Dr. Doris Correa Universidad de Antioquia Escuela de Idiomas
Summer 2011 1
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1. Comments on memos (20mins) 2. Dissertation handout and
presentation (15mins) 3. Review of CDA: Aims, characteristics,
(Doris-30 mins) 4. Review of approaches to CDA (Pop Quiz-30mins) 5.
Focusing on Halliday (Y & F, 2006): presentation of main
concepts at the three levels (Doris -30mins) 2
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6. The Bush exercise: analysis of the three levels (In
groups-20mins) 7. Present findings to the whole class (60mins) 8.
Discussion of chapter 7: Conducting CDA of conversations and
interviews. General comments (15mins) 9. Exercise: what are they
interested in? what language features do they propose to look at?
(20mins) 10. Present findings to the whole class (60mins) 3
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11. Begin thinking about your CDA: what would you be interested
in analyzing? Looking at what language features? (30mins) 12.
Readings and assignments for next class (15 mins) 4
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1. how the research interests and approaches of the authors
read in this session used by them differ or are similar to those
you use or plan to use on your thesis research. 2.Analyze how you
could use one of these analytic approaches to analyze part of your
data and 3. what kind of questions this kind of analysis would help
you answer 5
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CDA analyses real and often extended instances of social
interaction which take a particular linguistic form Sees itself not
as dispassionate and objective social science but as engaged and
committed It is a form of intervention in social practice and
social relationships It intervenes in the side of dominated and
oppressed groups and against dominating groups It openly declares
the emancipatory interests that motivate it CDA sees discourse as a
form of social practice. It is constitutive and socially shaped. It
helps to sustain and reproduce the status quo and contributes to
transforming it. It can help produce and reproduce unequal power
relations between social classes, women and men, majorities and
minorities It is first a feature of contemporary social life and
then an area of academic work Regards language as social practice
Takes consideration of the context of language use to be crucial
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Takes a particular interest in the relation between language
and power Especially considers institutional, political, gender and
media discourses which testify to more or less overt relations of
struggle and conflict It is concerned with analyzing opaque as well
as transparent structural relationships of dominance,
discrimination, power and control as manifested in language Should
be concerned with discourse as the instrument of power and control
as well as discourse as an instrument of the social construction of
reality Emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary work in order to
gain a proper understanding of how language functions Takes an
interest in the ways in which linguistic forms are used in various
expressions and manipulations of power CDA is used to denote the
theory formerly identified as CL 7
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Refers to such extralinguistic factors as culture, society and
ideology Not a method but an approach that constitutes itself at
different levels (Meyer, 2001) It is based on theories ranging from
microsociological perspectives (Scollon) to theories on society and
power (Foucault), theories of social cognition (Van Dijk) and
grammar Sees itself in the tradition of grounded theory (Glaser and
Strauss, 1967) where data collection is not a phase that must be
finished before data analysis starts but is ongoing Places its
methodology in the hermeneutic more than in the analytical
deductive tradition Takes the part of the underprivileged and tries
to show up the linguistic means used by the privileged to stabilize
or even intensify inequities in society Is both a theory and a
method (Rogers, 2004) 8
Slide 9
Explicitly addresses social problems and seeks to solve social
problems through the analysis and accompanying social and political
action Insists on analysis of context to understand language in use
Pays attention to the ways in which local, institutional and
societal domains construct and are constructed by discourses and
how these contexts change overtime CDA involves specific empirical
analysis of how such form function correlations themselves
correlate with specific social practices that help constitute the
very nature of such practices Takes an explicitly action oriented
approach 9
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To make more visible opaque aspects of discourse To investigate
critically social inequality as it is expressed, signaled,
constituted, legitimized, by language use To analyze pressure from
above and possibilities for resistance to unequal power
relationships that appear as societal conventions To demystify
discourses by deciphering ideologies To make transparent the
discursive aspects of societal disparities and inequities To study
the relationship between language form and function and to explain
why and how certain patterns are privileged over others To explore
the network of discourse patterns that comprise social situations
To locate social problems and analyze how discourse operates to
construct and is historically constructed by such issues 10
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Domination Oppression Emancipation Reproduction of status quo
Unequal power relations Struggle Conflict Discrimination Control
Ideology Inequities Social inequality Possibilities for resistance
Disparity Privilege 11
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Emerged in the 1970s with a form of discourse and text analysis
that recognized the role of language in structuring power relations
in society (Wodak, 2001) CDA terms more consistently used in the
1990s following a symposium in Amsterdam in January 1991 attended
by Van Dijk, Fairclough, Kress, Van Leeuwen, and Wodak (Wodak,
2001) Is rooted in the Frankfurt school of critical theory
(rejection of naturalism, rationality, neutrality and
individualism. Rejection of social theory exposed by Marxists)
argues for a dialectic between individual agency and structural
determinism Draws on Classical rhetoric, text linguistics and
sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and pragmatics 12
Slide 13
Certain networks of form-function relationship are valued in
society more than others Language use is always social and analyses
of language occur above the unit of a sentence or clause Lang use
is always inevitable constructing and constructed by social,
cultural, political, and economic contexts Lang and literacy
practices are socially situated and have underlying systems of
meaning Lang is a social phenomenon Individuals, institutions and
social groupings have specific meanings and values that are
expressed in lang in systematic ways Texts are units of language in
communication Readers/hearers are not passive recipients of texts
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1. CDA 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 (by orders of discourse:
structured sets of discursive practices associated with particular
social domains) 7. DA is interpretative and explanatory 8.
