischeTextanalyse (Titscher /

Meyer)

Distinction TheoryText Analysis (Titscher /

Meyer)

SystemischeKommunikationstheorie

(Luhmann)

SystemicCommunication Theory

(Luhmann)

Kultur-Strukturalismus(Levi-Strauss, Mauss)

Cultural-Structuralism(Levi-Strauss, Mauss) DifferenztheorieDistinction theory

NarrativeSemiotik

Narrative Semiotics CDA ( F i l h )

Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)

Functional SystemicFunctional Systemic

StrukturaleLinguistik

(Saussure)

Structural Linguistics

(Saussure)

Differenztheorie(Spencer Brown)

y(Spencer Brown)

Semiotik(Greimas)(Greimas)

SYMLOG (Bales /SYMLOG (Bales /Cohen)

CDA nach FaircloughCDA ( Fairclough )

DiskurshistorischeMethode (Wodak)

Discourse historicalMethod (Wodak) Cognitive Linguistics

(Shank, Abelson)Cognitive Linguistics

(Shank, Abelson)

Functional SystemicLinguistics (Halliday)

yLinguistics (Halliday)

RussischerFormalismus

(Todorov, Propp)

RussianFormalism

(Todorov, Propp)Kritische Theorie

(Adorno, Habermas,Horkheimer)

Critical Theory(Adorno, Habermas,

Horkheimer)


Cohen)Cohen)

Prager Schule derstrukturalen Linguistik

(Jakobson)

Prague School ofStructural Linguistics

(Jakobson) Feldtheorie (Lewin)Field theory (Lewin)Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault

Psychoanalyse(Freud)

Psychoanalysis(Freud)

Hermeneutik(Dilthey,

Gadamer)

Hermeneutics(Dilthey,

Gadamer)

CRITICAL CRITICAL DISCOURSEDISCOURSE

ANALYSISANALYSIS

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSISCRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

CDA highlights the substantively linguistic and discursive nature of social relations of power in contemporary societies. This is partly the matter

of how power relations are exercised and negotiated in discourse. It is fruitful to look at

both power in discourse and power over discourse in these dynamic terms

(Wodak 1996)

Ruth Wodak, ACCEPT -CDA Course 2010

CDAS DISCOURSE-HISTORICAL APPROACH

1.The approach is problem-oriented, not focused on specific linguistic items

2. The approach is interdisciplinary

3. The approach is abductive: a constant movement back and forth between

theory and empirical data is necessary.


CDAS DISCOURSE-HISTORICAL APPROACH

4. The categories and tools for the analysis are defined according to all these steps and procedures as well as to the specific and procedures as well as to the specific

problem under investigation

li i i i d5. Application is aimed at.


DHA: Beginning, Domains g gof Research Studying the Waldheim Affair in

Austria Detecting Austria Detecting nationalist/chauvinistic and racist/anti-Semitic rhetoric in various /public domains

Identity Politics Identity Politics Organisations: Insiders/Outsiders Text Production and Comprehension Text-Production and Comprehension(Wodak 1986, 1996, Wodak et al. 1990)


KEY KEY CONCEPTSCONCEPTSKEY KEY CONCEPTSCONCEPTS

OF DHAOF DHA


DISCOURSE, GENRE & TEXT Discourse implies patterns and commonalities of

knowledge and structures; Text is a specific and unique realization of a discourse. Text is a specific and unique realization of a discourse.

Texts belong to genres. Genre characterised as a socially ratified way of

using language in connection with a particular type of g g g p ypsocial activity (Fairclough 1995: 14), used by communities of practice with specific functions (Swales 1992).

