Presentation by Ikram ul Haq M.Phil Applied Linguistics and Shagufta Aamir M.Phil

1. CRITICAL
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
A Presentation by:
Ikram-ul-Haq
Shagufta Aamer

2. Sequence of Slides
 What is Discourse
 Discourse Analysis
 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
 Aim of CDA
 Doing CDA

3. Sequence of Slides (Contd)
 Fairclough’s Framework
 Approaches to CDA and Common Points
 Approaches to CDA – Differences
 Key Theorists/Linguists

4. What is Discourse
 Comes from the Latin “discursus”,
denoting “conversation, speech”
 Written or spoken Communication
 In linguistics, a unit of language longer
than a single sentence
 Broadly speaking, use of spoken/written
language in a social context
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5. “Discourse: a continuous stretch
(especially spoken) language larger
than a sentence, often constituting a
coherent unit such as a sermon,
argument, joke, or narrative.
(Crystal, 1992:25)

6. What is Discourse Analysis
 A broad term for the study of the ways in
which language is used in texts and
contexts
 Analysis of language in use above a
sentence level
 Language with relation to society and
culture
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7. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
 The term “critical” is associated with the
Frankfurt School of Philosophy (The
Marxist thought)
 Later, emerged from critical linguists at
the University of East Anglia in 1970s,
based on Michael Halliday’s Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SLF), “language as
a social act”
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8. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
 First developed by Lancaster School of
Linguists (England)
 Norman Fairclough (1941), an emeritus
Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster
University and one of the founders of CDA
as applied to sociolinguistics
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9. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
 Provides theories and methods for the
empirical study of the relations between
discourse and social and cultural
developments in different social domains
 CDA is concerned with how power is
exercised through language (Critical Discourse
Analysis of Obama's Political Discourse by Juraj Horváth)
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10. Aim of CDA
 To help reveal some of the hidden values,
positions and perspectives.
 To examine the use of discourse in relation to
social and cultural issues, such as race, politics,
gender, identity, and
 To ask why the discourse is used in particular
way and what the implications are of this kind
of use.
10

11. 11
Doing
CDA
1.
Analysis of the
Use of Discourse
2.
Explanation and
Interpretation of
Discourse
3.
Deconstruction of
the Text

12. Fairclough’s Framework
 Called Textually Oriented Discourse
Analysis (TODA)
 His 3-Dimensional Model
- Text (Process of Production)
- Discursive Practice (Process of
Interpretation)
- Context/ Social Practice (Process of
Explanation)
12

13. Fairclough’s (1992) 3-Dimensional Model
13

14. Approaches to CDA
14
1.
The Dialectical-
Relational
(Fairclough)
2.
Socio-Cognitive
(van Dijk)
3.
Discourse Historical
(Wodak)
5.
Dispositive
Analysis
(Foucault)
4.
Social Actors
(van Leeuwen)

15. Approaches to CDA – Common Points
15
1. Linguistic-
Discursive
(Language + Context)
2. Discourse is both
constitutive
(constitutes the social
world) and constituted
(constituted by other
social practices)
3. Language use
should be empirically
analysed within its
social context
4. Discourse creates
agents and subjects
(production force as
put up by Foucault)
5. CDA is not neutral,
but politically
committed to social
change

16. Approaches to CDA – Differences
16
1.
Theoretical
understanding
of Discourse
2.
Ideological
perspective
3.
Historical
perspective
4.
Methods for its
empirical study

17. Key Theorists/Linguists
 Fairclough, Language and Power
(1989), New Labour, New Language
(2000)
 Ruth Wodak
 Adrianus van Dijk
 Foucault
 Laclau
 Mouffe
 Dr. Shahid Siddiqui,
Language, Gender and Power:
The Politics of Representation and
Hegemony in South Asia (2013)
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18. 18
THANK YOU