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Critical Discourse Analysis

Dr. Raz

COM400

Fall 2015

Discourse Analysis: Two Traditions

• A structural perspective approaches discourse above the sentence level.• For example, utterances, conversations, accounts would be studied as

discourse.

• A functional perspective approaches the “use” of language.• What are the functions and purposes of discourse?• How is discourse situated in a cultural system?

Conversation Analysis

• A type of discourse analysis• The origins are in ethnomethodology.• The study of naturally occurring interaction• Issues to consider (Pomerantz & Fehr, 1997):

• Select a sequence of talk for study• Identify the actions in the sequence• Identify how the actions are performed.• Identify how timing and taking of turns construct certain understandings of the action.• Consider how the actions construct certain identities, roles, and relationships for the speakers.

The Narrative Approach

• Meaning is constructed through stories.• Stories are structured by a beginning, middle, and end.• Researchers examine the process of storytelling: how a story is

accomplished.• Researchers examine the form of a narrative, such as the structure,

characterization, and narrative voice.• Researchers examine the content of narratives, such as the themes and

meanings.

Performative/Dramatistic Approaches

• Performance studies conceives communication as performance.• The researcher is both a tool for understanding and performing.• Communication is an embodied performance – scholarship, then is

embodied.• Researchers also examine the performances of others.

A Semiotic Approach

• Semiotics is the study of the signification process.

• Signification is the process by which signs are conveyed with meaning.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

• CDA aims to help reveal some of the hidden and “out of sight” values, positions, and perspectives

• CDA explores the connection between the use of language and the social and political contexts in which it occurs

Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis

• Social and political issues are constructed and reflected in discourse

• Power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse

• Discourse both reflects and reproduces social relations

• Ideologies are produced and reflected in the use of discourse

Doing Critical Discourse Analysis

• CDA includes not only a description and interpretation of discourse in context, but also offers an explanation of why and how discourses work

• CDA might commence by deciding what discourse type or genre of the text

• The analysis may consider the framing of the text

• CDA, then, takes us beyond the level of description to a deeper understanding of texts

CDA and Framing

• Framing: the way in which the content of a text is presented to the audience

• For example, Huckin (1997) looked at newspaper reports on a demonstration at a nuclear test site in the US and how that issue was framed

CDA and Multimodality

• Readings of texts are constructed not just by the use of words but by the combination of words with other modalities

• Multimodal discourse analysis is an approach to discourse which focuses on how meaning is made through the use of multiple modes of communication as opposed to just language

CDA and Identity

For example:

• How a family uses language to create and socialize each other into a shared family political identity

• Online communities where social relations and identities are constructed through people’s participation and interaction with each other

Criticism of CDA

• Widdowson (1998, 2004): CDA should include discussion with the producers and consumers of texts

• Van Noppen (2004): CDA does not always consider the role of the reader in the consumption and interpretation

• Schegloff (1997): CDA does not provide detailed and systematic analysis of texts• Toolan (1997): Analyst should be more critical and demanding of the tools of

analysis• Cameron (2001): A weakness in CDA is its reliance on just the analyst’s

interpretation of the texts