Discourse is a form of social action 9. Discourse analysis is
interpretive and explanatory and uses a systematic methodology 10.
CDA is a socially committed scientific paradigm 14
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What it is concerned with Asks different research questions
Plays an advocatory role for groups who suffer from discrimination
A critical approach to problems (make explicit what is hidden and
derive results that are practical) Analyses relationships with
other texts Is open to the broadest range of factors that exert
influences on texts Strongly relies on linguistic categories It
includes not only a description and interpretation of discourse in
context but also an explanation of why and how discourses work
Discourse is not a reflection of social contexts but constructs and
is constructed by contexts Noncritical approaches tend to treat
social practices solely in terms of patterns of social interaction.
Critical approaches go further and treat social practices in terms
of their implications for things like status, solidarity,
distribution and social goods and power 15
Slide 16
To draw upon everyday critical activities (gender relations,
patriarchy, feminism) including analysts own involvement in and
experience of them To draw upon social theories and theories of
language and methodologies for language analysis which are not
generally available and to have resources for systematic and in
depth investigation which go beyond ordinary experience To function
as organic intellectuals ( F & W, 2007) To describe, interpret
and explain the relationships among language and important
educational issues or between the form and function of language To
uncover power relationships and demonstrate inequities embedded in
society To investigate critically social inequality as it is
expressed, signaled, constituted, legitimized, by language use
Analyzing texts for power is not enough to disrupt such discursive
powers. The analyst must work from the analysis of texts to the
social and political contexts in which the texts emerge 16
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1. French DA: Pecheux 1982: discourse is the place where
language and ideology meet. DA is the analysis of ideological
dimensions of language use and of the materialization in language
of ideology 2. Critical linguistics: practical ways of analyzing
texts, attention to grammar and its ideological analysis, discourse
of the press (Fowler, 1991), educational texts and spoken dialogue
(Halliday, 1978,Kress, 1985, Martin, Knap & Watkins, Cope and
Kalantzis, Knapp and Noble, Bloome et al.) 3. Social semiotics:
mutli-semiotic character of most texts in contemporary society and
analysis of visual images genre analysis and intertextual analysis
(Kress, Fairclough, Lemke, Lankshear, Cope ), 4. Socio-cultural
change and discursive change: creative mixing of genres and
discourses, conversationalization of public discourse, 5.
intertextuality (Fairclough) 6. Socio-cognitive studies:
reproduction of ethnic prejudice and racism in discourse and
communication, abuse and power and the reproduction of inequalities
through ideologies (Van Dijk, Rogers) 7. Discourse-Historical
method: integrates all available information into the analysis and
interpretation of the many layers of written or spoken discourse,
prejudice, racism, sexism (Wodak and Matouschek )
Slide 19
The specifics of the hermeneutics interpretation process are
not made completely transparent by many CDA analysts It is text
reducing since it focuses on very clear formal properties Should do
conversational analysis first, otherwise the critical analysis will
not bind to the data and ends up being merely ideological The terms
discourse is as vague as it is fashionable. No one exactly knows
what it is Lack of clear demarcation between text and discourse CDA
is an ideological interpretation and therefore not an analysis The
term critical discourse analysis is a contradiction in terms: ???