Text creates sense when its manifest and latent meanings are read in connection with knowledge of the world (context models, shared knowledge, collective memoriescollective memories

Resonance)


Interdiscursive and intertextualrelationships between discourses relationships between discourses, discourse topics, genres, and texts

Discourse A Discourse B

genre x genre y genre z genre u

text x text utext yz

topic x 1 topic yz 1 topic u 1

text xtime axis text utext yz

topic x 2 topic yz 2 topic u 2

topic x 3 topic yz 3


22

US and THEMThe discursive construction of US and THEM is the foundation of prejudiced and racist perceptions and discourses. p pThis discursive construction starts with the labelling of the social actors, proceeds to the generalization of negative attributions and g gthen elaborates arguments to justify the exclusion of many and inclusion of some. The discursive realizations can be more or less The discursive realizations can be more or less intensified or mitigated, more or less implicit or explicit, due to historical conventions, public levels of tolerance, political p , pcorrectness, context and public sphere. (Reisigl and Wodak 2001)


Analyzing positive self- and y g pnegative other presentation How are persons named and referred to

linguistically? What traits characteristics qualities and What traits, characteristics, qualities and

features are attributed to them? By means of what arguments and

argumentation schemes do specific persons argumentation schemes do specific persons or social groups try to justify and legitimize the exclusion of others or inclusion of some?some?

From what perspective or point of view are these labels, attributions and arguments

d?expressed? Are the respective utterances articulated

overtly, are they even intensified or are they y y ymitigated?


Strategy Objectives Devices

referential / Construction of Membership categorizationreferential / nomination

Construction of in-groups and out-groups

Membership categorizationmetaphors and metonymiesSynecdoches (pars pro toto, totum pro pars)

Predication Labelling social Stereotypical, evaluative attributions of gactors positively or negatively

yp ,negative or positive traitsimplicit and explicit predicates

argumentation Justification of topoi; fallaciespositive or negative attributions

Perspectivation Expressing reporting description narration or quotationPerspectivation, framing or discourse representation

Expressing involvementPositioning speaker's point of view

reporting, description, narration or quotation of events and utterances

view

intensification, mitigation

Modifying the epistemic status of a proposition

intensifying or mitigating the illocutionary force or (discriminatory) utterances

of a proposition


Four-Level Model of Context

the immediate, language or text internal co-text;

the intertextual and interdiscursive relationship between utterances, texts, genres and didiscourses;

the extralinguistic social/sociological variables and institutional frames of a specific context and institutional frames of a specific context of situation;

the broader socio-political and historical the broader socio-political and historical contexts, to which the discursive practices are embedded in and related.(Wodak 2001, 2004, 2008)


( , , )

RECONTEXTUALISATIONRECONTEXTUALISATION


CDA - Procedures

Balancing between linguistic expertise and the needs of qualitative researchq

SUGGESTIONS DEFINE PROBLEM/OBJECT UNDER

INVESTIGATION EXPLORE THROUGH ETHNOGRAPHY DEFINE DISCOURSE RELATED TO DEFINE DISCOURSE RELATED TO

MACRO-TOPIC & CONTEXT CHARACTERISE RELEVANT GENRES CHARACTERISE RELEVANT GENRES CHOSE TYPICAL TEXTS CHOSE ADQUATE TOOLS FOR

ANALYSISRuth Wodak, ACCEPT - CDA

Course 2010

RECURSIVE STEPS 1. Activation and consultation of preceding theoretical

knowledge 2. Systematic collection of data and context information

(depending on the research question, various discourses and discursive (depending on the research question, various discourses and discursive events, social fields as well as actors, semiotic media, genres and texts are focused on).

3. Selection and preparation of data for specific analyses (selection and downsizing of data according to relevant criteria, ( g g ,transcription of tape recordings, etc.).

4. Specification of the research question and formulation of assumptions.

5. Qualitative pilot analysis ( allows testing categories and first 5. Qualitative pilot analysis ( allows testing categories and first assumptions as well as the further specification of assumptions).

6. Detailed case studies (of a whole range of data, primarily qualitatively, but in part also quantitatively).

7. Formulation of critique (interpretation of results, taking into 7. Formulation of critique (interpretation of results, taking into account the relevant context knowledge and referring to the three dimensions of critique).

8. Application of the detailed analytical results (if possible, the results might be applied or proposed for application).


esu ts g t be app ed o p oposed o app cat o )

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Critical Discourse Analysis - Ruth Wodak