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It is a biased interpretation: it is prejudiced on the basis of
some ideological commitment, and it selects for analysis such texts
as will support the preferred interpretation Political and social
ideologies are projected into the data rather than being revealed
through the data. Analysts begin their analysis knowing what they
are going to find and their analysis simply confirms what they
suspect Depending on the background and training of the analyst the
analysis may attend more to descriptions of language or the context
in which the lang use unfolds Many discourse analyses are extracted
from social contexts The methodology is not systematic or rigorous
CDA has not been applied to or attended to matters of learning
There has been little attention paid to nonlinguistic aspects of
discourse such as activity and emotion 20
Slide 21
Validity and reliability Representativeness Completeness
(refers to the results if no new findings appear) Accessibility
(findings should be accessible to the social groups under
investigation) Triangulation: taking into account four levels: the
immediate lang, the intertextual and interdiscursive, the
extralinguistic (context of situation), the broader sociopolitical
and historical context 21
Slide 22
Connection building activities that include: Describing,
Interpreting, Explaining the relationship between: language bits
(discourses) cultural models, situated identities, situated
meanings 22
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1. Semiotic building 2. World building 3. Activity building 4.
Socioculturally situated identity and relationship building 5.
Political building 6. Connection building 23
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Text (local ) (Description) Social Practice (Societal)
Discursive Practice (prod, distribution, consumption)
(Institutional) (Interpretation) 24
Slide 25
1. Analysis of texts: Interactional control, cohesion,
politeness, ethos, grammar, transitivity, theme, modality, word
meaning, wording, metaphors 2. Analysis of the discursive practice:
intertextuality and interdiscursivity, coherence, conditions of
discourse practice (prod, consumption, distribution) 25
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3. Analysis of the social practice of which the discourse is
part: Orders of discourse, ideological and political effects of
discourse 26
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InterpretationDescriptionOr Back 27
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Context of culture Context Of situation Field Tenor Text Mode
Butt et al. (2000) 28
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The broader context of the text Its purpose or genre. Text
types Text structure= stages 29
Slide 30
The immediate context of the text, and the lexical,
grammatical, and linguistic choices writers make and do not make to
create Ideational meanings =The lexical and grammatical choices
writers make to develop the topic (field) Interpersonal meanings
=The lexical and grammatical choices writers make to develop the a
relationship with the reader (tenor) Textual meanings = The
lexical, grammatical and textual choices writers make to organize
their text (mode) 30
Slide 31
Participants (nouns, pronouns that describe the who and what is
performing the actions) Processes (verbs) Circumstances (adverbs of
place, etc) 31
Slide 32
Mood: questions, statements, imperatives Modality: Modals,
Adjuncts (e.g., perhaps, surely) and Grammatical metaphors (e.g., I
think, I believe, I am sure) Polarity: positive or negative
Appraisal (Attitudinal elements= Affect, Judgment, Appreciation,
positionality) 32
Slide 33
Theme and rheme (Thematic progression and Thematic drift or
accumulated meanings) Cohesion (texture): lexical devices
(repetition), grammatical (reference, substitution, and ellipsis)
Lexical chains: e.g., all words related to war 33
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1. Ive asked the highest levels of our government to come to
discuss the current tragedy that has so deeply affected our nation.
2. Our country mourns for the loss of life and for those whose
lives have been so deeply affected by this despicable act of
terror. 3. I am going to describe to our leadership what I saw: the
wreckage of New York City, the signs of the first battle of war. 4.
Were going to meet and deliberate and discuss 5. But theres no
question about it. 6. This act will not stand; 7. We will find
those who did it; 8. We still smoke them out of their holes; 9. We
will get them running 10. And well bring them to justice. 11. We
will not only deal with those who dare attack America, 12. We will
deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them. 13.
Make no mistake about it: 14. Underneath our tears is the strong
determination of America to win this war. 15. And we will win it.
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Slide 36
In groups, analyze the three levels Group 1: Experiential
meanings Group 2: interpersonal meanings Group 3: textual meanings
(Do charts following Butt et al. 2006 and respond to questions)
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Slide 37
Conducting CDA of conversations and interviews. General
comments 37
Slide 38
Group 1: Conversation 1: Two graduate sts at the dinner table
talking about America as a gatekeeping country Conversation 2:
Continuation of conversation 1 focusing on naturalization process
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Group 2: Conversation 3:: two women and 3 men discussing
citizenship and private education Conversation 4: Interview with
tony blair in Britain 2005 before elections with Andrew Rawnsley.
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Group 3: Conversation5: courtroom interview to a potential
juror in a bomber case Conversation 6: courtroom cross examination
of a witness by the prosecutor at the trial of a man accused of
killing a woman 40
Slide 41
1. What kinds of questions do Y & F seem interested in in
each of the conversations? 2. What lexical-grammatical features do
they propose that we focus on to uncover those dynamics? 3. What
kind of intro does he propose we do to start the analysis? 41